The Remains of the Day is set in post-WWII England and follows Mr. Stevens, the middle

aged butler at Darlington Hall, as he takes a brief vacation and road trip across the

English countryside to go visit a former colleague and friend, Ms. Kenton. And that's kind of

it for the plot of this novel because what we actually read are Stevens' reflections

on his time as a butler, specifically his career under the late Lord Darlington himself.

One thing I found very interesting about this novel was the setting. I don't think I've

ever read a novel set directly post WWII before, certainly not about a butler in post-WWII

England. That also means that most of Stevens' memories are from directly before the War

and you kind of slowly get to piece together, through his memories and reflections, what

role Lord Darlington and the events at Darlington Hall played in kind of shaping and influencing

the overall social and political climate and I found that very, very interesting.

I also found it interesting in the way that it tied in with Mr. Stevens' own sense of

identity and his discussion of what it means to be a great butler. I also just want to

mention quickly that this novel feels very distinctly English to me, particularly in

the sense that everything is very controlled and understated.

Although this is one of Ishiguro's most beloved novels and it actually won him the Booker

Prize, I was actually rather disappointed in it. Ishiguro's other novel, Never Let Me

Go, is probably my favorite book of all time and I think no matter how hard I tried, I

really was comparing The Remains of the Day to Never Let Me Go kind of the whole time

I was reading it. Also, this book has been recommended to me more than any book ever.

Especially once people find out that I like Never Let Me Go, they immediately ask me,

"Have you read The Remains of the Day?" and then they generally have something amazing

to say about it. So I think my basic problem was that I went in with too high expectations

and I really wish I could kind of go to an alternate universe where I never heard of

Ishiguro or read Never Let Me Go, and just experience this book for what it is on its

own.

That being said, I do think this is a novel that will improve upon rereading it and I

think that it will specifically be interesting to reread once I'm older. I feel kind of dumb

saying this because I didn't actually make this connection until about the last five

pages of the novel or so, but this novel deals with Mr. Stevens who is, what? Middle-aged.

He's a butler and he's slowly seeing other butlers retire and that way of life kind of

falling off and disappearing. He's already kind of hit the peak of his career and is

trying to figure out what to do in his post Lord Darlington days. This novel literally

deals with the remains of Mr. Stevens "day," or his life. The Remains of the Day!

As soon as I made that connect, I instantly felt less disappointed in the novel and it

just kind of made more sense to me why I wasn't as connected with Mr. Stevens as I was with

the characters in Never Let Me Go. I'm 23 years old, still in school, I have yet to

even start a career, let alone have one to look back on. So, essentially, I'm still kind

of in the morning of my day, if that makes sense. Of course, that's not to say that you

have to be middle aged or retired to enjoy this novel. I think that if I had read this

closer to graduation and the end of my undergrad career - that would have been the end of a

day, the end of a phase - it might have meant more to me, or I might have connected with

it more. Whereas, right now, I'm kind of at the beginning of a new day, I'm starting a

new phase of my life. How far can I push this metaphor?

So those are all the thoughts that I wanted to share on The Remains of the Day. I did

enjoy it, I believe I gave it three stars on Goodreads, but it didn't live up to the

Never Let Me Go standard, even though it was probably unfair of me to compare them. If

you've read the novel and you want to talk about it, please leave me some comments down

below. I'm also going to be linking two reviews that I really enjoyed. One is from Sabrina

from unmanagedmischief. She kind of had similar feelings to me and then the other is from

Ashley at ClimbTheStacks. She actually really, really enjoyed the novel, so I just wanted

you guys to get another perspective, a different perspective. So those links will be in the

description box if you would like to check those out.

Anyways, that's all I have for the video. That's actually all I managed to read in March

2015, so go me. But I hope you guys are having a fantastic day and I will see you next time.

Bye!