Synopsis:
The last of a dying breed, a proper English butler reflects on his life in service.

Review:
I had no idea I would love The Remains of the Day as much as I did. To be honest, I love Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go so much that I was afraid that if I didn’t like this book, my love for that one would be tainted irrevocably.

Well, if you’ve read this book, I’m sure you’re smiling, knowing that I would most certainly be helpless to the charms of The Remains of the Day. I loved how Ishiguro told us so much about Stevens, in Stevens’s own words–without Stevens having any idea what he is revealing! I mean, it’s incredible what he pulls off. Stevens is so blind to the impact of the choices that he’s made, but we get it completely, and it’s all thanks to Ishiguro’s skillful manipulation of the first person narrative voice. It’s a similar feat to the one he pulled off in Never Let Me Go, which featured a narrator who was withholding information, not to keep a secret but because she assumes her screwed up world is as normal to us as it is to her.

And his words! Achingly beautiful, with imagery that reminded me of EM Forster. Of course, that could also be the Merchant/Ivory association, but both writers have a gift for letting moments speak for themselves.