There is a special feeling about this book, it reminds me of that one day where you can feel the seasons changing. The book feels like a leap between the last spring day and the first summer one. If you were ever a young child, you'd remember that day as freezing while walking to school and hearing the bullfinch sing on the way and because you decided to only wear a hoodie instead of a jacket, and coming home with the hoodie tied around your waist while you're overheating. The book exudes a feeling of regret, it is the theme of the work but for some reason the feeling of regret slithers into the summer-day memory, and it makes me nostalgic for something I can't remember.
My feelings revolving this book are quite confusing, then again who expected a frog to have professionalism? I read this book during my first course in literature, also known as the place I discovered my love for literature. I took an english literature class out of the blue after having studied journalism and creative writing, and it just completely changed my perspective about things. So while this book may or may not be good, it holds a certain random value for me, and it takes me back to those springy summer days when I used to read this. I have also watched the movie and I don't remember if it was good but I do remember Anthony Hopkins and if that's not a good movie, I don't know what is.
I like to think he'd like me, he feels like a man that knows a good frog when he sees one. Mr Hopkins if you're reading this, please shake my hand.
Shortly about the plot:
Mr. Stevens has been a butler to a great lord in England for decades, and as he now, at the end of a major changing period in his life, embarks on a car holiday, he looks back to a time before the changes and before the war, when something moved under the surface of the house he worked in. What we get to read about are both crumbs of the political game that the lord of the house was involved in, and the small steps to his downfall that were taken, but also the intense relationship that Mr. Stevens has to his colleague, Miss Kenton.
This is a finely tuned and well-written novel, but it does not have much to draw a common thread in, which means that the story can be scattered and sometimes uneventful. It is only at the end that the loose threads tie together and you can derive an undertone or understand some kind of message with the story.
The main critique towards the book has been because of the character mr. Stevens. I agree that his perfectionism, and his way of treating his employer, as well as his general arrogance and conservatism, are infuriating, but it is also the main reason that he becomes such a beloved character. His character develops, and his conservatism is exchanged for something forward-looking and a little less broken, he's devoted attitude towards his employer is soon exchanged and in the end he only expresses his own feelings and it is both through behaviour and words. His arrogance is exchanged towards sensitivity. Above all, he accepted that he can no longer be perfect, that he has already been on top, but that both the time he lives in is different, and that he himself has become older and much more frail.
The book is told by Stevens himself, with his own language, filtered from anything that may be perceived as inappropriate or too centered around his own personality. It is as if all the years as a butler have peeled off the language into a polite, thoughtful and, above all, correct, expression. It is only between the lines that the reader gets to understand what is really going on in the house and what Stevens is actually setting aside to live up to his high demands on himself. Everything Stevens tells is correct and free from big emotional expressions. It's not really part of Steven's persona to joke, but despite this, there's a lot of gossip and fun in the book. There are comic passages, as I said, but in many ways The Remains of the Day is primarily a sad novel, which raises many questions about what is really important in this life. No matter what we work with or with what enthusiasm we go in for our jobs, we must all be humble because life goes on all the time and a life is short.
Out of an analytical literary view, the book brings a beautiful feeling of rough sadness and regret blended with melancholia. Stevens journey is realistic and heartbreaking and Ishiguro has captured the true essence of the ordinary man and life's journey.
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