The Remains of the Day
The novel is a serene one in temperament. I liked Ishiguro's prose and enjoyed the book very much.
Stevens, as a character, is a curious one. He is a hollow man, but neither because he lacks intelligence nor sensitivity. His hollowness is a cultivated one. One that he took as a professional quality. Everything happen around him but nothing to him.
The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro's beautiful and haunting evocation of life between the wars in a Great English House. In the summer of 1956, Stevens, the ageing butler of Darlington Hall, embarks on a leisurely holiday that will take him deep into the countryside and into his past. 'A triumph … This wholly convincing portrait of a human life unweaving before your eyes is inventive and absorbing, by turns funny, absurd and ultimately very moving.' Sunday Times'A dream of a book: a beguiling comedy of manners that evolves almost magically into a profound and heart-rending study of personality, class and culture.' New York TImes Book Review