Faber & Faber The Remains of the Day (FF Classics)

So excited to read this

Buen libro, a buen precio. Llego rapido y en buen estado.

The book was delivered very fast! Got here in 1 day and in perfect condition.

Remains of the Day is told from the perspective of just one man, Stevens. It is told as a reminisced narrative, sometimes imperfectly remembered, often from many years ago, but a reminiscence that contains within itself numerous other narrative threads. Ishiguro has woven together an extraordinary novel that is an intellectual tour de force, but which also has an emotional power and immediacy. Pure genius, and one of the greatest works of a great author. ---- spoilers follow ---- At face value, Stevens' narrative tells how he, the butler to a high-class country house, has achieved professional dignity by, as he puts it, never taking his clothes off in public. In other words, he maintains a professional reserve not only when performing his duties, but all of the time when he is not alone. Yet implicit within Stevens' narrative are other conflicting narratives, and unless the reader takes the effort to read between the lines to find them, the book is trivial and meaningless -- no more than a travelogue of an aging butler who is taking a holiday after many years of loyal service. One narrative concerns the housekeeper, Miss Kenton. It is clear from her actions as remembered by Stevens that she is in love and would like to marry him so they could retire together. Stevens himself is very fond of Miss Kenton, and would like them to remain together, though it is not clear whether he would want them to marry. One of the ambiguities of the book is the extent to which Stevens is aware of her feelings, or even of his feelings towards her. It is notable that when Stevens meets Miss Kenton again, the meeting is not mentioned until two days later, after Stevens has had the time to fit the emotional shock of the meeting into his dignified and emotionally distanced narrative voice. Another narrative concerns their employer, Lord Darlington, who is key to bringing together the Nazi ambassador, Ribbentrop, and the British Prime Minister, Lord Halifax. It becomes clear that Darlington is more than merely a facilitator, but has at times been a Nazi sympathiser with links to anti-Semites and black-shirts in Britain. Another ambiguity is the extent of Stevens' own knowledge and culpability. There is also a more realistic narrative about Stevens himself. Unlike the idealised butler who triumphs over his own emotions in Stevens' own remembered view, his own reminiscences reveal a hidden but far more emotionally vulnerable self. His employer's friend and Miss Kenton notice his emotional needs even at the points he remembers as times when he was invulnerable. He is starting to make mistakes, just as his own father started to make mistakes towards the end. The narrative that Stevens tells in public is still different again. He is keen to hide any reference to his old employer, and is happy to be mistaken as a gentleman rather than a manservant. There are at least two occasions where Stevens is caught red-handed, perhaps not in the act of lying, but at least in laying a false narrative trail. The inconsistencies between the different narratives that Stevens maintains himself perhaps partly explain his own need for privacy. Like his own father, he seems happiest when he is on his own. The few times the novel drops into the present tense, such as when Stevens looks over the English countryside, or sits quiet next to an isolated pond, seem the times when Stevens is most content -- when he can drop the guard that protects his dignity and his multiple narratives, and simply live in the moment. The conflicting narratives braid together and are revealed through inconsistencies in Stevens own reminisced account. Remains of the Day is an extraordinary example of the art of the storyteller. Ishiguro succeeds in relating so many narratives, but all through a single voice. Yet the book is not merely a clever tour de force. It is a heart-breaking and emotional depiction of a man who has thrown everything away -- public dignity, a happy marriage and retirement, the best years of his life --, and it is a sensitive analysis of the internal forces that motivated him to put other priorities first.

フォントは読みにくい。けど頑張って読みます！

Nice and mellow