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Harper C.: Five Book Friday: Uncanny Graphic Novels (0 comment)
We are in the thick of winter here in the Pacific Northwest, which means it's dark, damp, and chilly. Rather than escaping to stories with warmer, brighter climates, I personally want nothing more than to dive deep into gothic and uncanny fiction as the wind rattles my windows at night...
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The Remains of the Day

by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day

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  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9780679731726
ISBN10: 0679731725
Condition: Standard


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From Powells.com

50 Books for 50 Years

50 Books for 50 years

Powell's anniversary list: 1971-2021


Staff Pick

A perfect character study, this novel depicts Stevens at the end of his long career as a butler in postwar England. As he reflects on his service, he begins to understand things to which he was once oblivious. What else has he overlooked in his life? Ishiguro absolutely nails this exquisite study of the reckoning of a life. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com

Kazuo Ishiguro, the Nobel Prize-winning British author is one of the most celebrated writers of our time. Of his long list of novels, Booker Award-winning The Remains of the Day, published in 1989, stands out as one of the most highly regarded books of the past 50 years. In The Remains of the Day, Stevens, a dignified English butler at Darlington Hall, evaluates his life and considers how for decades he has been of service to others, supporting their lifestyles and fancies, while not being true to his desires and wishes. As the leadership of Darlington Hall changes to an American owner, Stevens has the opportunity to embark on a journey that changes his life, one in which he is able to reconnect with a lost love and come to terms with his regrets. Ishiguro offers us an amazing gift of humanity through Stevens’s story. Recommended By Kim S., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular world in postwar England. At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving "a great gentleman." But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington's "greatness" and graver doubts about his own faith in the man he served.

Review

"The novel rests firmly on the narrative sophistication and flawless control of tone...of a most impressive novelist." Julian Barnes

Review

"Brilliant...a story both beautiful and cruel." Salman Rushdie

Review

"A perfect novel. I couldn't put it down." Ann Beattie

Review

"A virtuoso performance...put on with dazzling daring and aplomb." The New York Review of Books

Review

"Brilliant and quietly devastating." Newsweek

Review

"An intricate and dazzling novel." The New York Times

Review

"One of the best books of the decade." The Boston Globe

Review

"One of the best books of the year." The New York Times Book Review

Review

"[T]he novel persuasively implicates a broader section of the ruling class in the rise of fascism while emphasizing the complicity of a huge army of subordinates that led ultimately to the Holocaust." Geoff Dyer, New Statesman & Society

About the Author

Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954 and moved to Britain at the age of five. He is the author of five novels, including The Remains of the Day, an international bestseller that won the Booker Prize and was adapted into an award-winning film. Ishiguro's work has been translated into twenty-eight languages. In 1995, he received an Order of the British Empire for service to literature, and in 1998 was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.

4.9 7

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 4.9 (7 comments)

`
Robin Smith , January 03, 2012
This is the novel that made the most impact on me in 2011. It was an enjoyable read, with a rare look at the running of an English Country House before WWII, and has a lot of insight I continue to ponder. It raises questions on many levels as the characters grapple with the challenges their lives bring. Ishiguro's writing is focused and clean, and his first-person narrator's voice never slips. And, on top of all this, the novel has a pensive and peculiar yet rather sweet love story in it. A beautiful book.

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uhenig , May 10, 2011 (view all comments by uhenig)
Great and good book.

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uhenig , May 10, 2011 (view all comments by uhenig)
Outstanding book!

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Kristen M , February 07, 2010 (view all comments by Kristen M)
This book is slightly humorous in that Stevens is so unable to relate to normal human interactions. He thinks constantly of opportunities to practice "banter", which he believes is required to interact with his new American employer. The book is also very sad when you begin to realize that the entirety of this man's life is spent outside of himself, in service to others. He doesn't notice when others are trying to interact with him in a social or personal manner and indeed, he even discourages it when it does happen. This story is a portrait of a bygone era and a bygone profession.

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Sara Brown , January 08, 2010
An excellent book that reminds us that the hardest decisions usually never black and white.

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FBB , November 18, 2009 (view all comments by FBB)
This book was, at first, in the stack of "should-reads" that I keep next to my bed to fend off periods of insomnia. But as I read on, and moved further and further into the proganist's life, I was carried along. the book is very well-written, an odyssey that ends in sadness, and provokes thought about one's own personal life-odyssey.

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Colette , March 04, 2007 (view all comments by Colette)
I really enjoyed this book. The main characters view of the world was so skewed by what he felt was his duty, you had to rely on his interaction with others to see what was really going on.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780679731726
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
09/12/1990
Publisher:
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
Series info:
Vintage International
Pages:
256
Height:
.56IN
Width:
5.19IN
Thickness:
.75
Series:
Vintage International (Paperback)
Number of Units:
1
Copyright Year:
1988
Series Volume:
2
UPC Code:
2800679731728
Author:
Kazuo Ishiguro
Subject:
Love stories
Subject:
Man-woman relationships
Subject:
Historical fiction
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Subject:
Country homes
Subject:
England Fiction.
Subject:
Domestics
Subject:
England

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