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A review by hopebrasfield
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
5.0
Read this nearly two months ago and still think about it.
I recommend going into it not knowing anything about the plot or emotional experience of the main character/narrator.
In a way it felt like reading a time travel genre book (though better written than those tend to be--this felt like some sort of classic novel you'd've had to write an essay about in high school many, many, many years before you're able to sit with the story; Teen Me certainly wouldn't have understood this book's specific flavor of regret).
Favorite quote (below) is behind a spoiler tag because it's such a great encapsulation of the MC/narrator's internal world. It comes so late in the novel, and I wouldn't want to ruin that for anybody!
"But what is the sense in forever speculating what might have happened had such and such a moment turned out differently? One could presumably drive oneself tro distraction in this way. In any case, while it is all very well to talk of 'turning points,' one can surely only recognize such moments in retrospect. Naturally, when one looks back to such instances today, they may indeed take the appearance of being crucial, precious moments in one's life; but, of course, at the time, this was not the impression one had. Rather, it was as though one had available a never-ending number of days, months, years in which to sort out the vagaries of one's relationship with Miss Kenton; an infinite number of further opportunities in which to remedy the effect of this or that misunderstanding. There was surely nothing to indicate at the time that such evicently small incidents would render whole dreams forever irredeemable."
I recommend going into it not knowing anything about the plot or emotional experience of the main character/narrator.
In a way it felt like reading a time travel genre book (though better written than those tend to be--this felt like some sort of classic novel you'd've had to write an essay about in high school many, many, many years before you're able to sit with the story; Teen Me certainly wouldn't have understood this book's specific flavor of regret).
Favorite quote (below) is behind a spoiler tag because it's such a great encapsulation of the MC/narrator's internal world. It comes so late in the novel, and I wouldn't want to ruin that for anybody!
"But what is the sense in forever speculating what might have happened had such and such a moment turned out differently? One could presumably drive oneself tro distraction in this way. In any case, while it is all very well to talk of 'turning points,' one can surely only recognize such moments in retrospect. Naturally, when one looks back to such instances today, they may indeed take the appearance of being crucial, precious moments in one's life; but, of course, at the time, this was not the impression one had. Rather, it was as though one had available a never-ending number of days, months, years in which to sort out the vagaries of one's relationship with Miss Kenton; an infinite number of further opportunities in which to remedy the effect of this or that misunderstanding. There was surely nothing to indicate at the time that such evicently small incidents would render whole dreams forever irredeemable."