The Remains of the Day ***1/2

By Kazuo Ishiguro.
Copyright 1988 by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Published by Vintage International Books, a division of Random House, 1993.
Originally published Faber and Faber Ltd., London  and Alfred A Knopf in U.S. 1989.
245 pages.

This book won the Man Booker award, I assume in 1988 or 1989.  I'm a fan of the Man Booker award because I think their choices are a little more edgier than the book awards given in the U.S., so I am always excited to be reading one.  I had heard of this book for a while and finally got around to it.

Ishiguro came from Japan to England when he was 6 years old.  I believe most of his books are about life in England, as opposed to life in Japan where he is originally from.  This book certainly does NOT have an Asian "feel" to it, or does it?

The main character is a traditional English Butler to one of the great households of English history.  The book starts off with his new American employer sending him off on a short vacation, since there is a lull in the work to be done at the house, and encourages him to make a short country drive in the rural parts of England in the owner's own car.  The butler, Stevens, is hesitant but decides to go ahead because they are a little short staffed at the house and decides to go to speak to a former employee, Ms Kenton, who happens to live out in the country to see if she wants to come back.  This is the basic plot line.  There are several themes that weave in and out of the narrative as the book continues.

A large part of the time, Stevens is contemplating, and musing on past events that he has lived through as a butler.  This activity probably takes up about 70% - 80 % of the book.  He starts off by musing about the "great Butlers" of the day.  It should be said that this story takes place in post WWII times so his ruminations tend to be nostalgic and take place in pre WWII times.  This train of thought leads him to believe that a great butler must have dignity and must belong to house of great gentleman.  In other words that he must have a great master.  A master who is noble and cares about the affairs of the day.  He believes his previous employer, Sir Darlington, was one of those people.  He believes that his master was engaging himself in events of world importance.  It was after all., before WW II and there was much international intrigue to get involved with.  He spends much time retelling the events that transpired at the behest of his master's concern and influence.  Great people of important stature visited the house to discuss important things.  Remember, this is England with a a strong tradition of nobility.  The nobility believed that they were to be the helmsmen of world affairs because of their great knowledge and education.  For the most part they were not believers in the ideals of democracy since they felt the masses to be simple and uneducated, so the responsibility fell to them.  That's why Stevens believed that the greatest butlers were attached to the greatest houses.  And when I say greatest houses, I mean the greatest masters or noblemen.  And Steven believes that his master Darlington was one of the great nobles of the day.

Meanwhile, Stevens is traveling through the country side and meeting a great many of these simpler people, and why he likes them, there is a distance that he puts between them and him.  In fact, because of his behavior and the car he drives (the owner's) people frequently mistake him for a nobleman and not a butler.  There are also some fine descriptions of the country side as travels through it.

Finally he arrives at the town where Ms. Kenton lives.  Stevens had assumed that Ms. Kenton might want to return since her letters to him tended to wax nostalgic and that she often complained about her marriage.  But she never really said that she wanted to come back.  Much of the contemplation he was doing was looking back at his working relationship between him and her.  She was in charge of all the maids and female servants while he was in charge of the whole household.  They were often at odds with each other.  She was prone to having a temper and speaking her mind, which really annoyed him since he was always striving for that "dignity" mentioned above.  He always had a professional attitude towards her.  He came off as rather cold, though we, the readers, had privy to his inner thoughts, and his background, and could understand why he was the way he was.

So at the end we get Ms. Kenton's story.  She had left Darlington Hall to get married, but the marriage was more about the doubt in her mind about whether she wanted to continue in the profession than about really being in love,  hence the marriage problems she was having.  After all the years in passing, she had learned to love her husband.  She would not be going back with Stevens.  This was a bigger disappointment to Stevens than he thought it would be.  He knew she never had said that she wanted to come back, but still I think he was hoping.  Perhaps there was love, perhaps he longed for the olden days.  But he was disappointed.  He was certainly saddened by the seemingly unhappy life Ms. Kenton had acquired.

Darlington's life had become riddled with controversy and scandal.  He may or may not have been involved with the enemies of England, though Stevens insisted that Darlington didn't realize what he was doing and acted out of sincerity and that he was an innocent.  So perhaps that's the saddest part of the book.  Everything Stevens had believed about being a butler and his employer, his identification, was thrown into doubt. Sad but not traumatic like the blurb suggests.

The themes and the material might seem kind of dry, and maybe because I'm a better reader or maybe because of the way the book was written, I had no difficulty reading the book.  I was able to understand the ideas and description and concepts very easily.  I read the book in less than 3 days.  Usually with material like this, I struggle and it takes longer to read.  I did not find this the case, and though I am not very good at speaking about the writing and language an author uses, this ease I had with the material speaks to the quality of his writing.

A trailer of the movie.

High Fidelity **1/2

By Nick Hornby.

Copyright 1995 by Nick Hornby.
Published by the Penguin Group.
323 pages.

This is one heck of a funny book and I enjoyed it immensely.  It does drag on a little in the middle though.  The main character, Rob gets a little too whiny, he even admits it at one point, and tiresome.

This book is about a guy Rob, who has just broken up with this girlfriend.  He's the owner of a record store and feels stuck where he is because he's 39 and he feels like he hasn't grown since his college days.  He restless and cranky.

The book starts out with a list  and a description of his 5 worst break - ups. His last break-up, which is the focus of this story is not included in his list.  Though he claims it's not one of the top five, he seems to take it pretty hard, because all he does is wring his hands with regret and indecision.  He goes to work everyday at his records store called Empire Records.  There  he encounters much banter and tom foolery with his two store clerks who are record snob geeks/ perpetual bachelors.  Much of the humor comes from these conversations.

I could really relate to this book as I myself am somewhat of a record snob (surprising in know but it's true).  One of the concepts that the book discusses is how these people tend to push their opinions on other people, especially girlfriends. Lord knows I've been there, but in defense of this practice, don't I, a confessed music geek, have to put up with what I consider a lot of garbage?  I think it is only fair that I get my 2 cents and get to hear some of my preferred and obscurer music?  Where ever one goes, you can hear the strains of some (sorry) really horrible music.  I think if I am forced to listen to that, people should have to put up with what I like once in a while.  One of my favorite quotes from the book: "I want him to show the rest of us that it is possible to maintain a relationship and have a large record collection."  That really struck a chord with me.  Discussions like these are the parts I really enjoyed about the book.  I could really relate.