The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
🎩 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro — Book Review (⭐ 3.5/5)
⚠️ SPOILER WARNING:
If you don’t want to know how this quiet little butler’s tale really ends (yes, there are emotions under that stiff upper lip!), you might want to back out now. Because I’m about to spill all the subtle heartbreak.
👉 Get The Remains of the Day on Amazon (affiliate link)
📚 Overview
The Remains of the Day (1989) is one of those books where you think, “Nothing’s happening, right?” but then bam — the quiet emotional devastation sneaks up on you. Written by Kazuo Ishiguro, it tells the story of Stevens, a lifelong butler who realizes, way too late, that he may have wasted his life in the service of the wrong man… and missed out on love in the process.
It won the Booker Prize and was adapted into a 1993 film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson (which, let’s be honest, is worth watching just for their repressed longing looks).
🚗 Plot Summary: A Road Trip of Regrets
Meet Stevens: the ultimate English butler. He served Lord Darlington at Darlington Hall for 30+ years, priding himself on his dignity, loyalty, and… well, emotional constipation.
Now, it’s 1956. Lord Darlington is dead (and disgraced, but we’ll get to that), and Stevens works for an American, Mr. Farraday, who cracks jokes that Stevens politely doesn’t get.
When Stevens gets a letter from Miss Kenton — his former housekeeper — hinting at marital troubles, he decides to take a rare holiday and visit her. Cue the road trip!
🕰 Flashbacks, Nazis, and a Butler’s Blind Spots
As Stevens drives, we get his memories of:
✔️ His time serving Lord Darlington, who tried to dabble in international diplomacy… and ended up cozying up to Nazis.
✔️ All those big, important meetings at Darlington Hall where Stevens stayed laser-focused on serving tea, ignoring the political disaster brewing in the dining room.
✔️ His father, William Stevens, who worked with him at the Hall but declined in health and dignity — Stevens handled it all with his trademark emotional distance. (Including working through the night his dad died. Oof.)
✔️ The slow-burn, glacial “romance” (if you can call it that) with Miss Kenton. They clearly care for each other, but Stevens is so buttoned up he can’t ever say (or process) what he feels.
💔 The Gut-Punch Ending
When Stevens finally meets Miss Kenton (now Mrs. Benn)… she drops the bomb:
➡ She did once wonder what life would’ve been like if they’d been together.
➡ But she loves her husband. She’s a grandma now. She’s not coming back to Darlington Hall.
And Stevens? He realizes — too late — that he loved her all along. And that maybe, just maybe, all his years of loyal service were in vain.
Back at Darlington Hall, Stevens resolves to stop living in the past. Maybe he’ll try to get Mr. Farraday’s jokes. Maybe laughter is what’s been missing all along.
🌟 What I Thought
✨ What I admired:
✔️ The writing — Ishiguro’s prose is beautiful and subtle.
✔️ The emotional punch at the end — it works because of the slow burn.
✔️ The themes: regret, missed chances, and what loyalty really costs.
🤨 What bored me:
✔️ All the butler talk. It was interesting at first… then I kept checking how many pages I had left.
✔️ The pace — glacial!
📌 Snag Your Copy
👉 The Remains of the Day on Amazon (affiliate link)
😍 If You Liked This, Try:
👉 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro — same emotional devastation, different vibe
👉 Atonement by Ian McEwan — beautifully written, quiet heartbreak
👉 The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley — classic British restraint + regret
🌟 Final Thoughts
I’m giving this one 3.5 stars out of 5. The prose is stunning, and the ending is powerful — but man, that slow build tested me.
If you’re into quiet, character-driven stories that wreck you emotionally when you least expect it, give The Remains of the Day a go.
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