The Remains of the Day

Kazuo Ishiguro's subtly observed third novel (1989) tells the story of a butler named Stevens. Over the years, as Stevens has perfected the art of self-effacement and complete submission to the needs of Lord Darlington, his aristocratic employer, he has managed to ignore the fact that Darlington was a prominent Nazi sympathizer. Now, in the rapidly changing world of post-World War II England in which the class system is in decline and Stevens has outlived his usefulness, he begins to understand that his obtuseness has blinded him not only to the real nature of his employer but (as he prepares for an unprecedented visit to Mrs. Kenton, the now retired housekeeper) to the workings of his own heart. The overarching themes of the novel are those that Ishiguro has grappled with in many of his books: self-deception, the past's influence on the present, and the essential loneliness of struggling humanity. THE REMAINS OF THE DAY won the Booker Prize and was made into a well-received film directed by Ang Lee and starring Anthony Hopkins as the repressed and lonely Stevens.