The Remains of the Day

Description: The British author of Japanese origin achieves an overlap between the description of several significant events of the interwar period (political and diplomatic aspects, related to the relations of the British ruling class and the interactions with Germany and France) and the world seen through the eyes of a butler. He surprises both by the specificity of social interactions so anchored in the traditions of the English (with a fine sense of observation, at times I forgot that the text belongs, however, to a Japanese person…) and by the set of human values ​​that he exposes and, dare I say, subjects to an individual debate for the reader. I don’t know to what extent I am influenced by the author’s origins, but I found in the characterization of the main character a set of attributes that I associate with samurai, such as devotion to the senior, the discreet but determined way of assuming responsibilities and completing tasks, prioritizing duties (sometimes even before life and death), minimalist communication and living in a cazon regime. Ishiguro is the third writer of Japanese origin to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (2017, after Yasunari Kawabata in 1968 and Kenzaburo Oe in 1994).

Year: 1988

MyRating (1-5): ****