The Remains of the Day was a book club selection, and one that I would normally not have picked up otherwise, but I’m glad that I did.
The main character, Stevens, is an aging, proper English butler that served one of the most prominent and infamous men during WWII, Lord Darlington. In present day, Stevens is traveling through England to see a former coworker in order to try an convince her to return to the house that is currently under new ownership. The trip itself is actually quite uneventful, but the trip is not the important part of the book.
The road trip provides Stevens with something he has never really had before, time to himself. During this time he is now faced with time to focus on something other than his daily tasks of work, which causes him to face perhaps the hard truth of how he has spent his life as well as the life and legacy of the prominent man that he once served.
When starting a book, I usually do not read more about it than the description provided on the back cover, but for this book I found it helpful to know more about the historical context and time period. I must say that the book has a very slow and frankly boring start. It was because of this that I looked at sparknotes for some context. Once I realized that the book was about England in post WWI and leading up to WWII, which just so happened to be the time period I was teaching in my US History class, I was on board.
The beauty of this book is that nothing happens. But that is real life, not much happens externally but more often than not it is our thoughts that make us come to terms with things in life and how we perceive them. For Stevens, as he travels alone the only companion he has are this memories and his thoughts and he faces some hard truths of his life what its purpose.
If Stevens has spent his entire life in service of others what does that mean for his own life? If the man he has served for years is now seen in historical context as being at best a man duped by Nazi Germany, then what does that say about the man that faithfully served him for years? What could have been?
And now for Stevens, what is next? He served one of the great manors in all of England and now he serves a young new money American who seems to have collected the proper English manor with all the authentic touches, which includes the proper English butler, Stevens. He is now a prop. A nice touch.
As I was reading the book I wasn’t terribly engaged, but after finishing it and discussing it at book club it has really grown on me and has stayed with me these last few days. I look forward to reading it again soon.
4/5 Next up & still reading: 4321 -Paul Auster
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