Reviews

• The Remains of the Dayを原文で読む

  主人公のスティーブンスは自他ともに認める優秀な執事であると自負し長年仕えるダーリントン卿こそ高邁な理想を持って世界に貢献しうる主人であると信じて疑うこともなく人生をささげて奉仕してきたが、その主人も自分自身も世間知らずで無知蒙昧であることに人生の終わりに差し掛かってようやく気付く。そんなペーソスを優しく丁寧な筆致で描いた秀作である。日本語訳は土屋政雄氏であるが正に名訳、哀愁や機微が伝わってきて感動する。

• 問題なし

  問題なし

• 活版印刷化のような

  フォントは読みにくい。けど頑張って読みます！

• About the structure of the novel

  I will leave the “impressions/feelings” of the story with the other readers. Instead of them, I would like to mention my analysis for the text First, of the flamework, it can be comparable to the romantic story of medieval era. In the “Don Quixote “by Miguel de Cervantes, a knight who excessively read chivalric romance, strays around searching his ideal lover, Dulcinea, without success, for example. The ending of “The remains of the day” that Stevenson’s journey to bring her to the Darlington Hall to renew relationship with him is finally failed, has as a same structure as the Cervantes’s novel has. Second, this book is may called a kind of fictional diaries. It is not important whether Stevens actually writes his dairy or not, what is important is his habit; after he arrives a hotel, finishes a dinner and retires into his bedroom, he customarily summarizes today’s events or sometime looks backs to the past. So, according to the first-person narrative, the story advances along with the time ordering; day one, day two, day three day four and so on. But strangely, day five is missing. Stevens meets Miss Kenton in his hotel in the evening of day four. They talk two hours, then, Stevens sends her to the bus station. This course is told at the evening of day six, in the scene on the pier. The memory of day five is completely erased from him. Therefore, what he was doing that day is permanently questioned, except the narrator gives us a modest hint of the Stevens’s emotion only one passage as the Stevens’s monologue; “at that moment, my heart was breaking”. We, readers must fill up the vacancy of the day five, by their own imagination. Third, it has a special style in the novel, I say, “accumulating”. That means plural episode occurs at one time. I would like to refer the two events in which are the most crucial parties in the Darlington Hall, the one is an unofficial gathering of pro-German gentlemen, the other is a secret meeting of Prime minister, foreign secretary and the German ambassador Herr Ribbentrop in the same house. Stevens is indeed very busy to control his staffs. During the party, in the former case, Stevens senior, his father, died on the second floor, and Stevens is asked to tell the “Wonder of nature” to his godson Reginald Cardinal, from Lord Darlington. In the latter case, in the middle of most secret meeting, Reginald Cardinal, who is now columnist, suddenly visits the house disguising his true purpose and more worsens him Miss Kenton reveals her engagement. In the both cases, Stevens is interrupted to focus on the party. It also makes some discomfort to the readers, who confuse to wonder of which will be more important next. Fourth, Stevens’s monologue has always inconsistent message. For example, Stevens says, on the one way, “you and I [we] will never be in a position to comprehend the great affairs of today’s world……” then following to the other way, “and our best course will always be to put our trust in an employer we judge to be wise and honorable……”; these two passages eventually contradict each other. how a butler evaluates that his employer is accurately honorable or not if the butler is not having a well-educated discernment. A plain butler can never choose an honorable his lordship or he must wait a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get a great employer, as Stevens says; There were many moving butlers seeking to an honorable employer in vein. Honestly, Stevens himself too was failed in the selection of his employer. His lordship, Lord Darlington was not honorable because he was once influenced by the Nazism and took several mistakes. Stevens blindly followed him with the belief that his lord must have been accomplishing the good deal for his country. He was betrayed his supreme employer. On the superficial context, Stevens is merely a show of justification for his stance, but is it true? The element of “One parson narrator is unreliable” is the basic Literature Theory. We must carefully read until the back sides of the pages. Fifth, the story itself has a closed system on the upper stage. After short prologue, Stevens sets off the six days mortaring. In the first day, he meets old man sitting on the large stone, and in the last day, meets another old man sitting on the bench of the pier, the both seem to be enjoying the remains of the day of theirs. It suggests Stevens has a right of taking a same pleasure as “the evening’s the best part of the day.” The last part gives us somewhat peace and quiet though his past was very regrettable and remorseful. This novel is very thoughtful text like, as it were, “Well-Wrought Urn”.

• 穏やかなトーン

  ノーベル賞を取ったからでも日系英国人だからでもなく、何となく初めて購入しました。 評論家が言う様な、深い？印象は余り受けませんでした。強いて言えば、穏やかな、尖ったところの少ない作品かと。ただ文章は大変読み易いです。難しい単語が余り出てこないのと、シンプルな構文が多いからでしょうか。 紳士とは、威厳とはがしばしば語られますが、そもそも英国エリート社会のお話であり、当時の帝国主義／植民地主義を思えば感情移入は難しいです。勿論、執事さんの責任ではありませんが。

• 本当に美しすぎる英文だ！

  以前に洋書を購入し大変きらびやかな文体に心を打たれたことを鮮明に覚えています。Ian McEwanのAtonementと並ぶ程の感動がそこにはありました。 読むことで素敵な時間を過ごすことができ次は朗読で同様な体験をしたく購入致しました。ナレーターはaudiobookの分野では顕著な方でとても耳心地がGOODです！すんなり英文が頭の中に入り込んできます 3月上旬にKAZUO ISHIGURO氏の最新刊が発行されるので非常に楽しみです。

• 映画は退屈だったが、原書のほうが楽しめる

  ノーベル賞の受賞を記念して購入した。執事が用いる丁寧な英語ということで、なかなかついていけず、翻訳本まで購入するはめになった。頑張って、読み勧めて行くとそれなりに入り込め、芥川賞のようなきれいな表現がちりばめられているのがよくわかった。 映画は、俳優人は名演だったが、盛り上がりに欠け少し退屈だった記憶があるが、原書を読んでからのほうが、感情移入できて楽しめると思う。

• カズオイシグロの文体に触れられ、嬉しい

  小説を繰返し読むことはほとんど無いが、「日の名残り」だけは疲れているときの愛読書。翻訳も素晴らしい。 急にカズオイシグロの文体に直接触れたくなり、寝る前に少しずつ読んでいる。I love his humor and fragile sensitivity.

• Un libro di grande classe e scritto divinamente

  Questo libro, secondo me, da ragione almeno in parte del Nobel dato a Kazuo Ishiguro. Il libro è un affresco dei tempi della decadenza della nobiltà inglese e conseguentemente del relativo personale di servizio. Al contempo, però, è la storia di un amore mancato e immolato sull'altare della "dignità" professionale. L'autore scrive in un inglese semplicemente perfetto e che si gode dalla prima all'ultima pagina, anzi si impara parecchio da lui. Ovviamente il testo è scritto da un autore inglese, ma di origine giapponese e la base culturale orientale fa capolino qua e là. Bisogna essere interessati alla scrittura e all'alta letteratura per apprezzare appieno questo libro, ma si è ricompensati con una storia molto particolare e con caratteri delineati alla perfezione. Naturalmente, non è una storia di pronta fruizione e occorre pazienza e interesse per apprezzare le sottilissime nuance della scrittura di Ishiguro.

• Very satisfied.

  The book was delivered very fast! Got here in 1 day and in perfect condition.

• as is the king, so are the subjects

  Ask anyone and you will find everyone has something to talk about life with natural octaves from the highest note to the lowest and best registrar recorded over the vicissitudes of life as if living an ordinary life without a material curriculum vitae were a sign of defeatism synonymous with rootlessness. More often than not, a straightforwardly elliptical, honest-to-goodness narrative is not considered a smashing subject matter for a bestseller that merits an entire aisle of any bookseller, but the story of English butler Stevens shoehorns his ordinary work experience into a suitably fashionable stance for a modern-day memoir that reads like a continual fugue of flattering hopes, misguided beliefs, despotic self-denials, cruel disappointments, and smothered pleasures, all elegantly interwoven into a polyphony of life in The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. The Moment of Reckoning Stevens falls into, pace the general opinion of the mass, results not from his disillusioned loyalty toward Nazi sympathizer Lord Darlington but from his own disoriented value and belief systems in accordance with the changing zeitgeist in the wake of the two great wars. Lord Darlington epitomized what dignity and magnanimity meant to Stevens in a way that his position as a butler was as equally prestigious and sovereign as that of his aristocratic employer Lord Darlington, a figure of respectful English peerage that deserved of his dedication and devotion. It’s really a case of ‘Qualis rex, talis glex,’ meaning “As is the king, so is the people.” And it was this belief system that made Stevens endure occupational humiliation from arrogant guests of high birth, the grief of the death of his father, and tender feelings toward Ms. Kenton, a former head housekeeper at the Darlington Mansion. In fact, such belief system based on seemingly antediluvian values in the post-modern era was Stevens’ lifeline that had kept him going until he took a trip to see now married Ms. Kenton, a kind of Beatrice-like figure guiding Dante from Hell and Purgatory to Paradise. Stevens’s existential dilemma stems from his existential vertigo in the aftermath of the wars and the subsequent social changes that upended the foundations of the collective value and belief systems of society. Stevens’s inner world was put into an existential vacuum, a void that can only be filled by a sense of purpose and new attitudes toward life in search of finding meaning therein. Rather than bemoaning his life as a boring butler, Stevens kept trying to find meaning in what he had been doing, what he was still doing, and what he would do by asking himself the question of his own life to which only he could answer; that is, to a life he could only respond by being responsible. And it was not a reactionary response with his fists clenched in bitterness and a sprit of French Revolution against the privileged few, but his own examination of his life that felt a void in a sense of direction in life. Kazuo Ishiguro created a character whose existential dilemma is relatable and pitiable with his mastery of characterization, the wealth of imaginations, and study of human nature, in his signature elliptical narrative skills laced with nuanced emotions that never lay the whole character bare to the eyes of the public. He’s a fantastic writer who shows readers that a good writer is capable of travel and metamorphoses no matter where he was born or what he looks like. I wonder how many writers tried to break free from their biological planes and even dreamed about being whom they wanted to be, confidently and naturally crossing the boundaries of culture and race just as Ishiguro did without branding his Japanese cultural and Asian traits as a convenient foundation for suitably fashionable “ethnic” literature. All in all, this is a fascinating book to observe how social changes can affect an individual and how one copes with such historic and cultural juggernauts in search of meaning in life. This book is a testament to the magical craft of writing that a writer should be all that he is capable of becoming no matter who he is. For a writer is also a magician of words, a wondrous sort of shapeshifter in letters.

• Ishiguro's flair with narrative form, but emotional and raw. Pure genius

  Remains of the Day is told from the perspective of just one man, Stevens. It is told as a reminisced narrative, sometimes imperfectly remembered, often from many years ago, but a reminiscence that contains within itself numerous other narrative threads. Ishiguro has woven together an extraordinary novel that is an intellectual tour de force, but which also has an emotional power and immediacy. Pure genius, and one of the greatest works of a great author. ---- spoilers follow ---- At face value, Stevens' narrative tells how he, the butler to a high-class country house, has achieved professional dignity by, as he puts it, never taking his clothes off in public. In other words, he maintains a professional reserve not only when performing his duties, but all of the time when he is not alone. Yet implicit within Stevens' narrative are other conflicting narratives, and unless the reader takes the effort to read between the lines to find them, the book is trivial and meaningless -- no more than a travelogue of an aging butler who is taking a holiday after many years of loyal service. One narrative concerns the housekeeper, Miss Kenton. It is clear from her actions as remembered by Stevens that she is in love and would like to marry him so they could retire together. Stevens himself is very fond of Miss Kenton, and would like them to remain together, though it is not clear whether he would want them to marry. One of the ambiguities of the book is the extent to which Stevens is aware of her feelings, or even of his feelings towards her. It is notable that when Stevens meets Miss Kenton again, the meeting is not mentioned until two days later, after Stevens has had the time to fit the emotional shock of the meeting into his dignified and emotionally distanced narrative voice. Another narrative concerns their employer, Lord Darlington, who is key to bringing together the Nazi ambassador, Ribbentrop, and the British Prime Minister, Lord Halifax. It becomes clear that Darlington is more than merely a facilitator, but has at times been a Nazi sympathiser with links to anti-Semites and black-shirts in Britain. Another ambiguity is the extent of Stevens' own knowledge and culpability. There is also a more realistic narrative about Stevens himself. Unlike the idealised butler who triumphs over his own emotions in Stevens' own remembered view, his own reminiscences reveal a hidden but far more emotionally vulnerable self. His employer's friend and Miss Kenton notice his emotional needs even at the points he remembers as times when he was invulnerable. He is starting to make mistakes, just as his own father started to make mistakes towards the end. The narrative that Stevens tells in public is still different again. He is keen to hide any reference to his old employer, and is happy to be mistaken as a gentleman rather than a manservant. There are at least two occasions where Stevens is caught red-handed, perhaps not in the act of lying, but at least in laying a false narrative trail. The inconsistencies between the different narratives that Stevens maintains himself perhaps partly explain his own need for privacy. Like his own father, he seems happiest when he is on his own. The few times the novel drops into the present tense, such as when Stevens looks over the English countryside, or sits quiet next to an isolated pond, seem the times when Stevens is most content -- when he can drop the guard that protects his dignity and his multiple narratives, and simply live in the moment. The conflicting narratives braid together and are revealed through inconsistencies in Stevens own reminisced account. Remains of the Day is an extraordinary example of the art of the storyteller. Ishiguro succeeds in relating so many narratives, but all through a single voice. Yet the book is not merely a clever tour de force. It is a heart-breaking and emotional depiction of a man who has thrown everything away -- public dignity, a happy marriage and retirement, the best years of his life --, and it is a sensitive analysis of the internal forces that motivated him to put other priorities first.

• Perfect book about the burden of perfectionism

  Soul crushing. Beautiful. I related to this book profoundly. It spoke to me and my well practiced refusal to allow others to get too close. Stunning work.

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