raPId eYe mOVemENt

Have you ever had that frustrating experience of picking up one of those ‘award winning’ books, only to be baffled by both the book itself, and those who seek to make a huge deal of it? It’s happened to me several times – most notably with Rushdie’s Midnight Children. I simply could not get myself to read past the fortieth page of that much acclaimed volume; try as I might! Perhaps I am simply not smart enough.” , I felt myself thinking, when I finally decided to put that one down. Well… I still haven’t managed to pluck up the nerve to get back to the ‘Booker of Booker’s’.

However, I recently stumbled upon ‘The Remains of the Day’ by Kazuo Ishiguro – which really, is what this post is all about. This too won the Booker (1989), and for a change, I loved it! The title of this post reveals the book’s storyline – at least on a superficial level. Stevens – the tale’s protagonist, is your quintessential ‘Gentleman’s Gentleman’ – stoic, stiff upper lip, meticulous and proud. Having lived through the two wars, and survived his long time employer Lord Darlington, Stevens now finds himself living in and adapting to a world where the influence of British aristocracy is on the wane. And the old butler is now off on a ‘motoring trip’ in his new employer’s (Mr. Farraday – an American businessman) Ford.

Stevens ventures out on the trip only reluctantly for reasons which are incrementally revealed as the tale progresses. Ishiguro employs a first person narrative style (through the entries which Stevens makes in his journal which he carries along for the road trip) to provide a brilliant and touching reconstruction of a butler’s professional and personal lives. “What might be of interest in a Butler’s life?”, you might well ask, as I did too when I began reading the book. For after all, butlers don’t seem to be effervescent characters who do a lot of interesting things to write home about. To my mind, the book’s greatest success is in that it managed to not only hold my interest, considering its rather dry subject matter, but in fact it had me sitting through two whole days at stretch to finish it at one go! It really has been a while since any book made me do that!

Ishiguro weaves Steven’s personal reminiscences of the services he rendered to Lord Darlington wonderfully well into a backdrop of international diplomacy in the inter-war years. To this, he adds the tragic personal romantic angle – Steven’s ‘certain other’ being a Miss Kenton, who too was previously in the employ of Lord Darlington before she left to get married to someone else. The tragedy of course is in Steven’s constant need to characterize his interactions with Miss Kenton as being of a ’strictly professional nature’ when evidently that was not the case. Ishiguro certainly manages to evince a couple of laughs too, by highlighting the absurdity of British High Society manners in some social settings – for instance, Steven’s is baffled as to how he should react to banter directed at him by his American employer, for he had never encountered such informal speech from any blue-blooded British aristocrat before. On the one hand he is worried that he might say something inappropriate by providing a befitting reply, while on the other he isn’t sure if his employer actually wishes him to come up with witty retorts. Steven’s attempt to tread the middle path is truly comical.

I was very apprehensive about making the purchase at a recent Crosswords book sale. I almost fell for American God’s by Gaiman, but something about this book, which I can’t exactly place my finger on, caught my attention that day. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t the book’s cover which is pretty drab and melancholy as you can see above (if you want snazzy covers, look for Rushdie’s latest). In any event, I am glad that I did pick this one up. Subtle, neat and thought provoking!