Skip to main content

The remains of the day

This book by Kazuo Ishiguro is quite an interesting book. Initially I had to struggle to continue reading. But it was worth the struggle.

The narrator, Mr. Stevens is a gentleman's gentleman - a butler in his late years. He recollects his former employer and the happenings in the house during 1930s. He is advised by his current employer Mr. Farraday to take a road tour which he does after initial hesitation. He has another motive. He wants to bring back the formal employee Miss Kenton, now married back to the house. He is short of staff members.

He remembers various misunderstandings he and Miss Kenton had and also the last days of his father. He also feels happy that he has maintained one quality for a good butler which is dignity. When his father had attack and is taking his last breath, a very important conference is going on  in the house. Mr. Stevens does not let this event affect the conference in any way.

On the whole a reasonably good book.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Someshwara shataka

ಚರಿಪಾರಣ್ಯದ ಪಕ್ಷಿಗೊಂದು ತರು ಗೊಡ್ಢಾಗಲ್ ಫಲಂ ಈವಿದಾ ಮರಗಳ್ ಪುಟ್ಟವೆ ಪುಷ್ಪವೊಂದು ಬಳಲಲ್  ಭ್ರಂಗಕ್ಕೆ ಪೂವಿಲ್ಲವೆ ನಿರತಂ ಸತ್ಕವಿಗೋರ್ವ ಗರ್ವಿದಂ ನೃಪ ತಾಂ ಲೋಭಿಯಾಗಲ್ ನಿಜಂ ಧರೆಯೊಳ್ ದಾತರು ಪುಟ್ಟರೆ ಹರ ಹರಾ ಶ್ರೀ ಚೆನ್ನ ಸೋಮೇಶ್ವರ Will a bird in the wild go hungry just because one fruit tree dries up? If one flower withers, will not the bee get any flowers? If one haughty king is miserly, will there be no patrons (of poetry) on this earth? ಕೆಲವಂ ಬಲ್ಲವರಿಂದ ಕಲ್ತು ಕೆಲವಂ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಂಗಳೋದುತಂ ಕೆಲವಂ ಮಾಳ್ಪವರಿಂದ ಕಂಡು ಕೆಲವಂ ಸುಜ್ಙಾನದಿಂ  ನೋಡುತಂ ಕೆಲವಂ ಸಜ್ಜನಸಂಗದಿಂದಲರಿಯಲ್ ಸರ್ವಜ್ಞನಪ್ಪಂ ನರಂ ಪಲವಂ ಪಳ್ಳ ಸಮುದ್ರವೈ ಹಾರ ಹರಾ ಶ್ರೀ ಚೆನ್ನ ಸೋಮೇಶ್ವರ Learning from wise men, reading from good books, observing others  work and learning from good company, these are the ways a man becomes omni-scient (sarvajna - one who knows everything). Just like many streams join together to make an ocean. P.S. 1) If you find some of my wordings in this shataka is wrong, please let me know. It is a 40 year old memory. 2) There are also...
4 comments
Read more

AA

This must really go to facebook page. But since I am currently not in facebook, I am putting it here. If you feel any of your close ones or your friends and relatives are addicts or on the way of being addicts, introduce them to Alcoholic anonymous. They have meetings all over the Bangalore and in other towns in India also.  I have taken this list from AA India site . The site also contains lot of information about alcoholics including a questionnaire to find out if a a person is an alcoholic or not.   BELGAUM ADDRESSES TIMINGS New Life Group.    St, Anthony Kannada High School,    Opp. Fish Market Khanapur Road, Camp Belgaum-590006 Anand – 099026 87947 Sat 6.00 p.m. Back Top BENGALURU ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bharatha - 2. UrdhvaRoma

I wanted to write about Karna as my part 2 of Bharatha because he is the real tragic hero of MahaBharatha. But net is filled with writings about him. So let me write about little known son of Arjuna called Urdhvaroma. And I don't want to write as twisted tale but as I have heard it from my Yankatte (atte - aunt). Yankatte was my mother's aunt and she was widowed in childhood. She would spend some time in my granny's house and some time in her husband's house. She would tell us all beautiful stories. UrdhvaRoma was a son of Arjuna (I think. Or may be Bhima's son. I don't remember clearly. ) He was living in the forest. One day when he was practicing archery, Arjuna and Krishna were passing by. Krishna indicated Arjuna to hide and watch. This boy shot an arrow to a large tree. And all the leaves of the tree fell down except for 5 and a half leaves. Krishna and Arjuna came forward and asked him what was all this about. The boy told " After few years there wi...
Post a Comment
Read more