Rachel's Random Recommendation #44: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day (1989) by Kazuo Ishiguro

"The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular world postwar England. At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving “a great gentleman.” But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington’s “greatness” and graver doubts about his own faith in the man he served."

Review: The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (Knopf, 336 pages)

Yes, it really is that good.

I mean, come on. If you've read Ishiguro before, you know what I'm talking about. His style is as smooth as Nutella (and as wonderful), he builds up the suspense without being flashy, and he explores profound subjects through a variety of narrative lenses. Man is a master.

His latest novel takes place in ancient Britain, after the Romans have left and as the country is settling into a kind of dull stupor. The wars that once ravaged it have ceased, but the peace that has come to the weary Britons and Saxons is not the calm, refreshing kind. Something ("the mist") is blocking their long- and short-term memories. An old couple, Axl and Beatrice, fighting this mental haze and determined to retrieve their memories of a long life together, set out on a journey to find their son. They barely remember him, and can't even recall why he lives so far away, but this quest is their last and best effort to piece together their shared past.

Rachel's Random Recommendation #37: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro

My first exposure to the beautiful prose of Kazuo Ishiguro was, of course, The Remains of the Day, which I read in college for a Modern British Fiction course. Reading that novel made me want to walk around on tiptoe, whispering and peering around corners- Ishiguro is that masterful with subtlety and quiet, contemplative, yet profound, stories.

Several years later, I read Never Let Me Go for a grad school version of that course, and came away...puzzled. I wasn't sure how to classify it, and perhaps that was the point. This novel about a group of clones growing up at a special school and then released into the world, their purpose in life to donate their organs to people in need, has been called "dystopian" and "science fiction," but ultimately it is many things. It is a comment on how ethics often lag behind scientific innovation, and a warning about how we as humans often fear or dismiss that which is almost human- a humanoid machine, a clone, etc.