The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

For some reason I have been putting off reading this book for a long time and I never watched the movie because it seemed so “colonial English”. A lot of the book is quite mundane and about the ways of the English thinking adorably of the “British empire”. The book is a sad story if not an outright tragedy about dedicating your life to the wrong causes and the wrong people.

The main character is Stevens who is the butler at Darlington Hall and spent most of his life serving Lord Darlington. The lord eventually dies and the house has been bought by an American as after the second world war, it was the Americans who grabbed most of the spoils. The American doesn’t entertain as often as Darlington did and for that matter spends most of his time in America leaving large parts of Darlington Hall under wraps and with a skeletal staff on duty to maintain the house. Under these diminished circumstances, the butler Stevens recollects nostalgic memories of old times and even more so after receiving a few letters from an old servant Miss Kenton who left the household after she got married. A lot of the book is narrating a road trip Stevens takes as he travels to visit Kenton.

The only interesting parts of the book were the historic parts about the part Lord Darlington played in trying to form an alliance with Hitler during the second world war. Part of the alliance was the desperate attempt to avoid another war since Britain and France had barely recovered from the previous one. Having previous read significantly on the history between the two wars, a lot of what was in the book was interestingly well written.

Hitler made no bones of the fact in “Mein Kampf” that France was an enemy of Germany and must be defeated even if was a huge struggle. However, with Hitler’s distorted ideas of the Aryan race, his feelings to the English were benevolent. After all, the English has achieved colonial supremacy claiming “The sun never set over the British empire”. The way the English had subjugated large parts of Asia and Africa was to Hitler a source of admiration. And with this backdrop, the novel describes about how Ribbentrop being the German ambassador in Britain was a frequent guest at Darlington Hall. A part of this was Hitler’s devious plan to neutralize a potential enemy by canvassing support among the morally weak in Britain. Another part was Hitler’s fascination with the English royalty.

The beginning of this book talks about Darlington holding a major conference in his house with prominent people from Britain and one very prominent person from France along with an American. This conference the way it is described through Steven’s first person is projected about how hard it was to organize it – the manpower it needed, the planning, and on this days round the clock vigil. But the historic importance of the conference is from another angle. Darlington’s objective behind the conference was to gain sympathy among the French for the plight of the Germans. The French had the most to fear from Germans and had imposed fairly stringent repayment schemes besides other surrender agreements and these were causing the German economy to implode and inflation to skyrocket. The French had no intention of releasing the Germans and the Germans were still a significant threat.

Going back to some of my other readings on the period between the first and second world wars, some historians claim that the first world war was ended prematurely without completely disarming Germany. One of the reasons for doing so, was that Britain and France had both exhausted their armies but the Americans and Russians were still in decent shape. Britain and France were most eager to ensure that the benefits of the surrender go them rather than the Americans or the Russians. The Germany that remained after the surrender was therefore still a significant if not formidable force and neither the British not the French could be at ease. Being there closest neighbour, France felt most threatened by a bigger Germany that was not completely beaten down.

The British had achieved everything through divide and rule, and when they came across an enemy they couldn’t divide, they typically approached either the Americans or the Russians. And this was the case with Germany both during the first world war and the second world war. In the years preceding the second world war, history has it that the British approach the Russians for an alliance. One of the English Lords who visited the Russians was asked by a Russian general on how many troops would the British commit? The Englishman replied that sixteen divisions would be sent before and sixteen after the war started. To which the Russian general replied, “If we have to fight Hitler, we will have to commit four hundred divisions on our western front.” And very soon Hitler and Russia entered into an agreement to avoid a war.

Stevens however serves his master through all his schoolboy politics claiming that it was not his place to judge his master and his place was to perform the duties which were within his realm. Another incident in the novel described the English class system where one of Darlington’s guests makes clear his views on democracy and how the people had no business in politics. It was for the elite few to run the country and decide what was best for the people. Darlington himself expresses regret over the harm democracy has done to the country and how they should embrace totalitarianism like Germany and Russia.

As Stevens drives through the country, he is forced to spend the night in the house of a stranger as his car runs out of fuel. During supper, the local villagers gather together in the house of the host as news travels fast through the close-knit village of a stranger from a prominent house spending the night. One of the villagers talks passionately about democracy and how important it was to have an opinion of everything. Most of them view him as a fool for what they see his rabble-rousing. Most of the villagers claim to like their quiet life and wish to be left alone to live the life they have been living. They say ignorance is bliss and the villagers seem proud of it. But, the depiction of that one fiery villager as a fool, seems to be in sync with the rest of the book on how common people have no business in running of the country.

Stevens eventually meets Kenton and they have tea and talk about old times. Turns out Kenton is not moving out of where she is let alone considering another stint at Darlington Hall as she is soon to be a grandmother. Their last parting conversation is quite deep where Stevens asks her is she has been happy in her marriage as the letters he has received were hinting otherwise. She responds that there has been times when she was about to leave but eventually always returned. She says she even thinks about how life may have been if she had married Stevens instead.

The last scene of the book has Stevens near the sea shore watching the sunset and chatting with a stranger. The recollections of the past push him to the verge of tears. Of having spent his life in service to a fascist, of losing his father without being at his deathbed even though they were in the same house, as he was busy serving guests during the famed conference. Of his lonely old days ahead of him with no family or companion, he realizes he must somehow survive with the one and only skill he has and that is to serve his new master.