MovieChat Forums > The Remains of the Day (1993) Discussion > Read the book

Read the book

posted 15 years ago by Readerman
7 replies | jump to latest

It's a fabulous film. Hopkins' performance is his best, far better than Silence.... The only one in his career that rivals it is Nixon. The book by Kazuo Ishiguro is even more beautiful and heart-wrenching than the film, so if you like the film, by all means read it. There is a fabulous scene at the end when the two principal characters part for the last time. Stevens cries and is comforted by a stranger on the pier.

I've read 4 of Ishiguro's novels. Besides this: A Pale View of the Hills, An Artist of the Floating World, and Never Let Me Go. The man is fantastic.

[–] agera 15 years ago

I was surprised by how much humor is in the novel. Stevens's thoughts on "bantering" are hilarious.

I was so dazzled by Ishiguro's literary brilliance that I haven't had the nerve to read anything else by him. I'm too afraid I won't like it as well as I do The Remains of the Day.

[–] whitelamp 15 years ago

I agree, the book is very touching. I may even read it again one of these days.

[–] mesmerized-1 15 years ago

I totally disagree. I have to read the book, it's part of the required reading of my syllabus and it's horrible. I think that Stevens rambles way too much.

[–] david-winborn 15 years ago

I too had to read it at school, and my advice is: persevere. It's dry and rambling in parts - but that's the point. Taken as a whole, such elements really expand the character. It's like Patrick's ramblings about 80s pop music and hi-fis in American Psycho: it's not the subject of the monologue so much as the way the character is thinking about it that reveals all.

I did ROTD during my English A-Level about 10 years ago. Consequently, its probably the book I have actually read the closest - really, properly studied in detail - and it is fortunate that is also one of the greatest books I have read. I look back now and am glad that I was introduced to this book and author, neither of which I would have probably come across otherwise.

The film is a great complement to the book. I wonder what Ishiguro thinks of it?

[–] agera 15 years ago

What a great post. Thanks for your insights.

[–] departed_aviator231 15 years ago

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New lovers are nervous and tender,

[–] fortunate1 15 years ago

It's also been said that Ishiguro, born in Japan but raised in England, meant in this novel to render the strict hierarchies and stylised rituals of Japanese aristocracy, and those who served it, in their equivalent English manifestation.