Stevens is an old-fashioned butler who has been working his entire life at an old style English house (mansion to be exact, or castle? Anyway, it’s huge). Being a butler is not just his job, it’s his entire life. He has extreme pride for what he does, who he works for, and who he is for his profession. Because of his extreme, rather odd views of things, he is somewhat socially imbalanced, and that causes him to be caught in all kinds of interesting situations with the people around him.

The basic premise is not what I would call my kind of story as it deals with upper class society in a wealthy country, albeit it’s the butler who gets the spotlight. Having said that, I was totally absorbed into Stevens’ thoughts and life from beginning to the end. This is a book that is heavily based on characters rather than plot, and what a great characterization Ishiguro has done. Everything about Stevens is so believable, so well-developed. And the ending will surely take your breath away. It did mine. It was so tragic, so devastatingly heartbreaking.

Jess, my book fairy who passed me the book, described it as “pitch perfect” and I couldn’t agree more. What really stood out for me, apart from the language, was the technique. It felt like Ishiguro has painstakingly rewritten and edited the book, again and again, honing it to perfection. No word was wasted, no gesture was not meaningful, no speech was unnecessary. It was so clean, so lean, so articulate. Yes, it was pitch perfect!

As the basic story is not one that is close to my heart, it probably won’t end up as my favorite book of all time. (Maybe it will maybe it won’t. Only time will tell.) But as a novel, it is amazingly accomplished. Give me another Ishiguro’s anytime of the day. I’m sure I’ll end up reading all his books eventually. I would therefore give The Remains of the Day the perfect 5 stars. I’m not sure if that makes sense. Can you think of a book in which the basic story is not close to your heart but you think it works perfectly as a novel? What’s the next Ishiguro would you recommend? The Unconsoled, An Artist of the Floating World, or A Pale View of Hills? Any that you feel strongly about from the three?

1989, 258pp

First Line
It seems increasingly likely that I really will undertake the expedition that has been preoccupying my imagination now for some days.

Memorable Passage
“There was, for instance, the question of cost. For even taking into account my employer’s generous offer to ‘foot the bill for the gas’, the costs of such a trip might still come to a surprising amount considering such matters as accommodation, meals and any small snacks I might partake of on my way. Then there was the question of what sorts of costume were appropriate on such a journey, and whether or not it was worth my while to invest in a new set of clothes.” ~ p10

Challenges/Projects
Read the Book, See the Movie, The Man Booker Prize, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, Reading the World

Also reviewed by
Steph & Tony Investigate! | Arukiyomi

The Film (1993)

The film was nominated for 8 Oscars in 1994 for Best Actor, Actress, Costume, Art/Set Direction, Director, Picture, Music, and Writing. (too bad it didn’t win any. But their competitors of that year were Schindler’s List and The Piano. Tough competition!)

Stevens the butler was played by Anthony Hopkins beautifully, as well as Emma Thompson as Miss Kenton the housekeeper. The movie stayed very true to the book, it captured the mood very well, and the important scenes were played better than what I imagined while reading.

The setting in Darlington Hall was amazing. I got to see everything that was hard to imagine by myself: the summer house, dining room, kitchen, servants’ quarter, drawing room, library, etc. There were even a couple of nice extra touches that I don’t recall being mentioned in the book, like secret passages for the servants to go from room to room without being intrusive (so fun!) and the myriad of labeled bells connected to different rooms.

The Remains of the Day is a wonderful movie. Really well done. And for me the tragedy was even more apparent than in the book. Highly recommended.

Rating: 8/10

Arrived back in Sydney on Sunday and it’s been super frantic catching up with life. I have a couple of unfinished reviews in draft, but to keep up to date with the recent events for once, I’m going to talk about Room NOW.

If there were a modern book fairy, it must work like this: wish upon a star send an email to the Big Man and express your wish to read the book, forget about it, and get the book in the mail unexpectedly. Well that’s what happened to me. Thanks Pan MacMillan AU! Regular readers know that I rarely ever read books published in current year. This time however, I made an exception, for the book was screaming, Read Me, Read Me.

I started reading a couple of days before I left for Indonesia and finished it on the plane on my way there. The flight was around 7-8 hours and I did not let it go once. The hell with in-flight entertainment!

Told from the point of view of a 5 year old boy, Room is a page turner in the truest sense. Jack is born in 11×11 feet Room and lives inside with his Ma. Room is his entire world, the only world he knows. While Ma is aware of the horror they are going through, for Jack Room is a place of safety, the only place that is real.

The story is inspired by the Fritzl case, a case which fascinated me since I first heard it. The whole imprisonment and sexual enslavement of own daughter is truly mind-boggling. Donoghue however, opted to not include the incest factor. And by telling the story from the child’s point of view, it becomes a rather unsentimental almost adventure-like tale. You don’t have to worry about anything graphic. I thought there would be much more emotion in the book, but there wasn’t, which is a good thing in this case. It’s the type of book that make you think, rather than feel.

I was a bit impatient at the beginning about the description of their day to day life and Jack’s voice felt somewhat gimmicky. But the pace started to move quicker after the circumstances have been fully introduced and he really grew on me. I was very fond of him at the end and satisfied with the ending.

The inclusion of Room in the Booker shortlist was a nice surprise. I’m not sure if it’s literary enough to win the prize, but I think once in a while they need to take a chance and go ahead with guts. I would bet my virtual money for Room to win. Hah! :)

2010, 321 pp

Awards
Shortlisted for 2010 Man Booker Prize

First line
Today I’m five.

Quote (possible spoiler)
“Also everywhere I’m looking at kids, adults mostly don’t seem to like them, not even the parents do. They call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the thing all over again so they can take a photo, but they don’t want to actually play with them, they’d rather drink coffee talking to other adults. Sometimes there’s a small kid crying and the Ma of it doesn’t even hear.” ~ p287

Also reviewed by
Farm Lane Books Blog | Paperback Reader | another cookie crumbles | BookLust | Stuff As Dreams Are Made On

With so many toys coming into Mee’s headquarter in the past few weeks (MacBook, XBox360, Wii), something gotta take the backseat. Reading doesn’t, but I guess blogging does. Coincidentally I’m reading One Hundred Years of Solitude which takes a while to read, while I only have one book review in the backlog. What can I say, the universe just seems to conspire for me not to write anything.

Meanwhile, have you checked out the Booker longlist? This year I have read 1 book, which is a great improvement from the usual uum.. nil. I read The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas earlier this year and I’m glad to see it there, just so we have another Australian apart from Peter Carey (hasn’t he won enough?). There are some brilliant bits in the book and some boring bits, but all in all, a rather worthy read. Most Australians are quite surprised that the book gets so much attention overseas (what with Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and now The Booker), because it is soo Melbournians… I am too. I lived in Melbourne for 6 years before so it is a book I’m glad I read, but I’m not sure how other people relate to it. Perhaps UK’s contemporary suburban life is not that far off than what we have here down under.

Apart from that, one book that piques my interest the most is Room by Emma Donoghue, and I know I’m not alone in this. Looks like Room starts popping up everywhere on the blogosphere. I’m not however rushing to buy and read it. I’m more likely to sit back and watch the battle field from the side, waiting until the dust settles before approaching any of them.

A Fine Balance is vast yet personal. It is about India the country and about its people. After spending weeks with the book, I feel like I almost know India, know the people, the roads, the food, understand their jokes and misery. The book has a lot of characters, with the four main ones: a widow, a student, two tailors (uncle and nephew), and a cast of incredible side characters: beggars, beggar-master, hair-collector, rent-collector, monkey-man. There are so many characters, all unique and memorable, with their own little story, how everything comes to be, how they survive life.

I was quite surprised to find how India is in a lot of ways similar to Indonesia. The chaotic nature of the nation, the corrupt Government, extreme poverty, survival techniques, unbalance of power, massive gap between the rich and the poor, we even share a few similar words.

There are also obvious differences, for example the caste system and the beggaring culture. India is often identified with its odd organized ways to produce beggars, by mutilating body parts. I’m really curious about the origin of that, because we don’t have anything like that in Indonesia, even though poverty is as rampant. The fights between different religions are easy to understand, as we have similar calamity in Indonesia. It seems that human always find reasons to blame and attack those who are different than ourselves, be it religion, race, or tribe.

“You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair.” ~ p231

There are a couple of references about ‘a fine balance between hope and despair’, and I honestly didn’t get it until I finished the book. How true that you need a fine balance of hope and despair to live. When despair is too much, everything will topple over, be it a nation or an individual person.

One of the things I loved most was nothing is dramatized. Even the most horrifying parts are written in only a couple of sentences or paragraphs. It’s like Mistry is trying to emphasize that they’re facts. That it happens. It’s nothing like soap-opera. It’s not a made-up drama. And because of that I didn’t experience explosions of emotion, just deep long lingering sorrow at all the misfortunes and anger at all the unfairness.

A Fine Balance impressed me immensely. I closed the book with a big sigh of sadness and happiness. Sadness for it had to end and I had to part with the characters, and it might be a long while before I find any book like this ever again. Happiness for it has touched me very deeply and I feel very lucky to get a chance to be taken on such an amazing journey.

Deep down I wish that someday there will come an author who is able to write about Indonesia as great as Rohinton Mistry did for India. Many voices need to be heard, many tales deserve to be told. If I were to meet Mistry one day, I would say, thank you, thank you, for writing this wonderful book.

1996, 614 pp

A Fine Balance is Jackie’s Best Book Ever. Have you read it? Have you read other books by Rohinton Mistry? Would you recommend them?

More Favorite Quotes

“Independence came at a high price: a debt with a payment schedule of hurt and regret.” ~ Dina, p473

First line
The morning express bloated with passengers slowed to a crawl, then lurched forward suddenly, as though to resume full speed.

Awards
1996 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Overall Best Book
1995 Giller Prize
Shortlisted for 1996 Booker Prize

Challenges
Book Awards IV (book #7), 1001 Books (book #31)

Also reviewed by
Farm Lane Books Blog | Arukiyomi | Lotus Reads | Books and Cooks | Vulpes Libris | Stephanie’s Confessions of a Book-a-holic | Fluttering Butterflies

Contrary to my thoughts before reading the book, it is hardly about the outcast professor and his student than him and his daughter. In fact the daughter fills at least half the book, because the farm where she lives is where the problem of racism occurs, which I think is the major topic of the book: racial tension in South Africa– the problem between them who are “of this earth” and them the others–ones with Western heritage or the Whites.

As most racism, it usually occurs in more ‘uneducated’ places by ‘uneducated’ people. Not in the city where everybody is supposed to be smart and sophisticated, no. It happens in the corners of the town, in back suburbs, behind bushes and shadows. I should know. I experienced extreme racism for many years of my teenage life — the problem that is unconsciously stuck with you to the bone, the matter of ‘my people’ against ‘your people’ — all too familiar elements that made me queasy.

I can’t remember when I first associated award winner with ‘hard to read’, but Coetzee wrote in straightforward style that is easy to read, though not necessarily easy to digest. I particularly don’t care much about Byron and Teresa, the 18th century British poet and his lover, who are featured often in the book. Coetzee is also fond of symbolism. Stray dogs are used throughout (including the cover), though I sometimes failed to understand the meaning, especially at the very end.

David and his daughter Lucy have many arguments that present most of the opposing ideas in the book: old and new generation, male and female, rural and city, the conflicting races.

“I can’t run my life according to whether or not you like what I do. Not any more. You behave as if everything I do is part of the story of your life. You are the main character, I am a minor character who doesn’t make an appearance until halfway through. Well, contrary to what you think, people are not divided into major and minor. I am not minor. I have a life of my own, just as important to me as yours is to you, and in my life I am the one who makes the decisions.” ~ Lucy, p198

Disgrace is the theme of the book. I think at the end acceptance is the solution.

I would recommend it for people who would like to read thought-provoking book that touches uncomfortable issues. It’s also a pretty short book so it won’t take a lot of your time if you’d like to try Coetzee.

1999, 220 pp

Note: Apparently Coetzee emigrated to Adelaide, Australia in 2002. [source] No wonder he made appearances during previous Writers’ Festival here.

First line
For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well.

Last line
‘Yes, I am giving him up.’

Quote
“That is what whores are for, after all: to put up with the ecstasies of the unlovely.” ~ David Lurie, p44

Awards
1999 The Man Booker Prize
2000 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize – Best Book
2003 Nobel Prize for Literature (the author)

Also reviewed by

Everyday I Write the Book | The Critical Lass | Incurable Logophilia | caribousmom | Out of the Blue | Ink and Vellum | Books for Breakfast

This book is the second of Ishiguro that I read (first was When We Were Orphans). The style is a bit different. Easier to digest I’d say, a page turner. The author is good at giving hints to something in the past or the future, and makes me wanting more throughout the entire book.

I can’t say more without spilling spoilers. So I’m just gonna blurt it out.

*SPOILER WARNING*

I think by now almost everyone that has heard about this book knows that it is about clones (As far as I recall though, the word “clone” is only mentioned twice in the entire book). I thought most of the aspects were covered pretty well, but I can’t help wondering why the idea of parents were not discussed at all. It should be a pretty sad moment to know that everybody else out there has parents and you don’t. But I guess they’ve always known that they’re “purposefully created”, and when everybody around you has the same fate as you, you would just accept things as they are. Like a frog never really wishes to fly.

I found relationship between Ruth and Tommy is a bit hard to believe. I mean they’re really two different persons, and I can’t imagine them being together in the first place. Though if you think more about it, they’re both a bit annoying. Ruth is awfully pretentious and attention seeker. Tommy childish, weak, indecisive (he waited until Ruth allowed Kath and him to be together to do something about it? Anyway he never did much about anything.)

I’m also wondering what’s the significance of alphabets for their last name. I thought A would be the first clone for that person, B second, and so on. But they never mentioned anything about it and my theory doesn’t make much sense too, because if it’s true then if Kath’s last name is H, that means she’s the 8th clone, which means the real person where they take the gene from has probably been dead a long time ago if they wait for each clone to ‘complete’ to make the same clone. But Kath tried to find her ‘possible’ and she thought she was alive. If they make a few of the same clones at the same time, wouldn’t she wonder where the other clones are, and not just her ‘possible’? So anyway, their ‘last name’ confused me.

Many things are just eerie. The way they say ‘complete’ to mark their discontinuation to live. The way Madame and Miss Emily so matter-of-factly and cold-heartedly explain everything to them and dismiss them just like that. Not to mention the whole donor thingy.

After I finished the book, when I looked back, I thought the characters are almost void of emotions in just a very eerie way. There’s no big emotion to whatever new things that they discovered no matter how shocking it was. And rightly so. After all, they’re clones, which were doubted that they even had souls.

Rating: 4 out of 5 [Very good]
Flowing reading, satisfying climax, a unique topic that is brought very nicely. Few loose ends.

First line

My name is Kathy H.

Last line

I just waited a bit, then turned back to the car, to drive off to wherever it was I was supposed to be.

Also reviewed by

robaroundbooks | Stuff as Dreams are Made on

I read another McEwan’s book a while ago, Atonement, and didn’t quite like it, despite all the high praises. I really so wanted to like his books. I just couldn’t believe that I didn’t. I thought his types of books were just the ones that I would like. I still couldn’t let it go for a while, so I started On Chesil Beach.

I was so glad to find that I enjoyed it.

On Chesil Beach tells a story about a newly married couple, young, virgin, extremely shy and awkward. Setting is in old Europe 1960s, the time when talks about sex were far and few.

I thought only a genius could write a novel on a few hours of a wedding night and be nominated for Booker Prize (2007). And genius he is. There’s just something about McEwan’s use of words and language. Like people say, he’s a master of English. It’s just great. The words he uses to explain all things that we often can’t put into words. (Well as you can see, I’m definitely not a master of English.)

[spoiler]I read around forums to see what other people think of it. People mentioned about possibility of Flo being abused by her father, which caused her to be so frigid and revolted at sex. There are several hints in the book, which I have to half-heartedly agree. I probably subconsciously tried to ignore them at first, because it disappointed me a bit. I thought Flo’s character would be more interesting without the abuse (which would make things make sense in a too easy way).[/spoiler]

Love the ending. Sad. But poignant.

Rating: 4 out of 5
terrible » poor » mediocre » okay » good » very good » excellent » superb
A short, full of impact novel, written by a literary genius. His books still contain the longest sentences I’ve ever found in books.

First line

They were young, educated, and both virgins on this, their wedding night, and they lived in a time when a conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible.

Last line

Instead, he stood in cold and righteous silence in the summer’s dusk, watching her hurry along the shore, the sound of her difficult progress lost to the breaking of small waves, until she was blurred, receding point against the immense straight road of shingle gleaming in the pallid light.

Quotes

“This was still the era – it would end later in that famous decade – when to be young was a social encumbrance, a mark of irrelevance, a faintly embarrassing condition for which marriage was the beginning of a cure.” ~ p6

“He was discovering that being in love was not a steady state, but a matter of fresh surges or waves, and he was experiencing one now.” ~ p125

“This is how the entire course of a life can be changed – by doing nothing.” ~ p166

The setting of Atonement is Talli’s family house in 1935. A 13 years old girl with strong imagination, Briony, had witnessed a series of events between her sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the family’s childhood friend. At the end of the day, Briony made a mistake that affects the lives of all three, a crime for which she will spend the rest of her life trying to atone.

Gosh it took me a LONG time to finish the book. One of the hardest book I’ve read so far. It’s very very wordy. The sentences are so long with so many commas that I often lost what it was about and had to go back re-read. A lot of words are not in my vocabulary, like one said, the words are very flowery. The first few chapters are so slow that I wondered if I could go on or should go on. After a question in the BC forum, I decided that I just gotta finish the book (most urged me to continue, it gets better at the latter part).

It did get better, albeit slowly. I wanted to read the book first before I watched the movie, which came out not long after I started the book, since generally book is always better than the movie. However since things moved very very slowly for me, the movie would definitely finish in the cinema before I finished reading the book. So after the first chapter, I just went to watch it.

So the first half of the movie felt like a totally different experience than the second half, because I knew the story. I was very aware of all the details in the movie, since the book goes into crazy details into every little thing, like Cecilia’s gown, Lola’s outfit, the scar on Marshall’s face, the twin’s hair, the triangular shadow on Cecilia’s wet undergarment, the vase, the fountain, the house, even the grass. Really. Not to mention all the dialogue. The movie helped me to visualize what I have read.

The second half of the movie helped me to continue reading the book. Since I knew then how the story went, in the most boring and slowest part of the book, I knew it WOULD go somewhere, that I wouldn’t be on that spot forever. Really, sometimes it just got too slow. On the second chapter, I started to learn to fast-read some parts that I just didn’t care much about. The war bit especially, felt like forever to go through. Interestingly some people said that the movie is very slow. Believe me, it’s lightning fast compared to the book!

I feel more for Briony after I watched the second part. Briony was unbearable to me when I read the first chapter of the book. I almost didn’t feel like continuing just because I hated her so much. I don’t think I have hated a fictional character this much, because of the their personality and actions, ever.

I’m glad I finished it, though I don’t think I have the energy for another McEwan’s book for the longest time.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Great plot, although I wish the author could spend more words on the things that matter. At times it can be far too slow.

Atonement is one of the 1001 books you must read before you die.
It was shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize and winner of 2003 National Book Critics Circle award (plus a bunch of other awards).

Discussion on bookcrossing website

It’s a story about Christopher Banks, who is a famous detective in London. He grew up in Shanghai, before he left the city because of the loss of his parents. Eventually he went back to Shanghai to “solve the case” and looked for his parents. I found that the characters are quite interesting. The parents, the Japanese childhood friend, the English lady who always crossed path with Christopher, the orphan who Christopher took in. They’re not.. typical. Really, quite fascinating.

I think the book is very well written. The pace is quite slow at some places, but somehow I don’t mind. I enjoyed the words and everything he worded. Ishiguro is a good author. No wonder he has so many award winning novels. Definitely someone whose books I will watch out. His next book on my shelf is The Remains of the Day, which is the winner of Booker Prize in 1989 (which I got from my favorite used bookshop for a whooping one buck, still in jolly good condition :).

Ratings: 3.5 out of 5
Slow and enjoyable. I imagine it’s not something for everyone. It’s not a bad start at all for Ishiguro’s works.
Yes he added quite a few words into my vocabulary.

Memorable Quotes

Can you imagine an English gentleman with thick English accent saying this line: (easily the most hilarious line in the book)

“It appears to be quite permissible here to employ surprisingly rough shoves to get people out of one’s way. Though I have not yet found the nerve to take advantage of this license myself, I have already witnessed on a number of occasions refined ladies at society gatherings giving the most peremptory pushes without provoking as much as a murmur.” ~ p164, Christopher on Shanghai

Charming ;)

“She was very beautiful when she was younger. The most beautiful flower, my good sir. You cannot imagine. In this respect, I am like a Westerner in my heart. I have never wanted any wife but her. One wife, quite enough. Of course, I took others. I am Chinese, after all, even if I have lived all my life here in the foreigners’ city. I felt obliged to take other wives. But she is the one I truly cared for. The others have all gone now, and she is left. I miss the others, but I’m glad, in my heart I’m glad that in our old age, it is just the two of us again.” ~ p205 … “Certain kinds of beauty never fade.” ~ p210

Might have been one of my favorite parts. The part where Christopher talked to old Chinese man about the differences between Western and Chinese customs, how it’s quite inevitable at times to resist what’s accepted as culture.

SPOILER for discussion below (highlight to see)
I still don’t get how Christopher could think that his parents would still be held captive and alive after 15 years. All the more strange that other people in the city seem to think this way too. Like the Chinese captain, who even went all the way to take him to the old house in the middle of fighting. What’s going on there? I even dreamed about this. I thought there would be some weird fantasy twist to it later, like time traveling or whatever. But apparently he just thought they would be there, in the old house in the middle of the war. And what’s with the big case to be solved that could save the world they were all referring to? Well, these are some loose ends I’m a bit confused with.

This story will make you believe in God

This one line from the book that made me so curious about what’s in it. The fact that I didn’t know what to expect and had no idea where the story would bring us until about 1/3 of the book threw nice surprises at me. (The copy that I had didn’t have the cover and I didn’t read any review prior to the reading.)

The first few chapters felt a bit slow. But after a while, I couldn’t put it down because it’s so damn interesting. A lot of events are simply hilarious and ironically funny.

In short, this is a story about a child stranded in a rescue boat with a Bengal Tiger. And he survived. One of the strongest reason is that he’s a child of a zookeeper, which makes him knows a lot about animals.

There’s one part of the story that I love so much, but I can’t say here to avoid any spoiler. It’s probably one aspect that’s the most unbelievable, but for me it’s simply magical. (If you read this book, ask me which part! :)

Nothing actually religious in this story. So far from that. It’s about a very extra-ordinary experience. And like usual, I really want, and end up, to believe that it’s a true story :)

~ Finished it (roughly) on 5 March 2005

“Religion faces the same problems [with zoo]. Illusions of freedom plague them both.”