Book: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Paperback, 245 pages. Excellent used condition. Minimal signs of wear, very gently read. Winner of the Booker Prize, and Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017. "A profoundly compelling portrait of an English butler from the 1920s and 1930s. At the end of three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens is obliged to take a country drive, where he embarks on a journey through the past in an effort to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving the "great gentleman" Lord Darlington. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Darlington's "greatness" and much graver doubts about his own personal choices in life...." I've read this a couple of times (and it's also an amazing movie, btw). Eventually I realized that--beneath the deeply-moving story of someone wondering whether they'd wasted their life being some rich guy's servant--there was a whole undercurrent focusing on an enormous betrayal: how the wealthy members of English society either supported Hitler or gave him the benefit of the doubt. When I was younger I think I was far more absorbed in Stevens' poignant relationship dances with Miss Kenton and his aging father, so when I saw the scathing fascism angle it really blew my socks off--and of course it's a story that couldn't be more relevant today. 🔥 This is a slim novel with lovely prose that moves quickly. It's actually well past time for me to read it again, but I have an older copy that I'm hanging onto. 🙂