10.27.09
Kazuo Ishiguro Duet
Never Let Me Go initiated me last year into the pensive and compelling realm of Kazuo Ishiguro’s storytelling, and since then, I have hoped to enter this realm more often. Reading The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans recently, reinforced what Never Let Me Go forecasted – that Ishiguro will persist as one of my favorite novelists.
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When We Were Orphans traverses the life of Christopher Banks from his childhood in Shanghai in the early 1900’s, on to his orphaned life back in England after both his parents vanish mysteriously one after another, and then to his return to Shanghai as a successful detective with high hopes of solving their disappearances. I have found congruences between When We Were Orphans and Remains of the Day, but revealing one of them would incline such clues into spoilers, so I shall only mention the most evident; that of the noticeable and enormous employment of memory – something Proust bequeathed to our modern novelists, I believe. Yet while maintaining his elegantly painful tone, the distinct compositions of each book are also attestations of Ishiguro’s versatility as an author.
The Remains of the Day explores the nature of “greatness” and “dignity” through the eyes of a butler in post-World War England. When his new American employer generously suggests that he take a drive around the country so he could see the beauty that lay beyond his confined geographic sphere, the reader is propelled towards scenic descriptions and reflections as he recalls his years under grand Darlington Hall and his service to the gentleman, Lord Darlington. Its tale of love is subtly and masterfully weaved into the story, a trait, I have noticed, unique to very few authors.
The protagonist of The Remains of the Day is very admirable in the way he accepts his station in life honourably. In fact, I have not come across a more admirable literary character for quite some time. No wonder they found no one more suitable than Anthony Hopkins to act out the character in the film adaptation of the book, but let me go back to my thread. The book serves as a reminder that whatever our occupations or positions in life, despite all our different liberties and constraints, sacrifices are inevitable, and our actions affect a grander scheme and it is required of us to do even the seemingly trivial things with the best of our abilities.
Aside from acquainting me with historical politics, the “Isighuro Duet” made me ponder on deeper issues in life. Needless to say, I loved reading the books, and Ishiguro is superb, superb, superb.
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