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A review by owlette
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
5.0
I feel like people who've read this and [b:Never Let Me Go|6334|Never Let Me Go|Kazuo Ishiguro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353048590l/6334._SY75_.jpg|1499998] like one strongly over the other, and I'm on The-Remains-of-the-Day team. I admit that Never Let Me Go's dystopian backdrop, craftily shrouded from the main story but efficaciously revealed at the most critical moments to rip the reader's heart, sets it up ahead of The Remains of the Day, which is about an aged butler, Mr. Stevens, whose most devastating secret from his past is that his old master was a Nazi sympathizer. I think the reason I like The Remains of the Day is that of the books by Kazuo Ishiguro I've read so far (the others being Never Let Me Go, the short stories collection [b:Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall|4772110|Nocturnes Five Stories of Music and Nightfall|Kazuo Ishiguro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320430211l/4772110._SY75_.jpg|4836931], and the novel, [book:An Artist of the Floating World|28922) its one in which the writer's usual floaty style takes a back seat in favor of the narrator's character. Mr. Stevens that is the narrator speaks and acts and thinks like a reserved servant (every other sentence is excused by "I assume" or "I should say"), and still it's gripping and sad. Or maybe it's gripping and sad because of it? Anyways, it's a tale about a man coming to terms with his past, about a love thwarted and about service misdirected, which sounds very similar to Never Let Me Go. Given that there are many similarities between the two work, I'm perplexed by my own love for this book over Never Let Me Go that I want to read both of them again. And any writer that makes you want to re-read their work is worth the Nobel Prize.