Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro.

The author was born in Japan but raised in England and writes in English. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017 – the year after Bob Dylan. This book is from 1989. Merchant and Ivory made a film version in 1993 with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.

The novel is written in the first-person voice of Mr. Stevens the Butler of Darlington Hall. The framing story takes place over the course of a week in 1956 as Mr. Stevens takes a driving trip through the southwest of England, part vacation, partly with the intention of re-connecting with the former housekeeper of Darlington Hall and inviting her to return to service. During the driving trip Mr. Stevens recalls earlier years at Darlington Hall between the World Wars when his previous employer, Lord Darlington, unofficially involved himself in Foreign Affairs with Germany.

The novel’s delight is Mr. Steven’s impeccable reserve. He is cautious and hesitant in every thought and opinion.  Mr. Stevens calls it “dignity.” But his sense of what is required of a good butler leads him to completely subsume himself in the professional role, denying all other relationships or emotions. Through his own words we slowly feel the toll his attitude has taken on him, loss of family, loss of love, and eventually even the betrayal of his professional satisfaction when it turns out Lord Darlington’s diplomatic efforts, and Mr. Steven’s contributions to them, weren’t as honorable as he wanted to believe.

The book is often funny and finally heartbreaking. And while completely rejecting Mr. Steven’s life-philosophy he’s also a sympathetic character you enjoy spending a week’s driving trip with. The book reminded me of Christopher Isherwood’s, A Single Man one of my all time favorites (and coincidentally alphabetically adjacent to Remains of the Day on my bookshelf) also told in first person by a tragically repressed character in which, in the course of an ordinary day we learn a heart-breaking back story.