The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day is the story of a reserved man who gets cracked open, and a tender evocation of world long since gone.  It is also a road trip and a fictional memoir.  The road trip takes place in the 1950s, while the memoir covers the interwar period.  Ishiguro has done a masterly job of exploring  issues of social class, deportment, service, emotions, loyalty and remembrance.   

Stevens, the protagonist, was a servant and then head butler to Lord Darlington between the two world wars.  After the Second World War ended, Lord Darlington passed away and his estate was sold to an American business man, Mr Farraday, who retains Stevens as his butler.  One day, Mr Farraday tells Stevens to have a week off, take the car and get out to see the English countryside.  

Stevens decides to drive to the West Country.  He does this for several reasons, one of them being to visit Mrs Benn, from whom he has recently received some personal letters. Twenty years earlier, Mrs Benn (then Miss Kenton) had been the head house-keeper in Darlington Hall. Stevens suspects Mrs Benn may want to return to her former employment.

The book, then, is split into two narratives: one detailing the trip to the West Country; the other being a memoir of Stevens' time serving Lord Darlington.  The narratives contrast in several ways.  The former recounts the present day experiences of an aging Stevens and his encounters with people of his own class; the latter mainly concerns Stevens as a younger man and his service to Lord Darlington, a self-appointed amateur diplomat, and his distinguished guests (including Winston Churchill and Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Nazi Foreign minister).

In telling his memoir, Stevens puts forward his thoughts on what makes a great butler.  He tells us it consists of dignity and reserve, of being able to subordinate one's personal feelings to the greater purpose of service.  Through his recollections, Stevens makes it clear (perhaps unintentionally) that he had all but dehumanised himself by the unflinching application of his philosophy.

The road trip, however, works changes upon Stevens.  The change is almost imperceptible for most of the novel - Stevens still clings to dignity and reserve as the best methods for dealing with the world; but the world has changed, and Stevens is venturing into new territory, both literally and figuratively.  All of this works upon him, and eventually something occurs that cracks him open.  Even this late in his life, Stevens realises the possibility of changing, and changing for the better.

Stevens unwittingly presages the need for change very early in the novel when he accepts the necessity of the alterations Mr Farraday makes in the affairs of Darlington Hall.  He tells us:

Now naturally, like many of us, I have a reluctance to change too much of the old ways. But there is no virtue at all in clinging as some do to tradition merely for its own sake.

Near the end of the story, Stevens says:

... I should cease looking back so much, that I should adopt a more positive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day ... particularly if it is the case that in ********* lies the key to human warmth.

If you want to find out ********* is, you will have to read the book.