I don't read many novels, and those I read are usually SF/F, so this was a departure for me. I haven't seen the movie either, so I didn't know much going in, but I thought I'd give it a chance.

Does everyone already know the premise? It's about an aging butler in 1950s England going on a motoring trip to visit a former colleague with whom he has much unfinished personal business. It seems to be written as a letter either to the reader or to an unnamed friend, describing the journey and interspersed with reminiscences of his former life in the employ of a gentleman who greatly influenced the course of foreign policy after the Great War, and reflections on the meaning of it all.

Today this is the kind of writing you might expect from a particularly literary and performative blog, combining travelogue with personal narratives and confessions. Occasionally the narrator refers to "you" -- the reader who is presumed to have some familiarity with the things he speaks of, but who is in some sense absent, theoretical... Stevens knows (hopes?) his words may be read, so the style is not that of a diary, but he is nonetheless ultimately writing to himself.

The narration is highly formal in tone, with many convoluted sentences and nested clauses, almost to the point of being funny at first -- practically a stereotype of how an old English butler should write. But we quickly learn that the author is smarter than that. He knows acutely what he is doing, and has never-wavering control of it.

( No real plot spoilers, but more in-depth discussion )

It's a short novel, and in some ways has the feel of a short story. Despite the initial illusion of meandering, it's actually quite focused, and was probably edited fiercely by the author. There is nothing out of place. As a writer, I admire the craft of this book very much.

If that seems like damning with faint praise, it may be a little. It's a good novel and I can't think of anything it did wrong, but it didn't quite "speak to me". I enjoyed it, but I didn't have trouble putting it down when it was time to go to bed. Just not my genre, maybe. I may give the author's other books a try.

(tags: a: ishiguro kazuo, japanese-english, england)