October 5, 2013
Although I'd previously heard of this title, as well as others by the same author, I don't know much about Ishiguro. I know that his books are very popular; I've had a hard time getting my hands on one through the local library, but I saw that they had copies of this text at the new library. I finally visited it earlier this week...the place is huge, and I hope that I have the chance next weekend to go there and take a better look around.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I was surprised that the book wasn't about Japanese people. See, "ethnic" authors tend to write about their own ethnicities, yet it's not considered unusual for a white Western author to write about people in other cultures or of other races (like with the book covered in my previous entry). Just goes to show, I guess. According to the summaries of some of his other texts at the back of this book, Ishiguro has written about Japanese characters, but also about characters from around the world. Anyway, I thought that was worth noting.
This book was published within my lifetime (when I was only two years old, I guess), and received quite a bit of acclaim. It's well-deserved. This book, told through the eyes of Mr. Stevens, a butler in mid-1950's England, touches on some of the most important themes of humanity. The most important one, I think, is feeling like what you do with your life matters. From a Marxist frame, Stevens' life was dedicated to serving the people of privilege...namely Lord Darlington (what a very proper British name!), a 'gentleman' who died with a sullied name (the story of his downfall and disgrace, as he became associated with Nazis, is told as Stevens recalls important events, certain 'turning points,' in his life). Stevens' life might be viewed as being pretty worthless...I mean, he was the servant of a man whom many people considered foolish at best. Yet it's not possible to deny that Stevens was competent at his job...as a matter of fact, he took it seriously, putting his duties above all else. Some might see that as heartless, but I find it admirable. Though Stevens can come across as being emotionally detached (because that's what was expected of him, professionally), I found him to be very likable.
His memories of Lord Darlington, as he attempts to sort through his complicated feelings for his late employer, make up half of the story. The other half involves Miss Kenton, the housekeeper at Darlington Hall for several years before she got married and left. It becomes more and more clear to the reader (even if Stevens won't allow himself to realize it) that they fell in love with each other. Miss Kenton was, at first, put off by Stevens' overly professional manners, but I think she came to admire, even love him for, his dignity when his father, a member of the house staff, died on the night of an important event at Darlington Hall. Stevens more or less keeps himself together, and he looks back on that night not with regret, but with pride.
Miss Kenton was in love with him, and much more aware of her own feelings (and of his) than he was to any of it. She was desperate to see something more human in him, which led to the scene in his office, when she finds him with a romance novel. And yet, which his explanation for reading it is characteristically professional (he was reading it to try to improve his own speech, as he knew it was an expectation for his position as the butler in a prestigious household), he does admit, in his recollecting, that he enjoyed some of the stories, too. He even expresses some of his own regrets about Miss Kenton leaving and becoming Mrs. Benn, but it seems that in his idea of an ideal life, she would have remained the housekeeper, his professional partner, for the rest of their lives. He even goes to see her in hopes of bringing her back to Darlington Hall (now occupied by a wealthy American, though only with a handful of staff members), since she'd written in a letter that she'd left her husband. Yet he had to have known that she wasn't serious...he knew that she'd left him, and gone back to him, a couple of times before.
A person may be tempted to feel very sad for Stevens. Yet however he came to be so dedicated to his work, he was happiest and most satisfied when he was performing it well. In the end, he is advised not to look back with regret. Mrs. Benn reveals that she has, indeed, returned to her husband, and though she has thought of what her life might have been like (she specifically says, what it would be like with Stevens), she knows she has a good life and must not live with regrets. On a park bench in a seaside town, when Stevens begins crying when recalling how, in spite of Lord Darlington's failures and mistakes, he himself had always done his very best by him, a stranger (a retired servant of a small household) tells him that he certainly shouldn't regret his own choices in life, and tells him to enjoy the life that he has left.
At that point, more than a decade after the war and a few years after Lord Darlington's death, Stevens knows that he is becoming old himself. He's slipping up in his work, though he attributes some of this to the smaller house staff. Yet, rather than retire, he decides to do what will make him happiest. He decides to stay on as Mr. Farraway's butler, and to try to further improve himself (he'd been agonizing over the fact that he couldn't "banter" with his employer, something that he felt might be expected of him). He, like his father, is determined to die while doing his best.
As I said, Stevens is likable, and admirable too, in a way. In Western culture, especially today, it's said that everybody wants to be famous, that everybody wants to feel special. But the reality of it is, people have to find a way to achieve greatness (or what Stevens would call dignity) in their own, often seemingly small, way. Stevens lived in a world that required butlers...that's just the way England was during that time, that's how their world functioned. The decadence of Lord Darlington's lifestyle might seem wasteful, or foolish, but there are aspects of contemporary society that are certainly the same way. Stevens had a function in his world; he did his work well, he served his purpose, and he felt proud of his work. He was doing what he'd wanted to do with his life; his father had been a butler, and he followed in his footsteps. His role was necessary. We can say the same thing for any seemingly mundane profession: working as a teacher (ahem), a garbage collector, a postal service worker, working at a grocery store, what have you. Not the paths to greatness that are glorified in our society, yet all very necessary roles. What more can a person strive for in life than to be satisfied in his or her role, in his or her contributions to society? That's something that I was taught growing up, and something that I firmly believe. And, as an American, I believe that it is my duty to as a citizen to do something productive, as I do have all of these rights and many privileges.
Now, with regards to Stevens, there's the lack of a family life to address. He reflects a couple of times on the idea of two servants running away to marry, at one point recalling the inconvenience of having to replace two staff members at once. If you've seen any of Downton Abbey (only watched some of the first season myself, kind of liked it, but obviously haven't been interested enough in continuing), or any other show featuring an English manor and many servants, you can probably guess that part of the job is not having a family of one's own, for the most part. I mean, it just wouldn't be possible in such an environment, at least not in a big manor where a person might be 'on call' or whatever around the clock. I guess that's just part of the territory, something that Stevens accepted with taking on the role of butler, the head of a large house staff, at Darlington Hall. In today's society, it's generally thought that a person should have a balance of work and play, and eventually a family would come into that. But hey, if Stevens was really satisfied with his life as it was, all things considered, then who is anybody to judge that?
Though I knew about the acclaim that this book had received, I was skeptical about reading a book about an English butler. I was, I must say, pleasantly surprised by how much I connected with the narrator. I have to admit that a part of me would want him to be with Miss Kenton, somehow, but on the other hand, how could I want him to do anything other than what made him happy, what made him feel so proud? Stevens was certainly a man of dignity, and a man of good sense. We could all learn something from Stevens about how to live a satisfying life.
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I can't tell if this is some sort of servant's manual, or just some sort of historical piece. Any way, Stevens reflects that in his earlier years, there had been regular publications and societies dedicated to the profession of domestic service, much the same way that there are organizations for the teaching profession, etc. Because it was a legitimate profession in his time, though he was considered something of a throwback by the present time of the novel.
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