Book Review : 'The Remains of the Day', by Kazuo Ishiguro

Date of purchase : Tuesday, 31st October, 2017
Date of reading : Sunday, 31st December, 2017

<Main chracters>
Mr Stevens : The Narrator/a butler
Miss Kenton : former housekeeper
Lord Darlington : former employer
Mr Farraday : current employer from America

'The Remains of the Day', by Kazuo Ishiguro tells a story of an English Butler, Mr Stevens, who reminisces about his past as he goes through a few days trp to West Country. He thinks of his former employer-Lord Darlington-, foremr housekeeper-Miss Kenton, and many affairs associated with them.

He keeps emphasizing professionalism as he narrates. I have to admit it seems nice at first as Mr Steven tried to be sincere in his work and to his employer, only to find out how foolish and ignorant he has been.

I was angry and indignant most of the time when he remineces about occasions with Miss Kenton. It sometimes looked that he was sort of psychopath who was not able to empathize with human.

Lord Darlington he had looked up to was not a man who he desperately believeed to be - rather most foolish. A love came and slipped through him while he genuinly believed that suppressing one's feelings is an admiring trait a butler must have acquire.

Indignant as I was, maybe I see some similarities that I have gone through. Vanity, fooling myself, and escaping reality.

Book Review : "Never Let Me Go", by Kazuo Ishiguro

Date of Reading : Sunday, 24th December, 2017
Date of Purchase : Thursday, 26th October, 2017
Purchase of Location : Kyobo bookstore offline
Reading of Location : Cafe HeungShinSoh near Hangyang University

******** Be aware that there are some spoliers in thsi review ********

<Main Characters>

Kathy : Narrator and main protagonist 

Ruth : Kathy's cloesest friend

Tommy : A male donor and friend of Kathy and Ruth.

Miss Emily : Headmistress of Hailsham

Madame(Marie Claude) : A female who visits Hailsham regularly and collects some of the best art works.

 I came across 'Kazuo Ishiguro' September or October 2017 when the media made a huge fuss about his being nominated for Nobel price in literature. After a few weeks later, I visited Kyobo in Gwang-Hwa-Moon and saw his books displayed at the most freuquented spot. I bought "Never Let Me Go" and "The Remains of the Day" there.

 The first impression I got from his way of writing is he understands a human mind which is a fundamental qualification to be a great writer. He describes what and how we feel in plain words with simplicity, but I know this is the most difficult thing to acheive as writer.

 Speaking of the book, it tells a world with clones who should donoate their vital organs until they complete, which means death. Main characters are raised to be a donor at Hailsham. They are trained by guardians to learn art and other various subjects. Especially, art is the most important subject they should master and some of the best works are selected by Madame, Marie-Claude. Later, this confuses them very much because what they are trained to learn seems practically pointless if all clones would become donors anyway.

 Young Tommy suggests a theory why guardians emphasizes art so much and Madame collects their best drawing or poetry to Gallery. There is some rumor that donors can 'deferral' if two donors are in love. 'Deferral' means thay can be granted a few extra years to live with each other without donating their vital organs. Tommy's theory is that art is thought to reveal a soul and their arts collected will act as evaluation guideline to prove their being in love. This theory arises again when adult Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy meet again and Tommy's theory proves to be partly correct.

 It was partly correct because there has never been such a thing like 'deferral'. Tommy is about to face 'fouth donation' soon. Most donors complete at third donation, and some even at second. This means Tommy will definitely complete after fourth donation. Ruth gave them the address of Madame before she completed. Kathy and Tommy decided to go and see Madame to talk to her about 'deferral'. They meet miss Emily in her house. Miss Emily explains everything the reason why they are trained at all. This is a part of ther conversation in the book :

'Why did we do all of that work in the first place? Why train us, encourage us, make us produce all of that? If we're just going to give donations anyway, then die, why all those lessons? Why all those books and discussions?'

'Why Hailsham at all?' 

'You said it was because your art would reaveal what were like. What you were like inside. That's what you said, wasn't it? Well, you weren't far wrong about that. We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.'

'Why did you have to prove a thing like that, Miss Emily? DId someone think we didn't have souls?

'It wasn't something commonly held when we first set out all those years ago. And though we've come a long way since then, it's still not a notion universally held, even today.'

 On the way back to Kingsfield hospital by car, Tommy wants some air and Kathy pulls up the car. After a few minutes, she hears a man's scream. Kathy describes the scene: I caught a glmpse of his face in the moonlight, caked in mud and distorted with fury, then I reached for his flailing arms and held on tight. He tried to shake me off, but I kept holding on, until he stopped shouting and I felt the fight go out of him. Then I realized he too had his arms around me. And so we stood together like that, at the top of that field, for what seemed like ages, not saying anything, just holding each other, while the wind kept blowing and blowing at us, tugging our clothes, and for a moment, it seemed like we were holding onth each ohter because that was the only way to stop us being wept away into the night.

 Kathy told Tommy that he might have always knwon at some level and maybe it was the reason he used to give tantrums like that. Tommy says it might be true he knew somewhere deep down.

 Kathy danced in an empty classroom at Hailsham. There was a song which went: 'Baby, baby, never let me go'. She imagines there is a woman who's been told she couldn't have babies, who'd really wanted them all ger life. Then, there's a sort of miracle and she has a baby. Eyes closed she is dancing as if she was holding a baby, so pleased that ever so tightly to her breast. At the end of the book, while she is passing by Norfolk she imagines a little fantasy : I half-closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I'd ever lost since my childhood had washed up, and I was now standing here in front of it, and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across the field, and gradually get larger until I'd see it was Tommy, and he'd wave, maybe even call. The fantasy never got beyond that because she didn't let it. Tears rolled down her face and she drives off to whereever it is she is supposed to be.

BOOK REVIEW : "Nothging to be frightened of", by Julian Barnes

place of purchase : Kyobo bookstore in Shin Nonhyun

Date of purchase : probably Thursday, 26th October, 2017

Date of reading : Saturday, 16th December, 2017

place of last reading : cafe nearby Hanyang university

For a few months, Barnes caught my attention, and I decided to concentrate on his books. 'The sense of an Ending' was my first and made me love him. The second was 'The Noise of Time' which was also interesting. But, I could not finish reading 'Nothing To Be Frightened of'. I tried, but failed. 

This book can be categorized as non-fiction. It tells about his history, memoir. It tells about his belif, mentality, and principle. And unfortuantely, I could not concentrate on reading. It did not trigger my curiosity.

Perhaps, if I had read this book straight in 2 or 3 days, I might have finished it. But, I read this book mainly in subway during my commute, the lack of continuity and connection between pages made it almost impossible for me to extract a single interesting point from this book.

There is one line that got my attention, though. "What the novel does is it tells beautiful, shapely lies which enclose hard, exact truths." I completely agree on it. A novel contain stories, episodes which have not actually happned, but are based on reality. I say a novel is a mirror of our reality mixed with comedy and tragedy.

Review of "The Noise of Time", by Julian Barnes : People should think about death more often.

Date of reading : 9th December, 2017.
Location : cafe 'Heung Shin Soh'

*SPOLIER WARNING*

I finished reading The Noise of Time today in a cafe nearby where I am living now. I expect to move in half a month to a place near where I will work as of next Monday(11th Dec).

I bought this book right after I finished "The Sense of an Ending", by Julian Barnes.
Why? Because The Sense of an Engding made a huge impact on me.
https://sohnamu.blogspot.kr/2017/11/book-review-sense-of-ending-by-julian.html 
My previous review on the sense of an ending.

Unfortunately, I couldn't fully concentrate on The Noise of Time. I usually read this book in a waiting room before a job interview or in a train while going there. And I want to re-read this book the next early year.

Anyhow, I did not know that this book is based on actual history about Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich until I saw Author's note after finishing the book. I thought this was a fiction about the history of an artist.

As I said, this book tells a story, history, of Dmitriyevich Shostakovich. During his life, 1906-1975, time was difficult in Russia in terms of poilitics - Stalin, Lenin. Power was not very fond of his music, and many artists were literally wiped out by a whim of a tyrant.

From the beginning to the end of his career, Power never stopped having an interest in his music either in a negative or positive way. In the early times, he was afraid of physical threat such as torture and death. In his old age, Power adopted a different tactic - nagging and pestering until agreement. He succumbed to it eventually and lament it, saying that 'People should think about death more often, and accustom themselves to the notion of it. Just letting it creep up on you unnoticed was not the best way to life. It was his belief that if we thought about death earlier in our lives, we would make fewer mistakes.' He regret that he has lived too long and let power kills his soul instead of his body which he believes would have been much better.

Basically, The Noise of Time is about his career, love, and life based on historical facts.

Great writers have a deep understanding of human mind. Shakespeare master of human soul. Jane Austen. They have a special ability to tell a ordinary and common things in a most extraordinary way. It is all about how you say it rather than what you say. I believe Julian Barnes belongs to one of them. It is fascinating to read his writing.

I do not think The Noise of Time itself is an interesting book. However, anyone who likes to hear a storytelling will love this book because his book is always worth reading it.

My next book by Julian Barnes will be "Nothing to be frightened of" and "Levels of life".

Essay one : Why I live

 

 AT least once a day the question, 'why I live', hangs around in me.

The core reason is because I do not want to be swayed by random moments.

If a man has a sense of existence, he is in no danger of being lost.

I am fully familiar with how frustrating it is to be just taken by tides of fate in life.

That is what I have been through, and I will if I am not to be serious.

Above all, everyone has a motive reasonable and sensible to hold in order to keep going forward.

 EVERYDAY I fight against temptation. Few have I won against it. Little did I try. 

Regret has always been a constant. I felt helpless. I despised my inability to be serious.

I talked to myself that it was time to change, really. In the end, I rationalize my actions and convinced myself I would make a progress next time. 

 SO far, my fight was a complete defeat. Sometimes it seemed it cannot be defeated. I already told myself that I would change more than million times. Even at this time of moment I am writing this, temptation visits me.

 PERHAPS, the sense of my existence could be to find an answer to 'why i live'. Well, some says life is not destination but journey. I would like to believe this.

 There is one principle I hold and keep to myself. I must find a quiet mind. Following what my mind believe is right is the only way to have a quiet mind. It involves conscience, righteousness, and sensibility. So I will be persistent to be philosophical, righteous, and sensible.

"ASK ME", by William Stafford

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"Some time when the river is ice ask me mistakes I have made. 
Ask me whether what I have done is my life.  
Others have come in their slow way into my thought, 
and some have tried to help or to hurt: 
ask me what difference their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look at the silent river and wait.
We know the current is there, hidden; 
and there are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say."

by William Stafford

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It is my favorite poem in English.

I don't remember when and how exactly it was known to me.

William Stafford was a prolific poet who wrote almost everyday.

It is said that one day some student asked him about the secret to be prolific,

and he said you can do it if you keep your standard low.

He seems a wise man to me.

I think one of my problems is I am obsessed with 'doing things well'.

Some could call it 'fear to failure', possibly; I agree.

시조 : 침류대, 복사꽃 - 이수광

울 옆엔 맑은 시냇물,
그 위엔 누대가 서있고
대 앞에는 가득히 복사꽃이 만발했네.
꽃잎을 은밀하게 흐르는 물에 띄워보내지 말라.
어부가 찾아들까 염려되나니.

-이수광