Reader’s Note
I was the only one who didn't.
by@bookclubdropoutWritten 17 April 2026Read 13 April 2026
Everybody else: gorgeous, restrained, devastating, etc. Deborah called it the most controlled novel she has ever read, and she has read, at a conservative estimate, four hundred novels. Bridget cried at the pier — properly cried, in a library room, and then apologised for crying, which felt like a joke the book itself would have appreciated.
Me, I spent the entire thing wanting to shake him. I know. I know that's the design, I know the whole apparatus is built so you sit there watching a man decline to say one sentence, and I could feel the machinery working on me, and all I kept thinking was: say it, say something, ask her a question.
Bridget's counter was that if he could say it he wouldn't be him and there'd be no novel. Fair enough. I still didn't enjoy the experience of reading it, and I've decided that's allowed to count for something.
Six from me, which caused a scene, and Deborah has put it on the list to be revisited in two years to see whether I've grown as a person.
About this book
The Remains of the DayKazuo IshiguroIn the Margins
The Remains of the Day reviewed by @theodore_p
Fifteen years I had this filed under exquisite and cold, and the thing that corrected me was one sentence about bantering.10 out of 10@theodore_p
The Remains of the Day reviewed by @margaretreads
Have you ever watched somebody rehearse an apology they will never make? That's Stevens, the whole of him. I put it down at the pier and sat for a while. My only quarrel is with Miss Kenton's letters, which I never quite believed.9 out of 10@margaretreads
The Remains of the Day reviewed by @quietcarriage
Had to stop reading it in public because I could feel my face doing something. Finished it at home with the lamp on, which I never do. Stevens counting up his life in a car park at Weymouth — no.10 out of 10@quietcarriage
The Reading Room
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