Book Review

The Remains of the Day
by Kazuo Ishiguro

I loved reading this book - Ishiguro's writing is extremely fine. The Remains of the Day is the narrative of Stevens, a middle-aged English butler reminiscing about his life and career as the head butler for Lord Darlington during the first half of the 20th century. Stevens is an incredibly well-drawn character - his voice is beautifully vivid. He's a wonderfully rich and complex person underneath his professional demeanour. Similarly, the narrative itself has a kind of surface simplicity that both belies and illuminates what's going on underneath this surface. This interplay and contrast between the surface and its undercurrents is what makes this novel brilliant.

Curses!

Since mid-January when I got all my grad school applications done, I have allowed myself a vacation from composing and such. I kept up with piano practicing and prepared for the Oregon GTF test, but that was it. Since the beginning of March, I've been raring to go as far as getting back into serious work. But dammit, I've pretty much been sick since then and haven't been able to get back into it. First I had to contend with a "mild" bout of salmonella poisoning - I'll think twice before ordering a chicken salad sandwich from a take out place again. (Luckily, I was still able to visit zfarcher last weekend and have at least a few forkfuls of his delicious mac and cheese.) Now that my digestive ills are mostly cleared up, though, I've come down with a cold. So composing is being put off for a few days more. Which is frustrating, because I have two very exciting projects to work on.