Eh? Who? Kazuo Ishiguro?!!! Yes, him and he's just won the Nobel Prize for Literature and, dammit, he's British! OK, OK, his parents were Japanese but, with wonderful taste and discernment, they brought him here when he was just a nipper of five years of age and he has been here ever since. More than that, he has observed and studied, and perhaps assimilated, certain British traits. Perhaps, to be more accurate, they are traits found less often these days but were more prevalent in earlier times.
Now, before I go any further and to avoid any of you rascals finding me out let me admit immediately that I have never read any of Mr. Ishiguro's books! However, a few years ago I did see on TV a film made of his most famous book, The Remains of the Day which starred Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. I cannot remember much of the detail but it instantly took its place in my personal list of the Top Ten Films Ever! As I have told you all before, there are at least 46+/- such films in my Top Ten - yeeeees, quite! Anyway, the potential love affair between Hopkins and Thompson never quite happens, doomed as it is by English inability to express profound emotion. It was a bit like watching a Much Ado About Nothing in which Benedict and Beatrice actually fail to get it together!
Anyway, I am deeply grateful to the Nobel Prize Committee for providing me with a kick up the arse and I will now get on with doing what I should have done years ago and buy the bloody book! That's the Good News, the Bad News is that when I have read it I will bore you all to death with my critique!
"Buy the bloody book"...you mean SoD buys the book?
Posted by: Whitewall | Friday, 06 October 2017 at 17:12
No, I'll let him off this one because it's a novel and I'd rather have it on my Kindle. Anyway, the poor chap might give himself a hernia lifting all those other books down here!
Posted by: David Duff | Friday, 06 October 2017 at 17:21
I read Remains of the Day many years ago, and found the sideways view of politics far more interesting than the unconsummated love. (Mind you, if we're talking about the film, I'd rather not consummate anything with the perpetually annoying Emma Thompson, thanks very much.) I'd put the book in my top 200, but no higher. To paraphrase Dr. Johnson, worth reading, but not worth buying to read.
Posted by: Whyaxye | Friday, 06 October 2017 at 22:28
Kindle price is $11.99.
Posted by: TheBigHenry | Saturday, 07 October 2017 at 00:09
'W', somehow I think the Gods (and you!) are conspiring against me in my effort to read Mr. Ishiguro's book. You didn't enjoy it - and now I seem to have lost my Kindle - dammit! Perhaps I'll just buy a DVD of the film instead. By the way, I know what you mean about Ms. Thompson but she is a bloody good actress.
Posted by: David Duff | Saturday, 07 October 2017 at 10:23
I quite enjoyed her role as the plucky heroine defying a court order to clear off from private property and having a little picnic with her chums on a farmer's field. The farmer, not played by Anthony Hopkins, drove his muck spreader around them in circles and made them smell like the little shits they are.
You can catch it on YouTube.
Posted by: Timbo | Saturday, 07 October 2017 at 10:52
Timbo, you and 'W' are such a pair of old grumps! She was marvellous as Beatrice in 'Much Ado' with Kenneth Branagh.
Posted by: David Duff | Saturday, 07 October 2017 at 16:08
I can see all you luvvies stick together!
Posted by: Timbo | Saturday, 07 October 2017 at 16:52
Of course we do, you non-luvvies are the enemy, er, well, until give us a standing ovation!
Posted by: David Duff | Saturday, 07 October 2017 at 17:37
I'll send you my Kindle. I just couldn't get the hang of it.
Posted by: Andra | Saturday, 07 October 2017 at 20:50
I would have taken you up on your kind (or 'Kindle') offer, Andra, because I have been searching for mine everywhere and I was beginning to weep at the loss of all those books stored on it. But - Bingo! - yesterday I found it - guess where? On a bookshelf!!! and so instantly I knew that it was the Memsahib's fault because only she, in one of her tidying up moods would have put a Kindle on a bookshelf, the floor by my armchair would have been good enough for me!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 08 October 2017 at 09:14
https://www.steynonline.com/8163/the-remains-of-the-day
I liked the film and so did Mark Steyn.
I suppose now I will have to read the book as well.
Posted by: Peter Whale | Sunday, 08 October 2017 at 09:39
Thanks for that link, Peter, which I would urge all readers to visit. It is Mark Steyn at his very best, than which etc., etc.
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 08 October 2017 at 09:50
David,
The books you have downloaded to your Kindle are simply copies of your archived library on Amazon's servers. If you lose/destroy your Kindle (device), your archived library will still be there for downloading to another device.
Posted by: TheBigHenry | Sunday, 08 October 2017 at 17:17