Book · 1989
The Remains of the Day
by Kazuo Ishiguro
An aging butler drives across England to see an old colleague, insisting the whole way that he has no regrets about the life, or love, he didn't choose.
What does Reddit think of The Remains of the Day?
This is a one-subreddit book with spillover: 364 of 434 mentions come from r/suggestmeabook, another 65 from r/printSF, and just 5 from r/Fantasy — an odd crossover for literary fiction, but a real one. The consensus reads as close to unanimous. One commenter distills the whole premise in a sentence: Stevens "would never willingly lie to you... it just wouldn't be proper," even as his account of the past quietly falls apart (↑144). Another calls it "a masterclass in repressed emotions" and points toward Never Let Me Go for more of the same (↑90). A reader who'd dropped down to one or two books a year says this is the one that "lit a fire under me again" (↑91). The closest thing to a qualifier in the sample isn't criticism so much as a comparison, positioning it as "absolutely amazing" but less demanding than Anna Karenina (↑105). Mentions more than doubled in 2025 alone, hitting 125 against a prior high of 73.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · unreliable narrator via propriety
- · repressed love and regret
- · reignites lapsed reading habits
- · companion piece to Never Let Me Go
Common praise
- + One commenter distills the whole book in a line: Stevens "would never willingly lie to you... it just wouldn't be proper" (↑144).
- + Another calls it "a masterclass in repressed emotions" and points readers toward Never Let Me Go next (↑90).
- + A reader who'd fallen out of reading says this is the book that "lit a fire under me again" (↑91).
Common criticism
- − It barely crosses over outside literary-fiction readers — five mentions in r/Fantasy against 364 in r/suggestmeabook are as lopsided as the data gets.
- − The propriety that defines Stevens as a narrator ("he would never willingly lie to you... it just wouldn't be proper," ↑144) is also the wall between the reader and anything resembling forward momentum.
Who it's for
If you want prose that says less than it means, this delivers — the Stevens quote in the data ("he would never willingly lie to you... it just wouldn't be proper," ↑144) is the whole book in miniature. Readers coming off a reading slump might get the same jolt one commenter did, describing it as the book that "lit a fire under me again" (↑91). Compare it mentally to Never Let Me Go rather than to plot-driven fiction — one reader draws that line directly (↑90) — and expect r/Fantasy and r/printSF to have less to say about it than r/suggestmeabook does.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for The Remains of the Day?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“Literary fantasy ABSOLUTELY exists, as does literary sci-fi and literary horror. However, you probably wouldn't want a fantasy War and Peace, since that book is a slog about how much it annoyed Tolstoy that Russian people wanted to be French. Anyways. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a stunnin…
“The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
“The Remains of the Day - Ishiguro
“My go-to recommendation for this one is Ishiguro's *The Remains of the Day*. The protagonist is Stevens, a butler looking back on his decades of service. Stevens would never willingly lie to you...it just wouldn't be *proper*. But at the same time, his understanding of the past and what was really…
“The remains of the day was absolutely amazing I also read Anna Karenina which is undoubtedly one of the best novels of all time but obviously takes a lot of time and effort to read it
“1. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr 2. Babel by R. F. Kuang 3. Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro 4. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel 5. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
“After a voracious childhood, I only read one or two books a year (mostly non-fiction) for most of my teens and early twenties. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro lit a fire under me again. It really made me realise that even though I don't have the uncritical wonder that allowed me to get los…
“Kazuo Ishiguro - Remains of the Day The human condition, heart break, and a masterclass in repressed emotions. If you like this try Never Let Me Go Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis A man wakes up to find he’s turned into a cockroach - themes of anxiety, guilt and alienation. If you like this, try Th…
Convinced? Pick up The Remains of the Day
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with The Remains of the Day — counted from the comments, not curated.
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro
Three friends raised at an English boarding school slowly learn what their lives are actually for.
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry
Two aging Texas Rangers drive a stolen cattle herd a thousand miles north, hauling four decades of friendship and regret with them.
The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov
The devil throws a ball in 1930s Moscow, a man is committed to an asylum for writing a novel about Pontius Pilate, and a talking cat shoots at a chandelier.
The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoevsky
A father is murdered, three sons are suspects, and the real defendant is whether God exists.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez
The Buendía family founds a town, breeds seven generations, and repeats the same mistakes until Macondo forgets itself.
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy
A teenage runaway joins a scalp-hunting gang across the borderlands, shadowed by a hairless giant who never loses an argument.
The Remains of the Day — frequently asked
Is The Remains of the Day worth reading?+
Overwhelmingly yes, per the data. One reader calls it "absolutely amazing" (↑105), another says it "lit a fire under me again" after a years-long reading slump (↑91), and a third calls it "a masterclass in repressed emotions" (↑90). Of 434 tracked mentions, 364 come from r/suggestmeabook alone.
Is Stevens a reliable narrator in The Remains of the Day?+
No, and that's the point. One top comment (↑144) puts it precisely: Stevens "would never willingly lie to you... it just wouldn't be proper," while his account of his own past quietly comes apart under that same propriety.
What should I read after The Remains of the Day?+
Never Let Me Go, according to the most direct recommendation in the sample (↑90), which calls Remains of the Day "a masterclass in repressed emotions" and points to Ishiguro's other novel for more of the same register.
Why did mentions of The Remains of the Day spike in 2025?+
The jump is real and large — 125 mentions in 2025 against a prior high of 73 in 2023 — though the data doesn't isolate a specific cause. It's still almost entirely an r/suggestmeabook phenomenon, which accounts for 364 of the 434 total mentions.