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To serve with all you have.

In her review of The Maid and The Remains of the Day, Andrea Kinsmith expresses gratitude to those who take pride in providing impeccable service.

Oct 25, 2023


Words: Andrea Kinsmith

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The Maid by Nita Prose and The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro are two novels that read very differently. Yet, while one would be considered ‘light’ fiction and the other literary fiction, the novels both feature protagonists obsessed with providing perfect service.

Molly the maid is obsessed with cleaning rooms to a “state of perfection”, without even a fingerprint to be seen. Stevens, the butler in Kazou’s Remains, strives to provide perfect, seamless service to his master – service that consistently exceeds the highest standards of professionalism.

“Imagine a society where serving others to the highest standard is considered honourable rather than lowly.”

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The Maid is no page-turning crime thriller. It’s a gentle mystery scattered with clues to decipher alongside Molly, the main character – and a truly delightful one at that.

Molly doesn’t always understand social cues and can take things quite literally, but she is honest, loyal and a brilliant cleaner. The values, taught to her by her ‘dear Gran’, make her honest to a fault and give her a quaint, old-world feel.

It’s her sense of moral obligation and attention to detail that makes her such an excellent cleaner at the Regency Grand Hotel... and also the perfect unnoticed detective.

Molly’s life is turned upside down on the day that she enters Mr Black’s room, only to find her guest is dead.

Because Molly, in the eyes of some, is only a maid and therefore not very important, she becomes an easy scapegoat. Her lack of social understanding at times contributes to her apparent guilt. So, it’s up to Molly to figure out what really happened at the Regency Grand to clear her name.

While not everyone is honest – it is a mystery, after all – The Maid introduces some wonderful characters, a few of whom reappear in Nita Prose's second book, The Mystery Guest, where we delve deeper into Molly's backstory and that of Mr Preston, the doorman.

On the other hand, The Remains of the Day is more of an introspective story.

Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, is driving out to the country to speak with a housekeeper he once worked with, and now realises that he loved.

During the six-day excursion, Stevens thinks back on his life of service. He is very proud of his excellent work, doing all that could be done to make things go smoothly for his master, especially for important meetings with heads of state. Stevens wants to believe that, through his unquestionable loyalty and devotion to the causes of his master, he must matter too.

But as the memories unfold and the story is further revealed, we find out that his master was unfortunately influenced, and the decisions that he began making were awry, leaving Stevens to wonder whether it was all worth it.

I love how the act of serving others with excellence is treated in such a dignified way in this pair of stories. Imagine a society where serving others to the highest standard is considered honourable rather than lowly. Unfortunately, our current society tends to link a person's value to their income. If only our society honoured those who serve others, those being served would be honestly grateful. Not everyone will enjoy cleaning as much as Molly, and not everyone will feel as proud as Stevens to provide seamless service but, thankfully, there are people that do, and we can be thankful for them.

Both The Maid and The Remains of the Day remind us to appreciate outstanding service and, more importantly, to value the 'invisible' people who often provide this service in modern society.

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