2017 Nobel Prize for Literature winner Kazuo Ishiguro might never have won the prize if it weren’t for music legend Tom Waits, whose gritty voice and masterly craftsmanship sunk into Ishiguro’s brain when he was writing his most famous novel, The Remains of the Day. Ishiguro has always been candid about his many and various influences. And while most writers readily admit the formative influences of, say, a Shakespeare, Tolstoy or Emily Dickinson, influences from other genres often get short shrift. (Fun exception: Hemingway used to say he wanted to write landscapes the way Cezanne painted them.)
Ishiguro wrote in 2014 about a major decision he made in completing The Remains of the Day, his masterpiece of decorum, repression, honor and “concealed tragic romanticism.” It wasn’t until he heard Waits singing “Ruby’s Arms” (video below) one night that Ishiguro made a fateful decision about his main character, Stevens the butler. Ishiguro describes hearing Waits sing the song that will sound familiar to anyone who has read The Remains of the Day or seen Anthony Hopkins’ indelible portrayal of Stevens on film. Ishiguro writes:
“There comes a moment, when the singer declares his heart is breaking, that’s almost unbearably moving because of the tension between the sentiment itself and the huge resistance that’s obviously been overcome to utter it.”
