"If someone mentions the Cottages today, I think of easy-going days drifting in and out of each other's rooms, the languid way the afternoon would fold into evening then into night. I think of my pile of old paperbacks, their pages gone wobbly, like they'd once belonged to the sea. I think about how I read them, lying there on my front in the grass on warm afternoons. . ."
(pg. 119)
I'm usually not the one too keen on the images in a book or long narratives that usually don't depict anything important. However, the way Ishiguro uses imagery in this book is really fascinating. As Kathy describes her transition to the new setting among the cottages, I can really imagine just what it is like there. The cottages, being somewhat of a high school or college, become the new setting for Kathy's extended frame story of her childhood. She begins to explain the next phase of her life that takes place here, and thanks to the magnificent imagery, I can adjust to the new setting with a clear mental image of what it is truly like. The new laid-back lifestyle among the cottages is conveyed very well among the images of "drifting in and out of each others' rooms" or the "easy-going days" described in the quote. The imagery above sets the tone for a new slower-paced life that Kathy is now entering. Though the author does not come out and clearly state the shift in the pace of her life, it can easily be picked up among the new tone created among these vivid details.
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