I just finished Kazuo Ishiguro's sixth novel yesterday. Nearly all the elements seem simple--vocabulary, diction, plot, etc.--and they are, as such; however, these simple units make up an interesting and surprisingly complex whole. I haven't read any of Ishiguro's other stuff yet, but I will definitely give The Remains of the Day a try (since I already own it, but my borderline perverse bibliophily is another matter altogether...).

The narrator--an early thirty-something named Kathy H.--recalls the events of her childhood at an institution called Hailsham. Her two closest friends, Ruth and Tommy, figure as heavily into the novel as Kathy does, and it is within the ostensible minutiae that dictates life for these three that it becomes increasingly evident that they are not the same as you or me. Ishiguro's talent for detail is impressive, especially since he's forced to work within the first-person narrative framework of a woman decades younger than he is.

Frighteningly, it takes a while to realize that the narrator and her friends are all clones. As the secrets of their lives unfold through the eerily cool voice of Kathy, who knows nothing outside of life as a man-made copy, the novel works its way toward a sad, visceral truth: these three, along with all their friends, must "donate" their vital organs at the prime of their physical lives. One of the most depressing episodes occurs when a group of these cloned children search after Ruth's "possible"--that is, the woman whose double she might be.

All that said, I am not one for outright moralizing in literature; however, I don't think Ishiguro is at all guilty of that here. He has painted an interesting portrait of what science might do to us if we refuse to acknowledge the uniqueness of life, but he has done it in such a way that it is neither sappy, trite, nor cheap. It is often beautiful and moving and it refuses to make decisions for the reader which, I happen to believe, is one of the most significant things literature can strive for. It is certainly worth a read, and I look forward to taking up more of Ishiguro's stuff when time permits.