Klara and the Sun

Read this mostly as a bedtime read, which it was good for - pretty easy and not too creepy (although slightly unsettling at times). It nodded to a few things that piqued my interest (AI, eco-sabotage, transhumanism?) But didn't really flesh out any of them, they were mostly just a vibe/backdrop for the story of the characters, which was fine. Ive really enjoyed some books that explore human-robot interactions - marge piercey's body of glass comes to mind - but this didn't quite do it for me in terms of making my brain stretch around those questions of how we relate to machines. Which I don't think was the point of the book, I think the point was to build the world up from the perceptions of the narrator (an android) and that part was done quite well.

Overall a totally fine read and well-written but just didn't scratch anything super interesting in my brain.

¿Cómo definir Klara y el Sol?
Quizá sea una novela de anticipación.
Ishiguro ha logrado aquí, en mi humilde opinión, la perfección en la sencillez.
Narra un panorama inquietante pero lo hace bellamente, porque lo narra desde la luminosa mirada de Klara, una "niñoide" (creo que he inventado una palabra) del tamaño de un hobbit y el pelo a lo bob, dotada de una verdadera inteligencia artificial programada para ser sensible y amable compañera de juegos de una niña, una de lo que sería la "clase media" del futuro cercano.
Inocente y amable, Klara nos muestra lo que ve y a través de sus ojos conocemos su mundo, uno vivo, humano y jodidamente posible. De alguna manera, la novela consigue ser realista, quizá porque incluye también lo maravilloso.
No os esperéis aventuras ni cosas espectaculares o grandilocuentes. Es entre sus líneas donde Ishiguro nos muestra el terror. Uno verdadero, cotidiano, que puede llegar a pasar. Y a través de él, sin acritud, nos conmina, irremediablemente, a pensar sobre qué futuro queremos para nuestros hijos.

Todo es cuestión de gustos, claro está, pero este es, desde luego, un gran libro.

Klara and the Sun is a bittersweet book about an Artificial Friend, the lengths parents go to and what makes us human. It is also possibly a cautionary tale on not topping up your vitamin D in winter, but maybe I feel that way as we creep out of winter and remember what the sun feels like…

To Klara, the Sun is almost godlike. He provides her nourishment, implying that she’s solar powered, but she also thinks she sees the Sun bring a homeless man back to life. This event shapes Klara’s belief over the rest of the book.

It’s told in first person narrative from Klara’s point of view, and she is naïve but lovely. She’s been designed to hang out with kids, to be a good influence on them, although Josie is a teenager, old enough that Klara much watch over her and Rick for fear of hanky-panky. Klara really does care for Josie, above all others. She is her purpose in life, so when she ails, Klara must find a way to help.

Klara may be an older model, but she is very perceptive, learning how to read the humans closest to her. She tries to work people out, to better understand them and make sure she does the best job she can.

There is also a story of class divides, the haves and have nots. Josie’s friend, Rick, has not been “lifted” and he is viewed with suspicion because of this. He is treated as a second-class citizen, not eligible for most universities despite his intelligence and skills. It’s easy to guess what being lifted involves, and it is revealed briefly later on, but what is important is that it creates a divide in society.

I wasn’t too keen on what happened with Rick’s mother, there’s a scene that’s just awkward and I’m not sure of the relevance. She is trying her best to give Rick an advantage, or make him have slightly less disadvantage, yet she is made out to be the bad one in the scene. Maybe she shouldn’t have done what she did but who can blame her.

I suppose with both Rick’s mother and Josie’s father, these characters are barely known by Klara. Her knowledge is childlike, so when something is revealed about them that seems sudden, it may just be that she’s been shielded from this, or just not been privy to what they’re really like. I did find these things jarring though, and not necessarily all that important to have included.

First posted at Curiosity Killed the Bookworm.