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.

The first time I read Klara and the sun (2021), I was still working on a project on artificial intelligence (AI). I picked up the novel again after reading [b:Never Let Me Go|56252373|Never Let Me Go|Kazuo Ishiguro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1607717995l/56252373.SY75.jpg|1499998] (2005), which touches upon the same theme in a different way. It struck me that Kazuo Ishiguro is more of a science fiction writer than I realised.

The story begins in a shop for artificial friends – a combination of robotics and AI designed to assist humans – where Klara stands out as curious and observant. Such traits apparently do not apply to all robots, but come in handy when Klara eventually ends up with Josie and ‘the Mother’. Josie has a strange illness as a result of her ‘lifting’: in order to upgrade people, children from wealthier families are genetically edited to become smarter. The inevitable gap between the haves and the have-nots becomes visible in Josie’s friendship with her neighbour Rick, who threatens to lag behind in the school system.

Ishiguro excels at writing through the eyes of others, in this case children and algorithms. When Klara first enters her new house, for example, she perceives the living room as a ‘network’ of rectangles and objects. Unfortunately, Ishiguro is not consistent in this regard. Due to his humanoid approach to AI, modelling robots after organic beings, he tends to mix up artificial and human intelligence. Klara can be ignorant and constraint, or show a high level of self-efficacy and moral insight; her cognitive and emotional intelligence fluctuate.

Overall, I liked the interaction between humans and robots best. Ishiguro raises questions about human uniqueness and the possibilities of technology. Towards the end, I found the novel less and less interesting. The side-line story about Klara’s obsession with the sun was too far-fetched. (Why did it remind me of [b:Chanson douce|38642304|Chanson douce|Leïla Slimani|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1519118237l/38642304.SY75.jpg|52236126]?) I could also have done with less antipathetic mothers.

Es una novela con tintes de ciencia ficción, pero con un claro enfoque más profundo. Se trata de la vida de Klara, una androide AA (amiga artificial), que es más observadora que sus pares, más inteligente y empática.
Desde la tienda de androides, ella demostró siempre mucho interés por comprender los distintos comportamientos humanos, los cuales podía observar desde el escaparate del lugar. En ese sector podía además recibir sin obstáculos los rayos del sol, su fuente de energía, que significaba mucho más para ella, como si se tratara de un regalo de un ser sobrenatural.
Finalmente consigue dejar la tienda siendo comprada como compañía de una niña llamada Josie, quien está fascinada con ella y le advierte que posee una salud deteriorada. A pesar de esto, Klara pasa los mejores momentos en su compañía, conoce a su familia, a su amigo Rick, y a la vez aprende a leer las actitudes de cada personaje que rodea a su niña, incluso los pensamientos y cambios de comportamiento que la misma Josie tiene.
Con los altibajos en la salud de Josie, y las opciones que se barajan a su alrededor frente a las pocas esperanzas de vida que niña posee, Klara decide hacer algo al respecto, desde su tierna y hasta infantil perspectiva, pero con la convicción de que la salvará.

Narrada a través de los ojos de Klara, que trata de poner en palabras cada nuevo concepto aprendido, acerca de la mente y el corazón de las personas, esta historia enternece al tratar de explicar, de alguna manera, qué nos hace humanos.
Es súper tierna, algo lenta al principio y con un final un poco abrupto a mí gusto, pero eso es lo que hace que la historia funcione.

Klara and the Sun is a quick yet fun read about an AF (Artificial Friend) and her relationship with her child, Josie.

Though I enjoyed the prose and the way the plot played out, I was hoping for more depth in the characters. I thought much more could have been done with Klara's character and the individuals whose lives she touched. Some of the interactions were fleshed out, but a great majority fell short; I would have liked to see more of Klara and the Mother's relationship because it seemed like there was room for more than what was represented. On another note, Rick's storyline didn't seem necessary. Sure, his role in the novel affects Klara and Josie, but I felt the book could have done something similar without his existence.

Overall, I found the reading experience enjoyable and plan to give Ishiguro's other works a read sometime in the near future. I just don't think the novel's overarching themes reached their full potential.