"Klara and the Sun, the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her.
Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love?
In its award citation in 2017, the Nobel committee described Ishiguro's books as "novels of great emotional force" and said he has "uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.""
Ish returns to central questions about the nature of humanness using his simple style, the tool of the removed narrator, and, most importantly, as he did in Never Let Me Go a setting in the near future where he uses an aspect of technology as a magnifying glass. If we create a true artificial intelligence, what will it think about to itself? What will it see about us that we do not see ourselves? How will we use it? How will we discard it, as we discard everything that we have no immediate use for?
An introspective, meditative novel that sacrifices maybe a bit too much world building and exposition to provide instead reflections of reflections of the themes it actually wants to tackle when it comes to society and technology. I think I ultimately disagree with the points it's trying to make, but I can't really be sure what those points are, or if there's a degree of cowardice in never saying them out loud because they'd be revealed to be of the "old man yelling at cloud" variety. Regardless, I really enjoyed the protagonist, Klara really propels the book forward from beginning to end, and the plot has a nice cadence that kept the momentum going for me.
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 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.
