Title: Klara and the SunAuthor: Kazuo Ishiguro
First Published: March 2, 2021
Publisher: Knopf
Pages: 320
Genre: Metaphysical, Science Fiction
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Rating:
Synopsis:
Here is 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?
Review
Klara and the Sun is a quiet little novel about an AI and the girl that brings her home. Klara is an AF, an artificial friend, programmed to serve as a companion for children. She dreams of being specially chosen by the right child under the glow of the beloved sun, a source of energy for AFs. Klara finds a friend in Josie, a sickly girl, and her protective mother. Klara is a wholesome protagonist, childlike in her desire to understand Josie and the world that they inhabit. Where humans are involved, Klara’s idyllic life with her special child is not as simple as it seems.
The story moves along at a slow pace but I never found myself disengaged with the book at all. The plot is secondary to the powerful character work in this novel, although I have to admit that the world-building captured my attention and I was dying the entire novel to know more about what in the hell was going on behind the scenes of Klara and Josie’s story. The novel asks some pretty big questions, the things that parents do to our children for their own good, being the greatest question of all. As a mother I found myself grappling with the moral grey areas throughout the book. Readers that need to know everything and find closure will be sorely disappointed as the book does not provide many answers. I enjoyed that about the book, but it also makes the book hard to recommend.
Quote
“A part of us refuses to let go. The part that wants to keep believing there’s something unreachable inside each of us. Something that’s unique and won’t transfer.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Kazuo Ishiguro
Sir Kazuo Ishiguro OBE FRSA FRSL is a British novelist, screenwriter and short-story writer. He was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and moved to England in 1960 when he was five. Ishiguro is one of the most celebrated contemporary fiction authors in the English-speaking world.
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