Klara and the Sun

All hail the sun king

This is a book which reminded me very much of the authors previous novel, Never Let Me Go. It also reminded me of 2 films, thematically speaking - Artificial Intelligence (AI - the Steven Spielberg film) and Toy Story. Its an interesting and even re-assuring read, with an element of poignancy and its somewhat thoughtful. However, it is a bit hard to fully get your head around everything depicted. I'm not great at fully understanding the symbolism of certain things but I can't say that I didn't enjoy reading it at all, regardless. There is a nice escapist feel to it. I suppose it isn't the lightest of reads but its not one of the most difficult books to read either. Its relatively short at 307 pages long.

Some aspects of the plot confused me a bit but otherwise I liked the main themes of the book and what it makes you think about, so yes, overall I would recommend it, yes.

This is one of my most anticipated books of 2021 and what a ride this book was. It was a rather quiet read but it did packed a punch and I truly feelt for Klara the robot. It was an heartfelt story and by the end of it I wanted more, wasn't really prepared to part ways with the story. Definitely a book I'll go back and re-read sometime! Highly recommend this book!

I can’t help but grade this book in some form of comparison to Ishiguro’s other works, one of which in particular (The Remains of The Day) is among my favorite works. So the rating is not to imply the novel is bad— Ishiguro is a master of craft, and this novel never lost my interest. But it does feel like a retread of some of his earlier ideas, mixed with the Spielberg film A.I. Overall, I’d say that if you’re a huge Ishiguro fan, there’s enough here to recommend checking this one out.

At the same time, what was becoming clear to me was the extent to which humans, in their wish to escape loneliness, made maneuvers that were very complex and hard to fathom, and I saw it was possible that the consequences of Morgan’s Falls had at no stage been within my control.

Klara and the Sun is, yet again, another devastating, perfect, and completely unique novel from Ishiguro. It is slightly less cohesive than

The Remains of the Day or

The Buried Giant, but Ishiguro continues to tackle difficult, intriguing themes—from loneliness and faith and the nature of the soul to artificial intelligence and

the morality of genetic editing

—with a level of nuance and emotion that I’ve never found in any other author.

Klara’s voice is, as always from Ishiguro, carefully wrought and quite intriguing. She makes keen observations, but doesn’t always have the experience to put things together—a clever way of adding subtext. Similarly, while she maintains a childlike innocence and is consistently kind and well-meaning, she’s undeniably artificial as her emotional response to certain events (

such as the revelation that Josie isn’t expected to live much longer

) feels a bit cold, perhaps because she buries deep emotions or perhaps because she doesn’t have them at all. Her narrative style isn’t as beautiful and poetic as in other Ishiguro novels (one narrative quirk is that she repeatedly uses the term “passers-by,” which for some reason I find quite charming), but that seems perfectly fitting. Cheesy as it may sound, I was reminded of (a sadder version of) the “Toy Story” franchise throughout.

I do struggle a bit to write a review of this book (and also of Ishiguro’s “The Buried Giant”) simply because there is so much to discuss and think about…so I’m not going to try to get into everything. As I’ve come to expect from him, Ishiguro asks numerous difficult questions and answers almost none of them (though on some he does seem to come down more clearly on one side of the argument than I've seen in his previous work). I will say that, for me, the most heart-rendering portion of the novel is this speech from Josie’s Mother:

Do you believe of the two of you, you’ve come out the winner? Because if that’s so, then please ask yourself this. What is it you’ve won? Take a look. Take a look at your future.’ She waved a hand at the window. ‘You played for low stakes and what you’ve won is small and mean. You may feel pretty smug just now. But I’m here to tell you, you’ve got no reason to be feeling that way. No reason at all.’

It feels like such a true and

raw moment, even while it seems like the Mother is not being truthful: for all her protest to the contrary, something in the way she speaks indicates that she does, in fact, regret the decision to get now-dead Sal and dying Josie lifted—it’s just too painful to admit

. It’s that kind of complicated character work that makes me love Ishiguro so much.

I did figure out a few of the “twists” before they were fully revealed, but I don’t care, and I don’t think Ishiguro expected them to be shocking and completely unexpected revelations. This is a novel about theme and character, not plot.

My only critique is that the situation with P-E-G Nine felt a bit forced and inelegant—though it made perfect sense for both plot and theme, and the nightmarish aftereffects are rendered quite evocatively, for the first time in any Ishiguro novel I see the hand of the author interfering in the world. Still, it’s a tiny thing, and doesn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the book or the impact it made on me.

“Klara and the Sun” is not my favorite Ishiguro novel, but it is still wonderful enough to cement him on my short list of favorite authors. I look forward to reading the rest of his work.

Some favorite passages:

Today, as I gather together these memories, it seems obvious that her hostility had to do with her larger fears concerning what might be happening around Josie. But at the time there was no easy way for me to account for her coldness.

Not only had I learned that ‘changes’ were a part of Josie, and that I should be ready to accommodate them, I’d begun to understand also that this wasn’t a trait peculiar just to Josie; that people often felt the need to prepare a side of themselves to display to passers-by – as they might in a store window – and that such a display needn’t be taken so seriously once the moment had passed.

I was glad of the chance to sit down and orient myself, and as I waited at the rough table for the Mother to return, I found the surroundings settling into order. The waterfall no longer took up so many boxes, and I watched children and their AFs passing easily from one box to another with barely any interruption.

Then she turned back and her gaze went past me, to the passers-by, the dogs and AFs. ‘Okay, Klara. Since Josie isn’t here, I want you to be Josie. Just for a little while. Since we’re up here.’

‘Well, I…Frankly, I’m surprised because Miss Helen’s request concerning Rick appears very sincere. I’m surprised someone would desire so much a path that would leave her in loneliness.’ ‘And that’s what surprises you?’ ‘Yes. Until recently, I didn’t think that humans could choose loneliness. That there were sometimes forces more powerful than the wish to avoid loneliness.’

What you have to understand is this. The new Josie won’t be an imitation. She really will be Josie. A continuation of Josie.’

Our generation still carry the old feelings. 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. But there’s nothing like that, we know that now. You know that. For people our age it’s a hard one to let go. We have to let it go, Chrissie. There’s nothing there. Nothing inside Josie that’s beyond the Klaras of this world to continue. The second Josie won’t be a copy. She’ll be the exact same and you’ll have every right to love her just as you love Josie now. It’s not faith you need. Only rationality. I had to do it, it was tough but now it works for me just fine. And it will for you.’

‘I don’t blame Paul. He’s entitled to his feelings. After Sal, he said we shouldn’t risk it. So what if Josie doesn’t get lifted? Plenty of kids aren’t. But I could never have that for Josie. I wanted the best for her. I wanted her to have a good life. You understand, Klara? I called it, and now Josie’s sick. Because of what I decided. You see how it feels for me?’

Let me ask you this. Do you believe in the human heart? I don’t mean simply the organ, obviously. I’m speaking in the poetic sense. The human heart. Do you think there is such a thing? Something that makes each of us special and individual? And if we just suppose that there is. Then don’t you think, in order to truly learn Josie, you’d have to learn not just her mannerisms but what’s deeply inside her? Wouldn’t you have to learn her heart?’

‘I think I hate Capaldi because deep down I suspect he may be right. That what he claims is true. That science has now proved beyond doubt there’s nothing so unique about my daughter, nothing there our modern tools can’t excavate, copy, transfer. That people have been living with one another all this time, centuries, loving and hating each other, and all on a mistaken premise. A kind of superstition we kept going while we didn’t know better.

I’d thought that once I was no longer observing them through glass, the theater people would become more distinct. But now I was in their midst, their figures became more simplified, as if constructed out of cones and cylinders made from smooth card. Their clothes, for instance, were devoid of the usual creases and folds, and even their faces under the streetlight appeared to have been created by cleverly placing flat surfaces into complex arrangements to create a sense of contouring.

I’m asking you, Rick, if you feel like you’ve come out the winner. Josie took the gamble. Okay, I shook the dice for her, but it was always going to be her, not me, who won or lost. She bet high, and if Dr Ryan’s right, she might soon be about to lose. But you, Rick, you played it safe. So that’s why I’m asking you. How does this feel to you just now? Do you really feel like a winner?’

‘Manager, I did all I could to learn Josie and had it become necessary, I would have done my utmost. But I don’t think it would have worked out so well. Not because I wouldn’t have achieved accuracy. But however hard I tried, I believe now there would have remained something beyond my reach. The Mother, Rick, Melania Housekeeper, the Father. I’d never have reached what they felt for Josie in their hearts. I’m now sure of this, Manager.’

‘Mr Capaldi believed there was nothing special inside Josie that couldn’t be continued. He told the Mother he’d searched and searched and found nothing like that. But I believe now he was searching in the wrong place. There was something very special, but it wasn’t inside Josie. It was inside those who loved her. That’s why I think now Mr Capaldi was wrong and I wouldn’t have succeeded. So I’m glad I decided as I did.’

This book was alright. I think the author should have had Josie die and sent the story down that route having Klara doing her best to take her place and covering parental grief along the way. The way the story played out ended up being quite dull and we've had plenty of stories about the contemplation of life and death already. Maybe having Josie dies would just be that same story stretched out though. Who knows.

A thoughtful story about what it means to be human. You will experience real affection for Klara, the robot struggling to survive in an alien world.