Book Review: Klara And The Sun.
Some of the reviews of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel Klara and the Sun speak of love and of the meaning of love when the story is more a testament to human selfishness and the opposite of love. Yes, love with the two teenagers Rick and Josie who Klara connects with but as an artificial humanoid she is treated like any piece of household equipment and can be discarded when not needed. However, Klara recognises love and friendship in the humans she serves or observes during her life in the showroom and later as Josie’s Artificial Friend or AF. Written in the first person by Klara the story is set in a future where children are routinely genetically enhanced or ‘lifted’, so as to increase their intelligence and better prospects of gaining a college place and a good career. Some like Josie have health problems as a result and that’s where the AFs come in as a means of support as a friend and general helper. Klara like all AFs is programmed to fulfil this role but unlike the more superior AF B3s she develops a greater sense of empathy and understanding of human emotions making her special.
Like some of the protagonists in Kazuo Ishiguro’s other novels Klara is in some ways an unreliable narrator as she tells her story from only her point of view. She is programmed to serve and as such is compliant to her controllers – the store’s manager and later Josie and her mother – but develops her own opinions of the various characters and her near religious believe in the healing power of the sun. This is in part due to her reliance on solar power to keep her active but also in her misunderstanding of how the universe works which the humans fail to explain to her.
Kazuo Ishiguro’s brilliantly clear and simple prose brings to life artificial humanoid Klara in a futuristic world of genetically enhanced children although apart from these innovations the people and their surroundings sound the same as ever – selfish and materialist. Apart from The Father who seemed to think violence and civil war was likely the ordinary day to day lives of the shoppers, the farmers and the road workers with their Cootings Machine and the office staff in the RPO Building seem no different from today.
Although a very straightforward and easy to read novel there is a continual doubt as to where the story is going as we discover Josie’s family has a tragic past. Would Klara intervene in the lives of Josie, the Mother, Rick and Rick’s mother more or would the eccentric Mr Capaldi and his sculpture of Josie somehow become a threat. And then there was Mother’s ex-boyfriend the very unhelpful Mr Vance and his bitterness at their breakup and the interfering and argumentative Josie’s dad. The concerns they all had and their bickering and arguments about what was best for Rick and Josie contrasted with the two teenagers who seemed the only mature and balanced characters.
As the novel reaches its final chapters the debates about Josie’s future and that of Rick become increasingly intense and Klara observes these often-heated discussions which as an AF brings a certain calmness in her observations. She is not entirely neutral – only wanting the best for Josie but is only sometimes brought into the conversations – and is frequently left standing by the refrigerator. How would it all end? The setting sun in Mr Bain’s barn, the importance of the Cootings Machine or Josie’s illness finally getting the better of her? Or even the horrifying prospect of cloning Rosie?
Fortunately, the down to earth Melania Housekeeper and her concerns of the teenagers engaging in ‘hanky-panky’ and their witty and funny conversations keep the situations grounded in the everyday. Their love for each other is a central theme – in all its awkward teenage mood swings – but a love recognised by Klara as important and often missed by the grown-ups. Rick’s mother’s character Miss Helen is superbly drawn in the hilarious scene in the Sushi Restaurant when she’s rebuffed by Mr Vance to Rick’s embarrassment. And Melania Housekeeper’s warning to Klara to keep an eye on Josie at Mr Capaldi’s studio or she’d dump her in the trash can bring more humour to Klara’s dead-pan narration.
It’s not really a dystopian novel in the sense the world has been plunged into a dark and dangerous future but more of a warning of how AFs could intervene in our world and the downside of genetically interfering with children and how the wealthy would use these changes to their advantage – or disadvantage. The technology behind all of this is not explained as it is Klara who interprets society through the limits of her programmed brain. Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun is a page turner, an easy to read, compulsive novel – containing many unexplained events and characters due to Klara’s lack of knowledge of people – and those mysteries slowly unravel even when Klara gets things wrong. And happily, gets them right – including her devotion to the unlikely powers of the sun.
Harry Mottram
Notes
This novel was chosen as the latest book for The Axbridge Four Seasons Book Club founded in 1998. If you are interested in joining email harryfmottram@gmail or message me via social media. The Club has its own FaceBook site.
It’s the second novel of Nobel Prize winning author Kazuo Ishiguro that we have read – and most of his novels are about memories and looking back at the past as in Remains of the Day while I thought there were parallels with his novel Never Let Me Go. As a club we met the novelist in Bath when he gave a talk – although Japanese by birth he has lived in England since the age of two and doesn’t speak Japanese.
Klara and the Sun was published on 2 March 2021 by Faber and Faber – my copy came from Cheddar Library – a £1.50 fee – but it is widely available from all good book shops.
A movie version of the novel is in production with Jenna Ortega cast as Klara – the main image is from a promo for the film; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNgdXFupbjI
Currently on BBC i-player there is a profile of Kazuo Ishiguro at https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000tqn0/imagine-2021-kazuo-ishiguro-remembering-and-forgetting
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