Klara and the Sun: A GMA Book Club Pick: A novel (Vintage International)

Klara and the Sun: Bought a used copy, it arrived absolutely mint, brand new from Seattle Goodwill. This is a Book Club selection, the favorite book this year of one of our members. Author is winner of Nobel Prize in Literature.

This was my second book by Kazuo Ishiguro. The first one I read was The Remains of the Day which I thought it was an ok book, but not great. I liked Klara and the Sun much more than The Remains of the Day. This novel is told from the point of view of an AI machine, nominated as AF (Artificial Friend), called Klara who is programmed to be a companion to a child. Klara is kind of unique if compared to other AFs. She is very perceptive and very observant of what is going on, she is constantly trying to piece things together and make sense of human behavior. So at the beginning of this novel Klara is on a display in a department store and, according to the store manager she has an "appetite for observing and learning, has the most sophisticated understanding of any AF in this store”. The AFs are powered by sunlight and require this light to function correctly. That explains the importance of the Sun for Klara. One day, Klara ends up being picked up by a teenage girl named Josie who has some health problems going on. Klara becomes very devoted to Josie, and faces a lot of challenges at Josie’s home in their family dynamics. So the reader gets to follow Klara’s experience in this household and the dynamic with Josie ‘s family. The plot unfolds gradually. Ishiguro reveals little by little information to the reader, making this story heartbreaking and moving. The book discusses what makes people human, what makes human lives valuable, in what ways humans interact with one another, how technology interferes in our lives, but also shines light on loneliness, parenting, friendship, and mortality. My heart ached seeing Klara’s struggles to make Josie feel better, cure her illness, even though she had no idea how to do that. Her plan to help Josie may seem childlike but her desire to help is legit and heartwarming. Klara is a machine but the more you read this novel more human she seems to become. She is a deeply compelling protagonist. Beautifully written, Klara and the Sun is one of these books hard to forget.

Klara is a solar-powered robot designed to be a child’s friend, helpmate, and protector. She and numerous other robots called artificial friends (AFs) wait in a shop to be selected by a girl or boy. Meanwhile, the shop manager instructs the AFs how to behave when they are being looked over for purchase by a child and parents. They must have a pleasant expression and answer politely to questions to show them to the best advantage. Klara excels at this, and although she isn’t the newest model, she is an attractive AF with a unique ability to make and act on observations she has about people. She, like the other AFs, is ever hopeful of being chosen. One day a girl comes in with her mother and sees Klara, placed in the window. Although the mother seems unsure, the little girl, Josie, makes a promise to return and buy Klara. A long time passes, but Klara never gives up hope that Josie will come back to take her home. When she does come, Josie is noticeably thinner and paler. She and her mother take Klara home with them. Klara devotes herself to learning all she can about Josie and her family to be the ideal companion to the child. She understands that Josie is often extremely sick, and the mother worries that she may die. Klara stays close to Josie as much as possible, but there are times when she leaves the mother and daughter alone to give them privacy. During those times, she goes to a closet where there is a window, and she can track the sun’s movement in the sky, a favorite pastime. In many ways, Klara, too, is like a child, capable of simple enjoyments. Josie has a human friend, Rick, who is a next-door neighbor. Josie and Rick are close and have made plans for a future together, although Rick doesn’t come from wealth and lacks Josie’s educational prospects. Klara, aided by Rick, comes up with the idea that could “cure” Josie, but it involves a dangerous risk. Told in Kazuo Ishiguro’s elegant prose, Klara’s story is a heart-wrenching examination of one-sided loyalty and devotion. Unlike many stories about artificial intelligence and the dangers they represent, this one raises other interesting questions. If humans create a being capable of acting independently and having emotions, what are their responsibilities to it? This book brought tears to my eyes. I recommend this story to those who enjoy literary novels, science fiction, and books about the human condition.

In an interview to Waterstones, Kazuo Ishiguro commented that the seed of Klara and the Sun was a story for a children's book he had in mind but that was too dark to be published as such (it would traumatize kids, his daughter warned him). That makes total sense to me. There is a delicate fairytale quality in this novel that permeates Klara's voice as the narrator. Not only because of its main theme but also the way the affective relationships are built (the way Chrissie and Josie, Josie and Klara, Chrissie and Klara and Klara and Ricky are bound), there is some significant thematic overlap with AI: Artificial Intelligence (more the Spielberg's part than Kubrick's) and, tangentially, Pinnochio_. Even though the story of KS_ is told by a robot, this is a novel where the whole idea of humanity and human subjectivity is put at the center, and brought up with a very fresh look. It is a study about illness, love, tenderness, faith, all interpreted or acted upon by a being that is not human (or maybe, as the Tyrrell Corporation used to say, "more human than human"), but a very intelligent and sensitive one. Ishiguro says that having an AI as the narrator allowed him to explore all these human themes with a fresh look, making basic questions about humanity a human being would never ask. Indeed, the story told by a robot brings a very distinct flavor to the narrative. Everything is familiar, but at the same time seems strange through Klara's sometimes childish or naïve (however precise) descriptions of what she sees and witnesses. It is as if a very intelligent and sensitive alien came to Earth to observe us, with sharp eyes but no context. KS also brought me good memories about Never Let Me Go, specially the kind of decency and tenderness that Ishiguro masterfully embeds into the action and reactions of his (mostly tragic) characters. There is a strangely self-contained, humble quality but tense underneath Ishiguro's writing which I'm personally fond of, and that also shows in Klara's narrative. There are also many thematic parallels, not only about human genetics, and genetic editing, but also in the way beings (be them clones or robots) are treated as things. Part of the genetic editing subplot in KS (concerning Josie's and Rick's differences) is actually suggested in NLMG when Miss Emily speaks about the Morningdale scandal, dr James Morningdale's offering the possibility of having children with enhanced characteristics. The parallel between Kathy being a carer in NLMG and Klara's looking after Josie in KS was particularly strong to me, more so in the second act. Ishiguro admits KS is in many ways a companion book to NLMG, but with a more positive resolution, a brighter response to the bleak, sad ending of his previous book. In NLMG, when Kathy and Tommy seek Madame Marie-Claude and Miss Emily of Hailsham to ask for a deferral of Tommy's donation because of their true love, we as the reader lose all hope. In KS Klara keeps her hope on the powers of the Sun with the devotion of a religious human being that contagiously keep us believing as well. KS_ is a fairytale of the modern times, dealing, as any fairytale, with the anxieties of its era: machines taking the place of humans, substitutions, replacements, misplacements; how far can science go to remove any illusion of divinity or uniqueness of the human kind: Will AI prove that there is nothing special about us? The novel constantly raises questions about our own individuality: what if our professional career is suddenly terminated and all our experience and knowledge become suddenly obsolete? Does the meaning of our lives evaporate as well? What if everything that defines us as a human being can be reduced to a finite (however gigantic and complex) number of brain connections, like a finite number of rooms within rooms within rooms? Will we be able to store all this connections somewhere outside our brain or, worse, synthetically replicate it? I confess I was a little abated by the final act, which seemed to me a little outplaced, if not ‘disposable’. But as I let the book settle, it now seems to me that the book ends with an interesting meta-image of Klara’s own condition. After listening to Ishiguro reinforcing the idea that Klara's main purpose as a commercial product is to reduce the tension of teenagers with loneliness, and that she is programmed to identify and treat human loneliness, her own aging and destiny gains a different color, especially because it mimics Klara's own surprise when she discovered that Rick's mother Helen was open to live alone if that would secure a better future for his son. Maybe it is Ishiguro’s Japanese blood speaking, with reminiscences of The Ballad of Narayama, or maybe it is just the emotional touch Ishiguro plays so well. In any event, this is a touching little story that, while not as impactful as NLMG, I will hold to heart.

I had read other novels by Kazuo Ishiguro, loved them for its simple but deep and insightful thoughts. This latest novel deals with the contemporary topic of robots, artificial intelligence and its impact to our near future. It is the time that we can buy or order a robot or AF (Artificial Friend) to meet our needs. In this case, a mother bought an AF named Klara to be a companion/assistant/helper/confidante to her sick daughter Josie. Kazuo presented this story differently than other authors in that he narrated it from the perspective of AF Klara as a person throughout the story. Reading thru the novel, readers will soon forget that Klara is a robot since she has feelings, emotions, thoughts like us, human beings, having an advanced ability to observe, remember, reason logically and above all, learn from her daily experiences. In this case, she learns very fast to accommodate to the needs and daily whims of her sick companion Josie. As the story evolves, Klara learned or started to developed feelings for Josie such as loyalty, empathy, friendship, sadness. Klara transformed from a robot at the service of its master to a dedicated friend who is looking for ways to make Josie's day brighter. In mid-story, Klara was engaging Rick who was an old childhood friend of Josie but somehow drifted apart, to come back to Josie to help her with her sickness. As as AF, Klara surprisingly also suppressed her own feelings of rejection, sometimes scornful reactions from others to loyally support Josie. In the latter part of the novel, Klara explored metaphysical thoughts like faith with her god (The Sun), memory of a dear person after death and even sacrificing herself to replace Josie in an act of selfless love. But even with her super faculties, Klara understood her limits realizing that love is not a concept that can be learned. At the end of story, Klara even thought she accomplished her mission which is to help Josie overcome her illness had to deal with her age and usefulness as an AF. Even an AF is becoming old, outdated and as all physical things, will be sent to a lonely place to die. At the end, one can't help to love Klara as a human being, to feel for her dedication, loneliness and sad destiny. In many ways, Klara has learned to become better than us because she expressed no bitter remorse and ill feelings about her destiny. After finishing the novel, I have a perplexing thought about the role of AF in our future technological society. What role do we want an AF to be, a helper in daily chores, companion in lonely times, a friend to confide in, a protective mother-to-be or a person who we can learn from ?

I love Kazuo Ishiguro and this is the fourth book of his that I’ve read. This one, his latest, feels closely related to his previous Never Let Me Go and even in some ways his masterpiece The Remains of the Day (I still find The Buried Giant to be out of place among his bibliography). They all wrestle with questions of the construction and formation of identity, as well as service and sacrifice. They reveal their fuller implications only gradually. In this novel, it’s the near future and the titular Klara is an Artificial Friend, carefully taking in the world around her to be best prepared for her eventual role as, well, a robot friend to the teenager whose family will eventually buy her. That teenager turns out to be Josie, a sweet-natured girl with a mysterious serious illness. As a solar powered android, Klara regards the sun as essentially a deity, and seeks out his intervention for Josie. An artificial intelligence could have been a tricky choice for a narrator, but Ishiguro doesn’t make significant changes to his usual writing style to accommodate and his elegant, removed prose proves well-suited to the task. The narrative raises interesting questions about how the self can be defined, especially when there is arguably not a “self” at all and one’s entire purpose is to be useful to others. It does not answer these questions, but presents us with Klara and lets us think for ourselves. The plot unfolds at the typical leisurely pace for an Ishiguro novel, and as usual not much actually “happens”. I found it a pleasingly reflective experience to read. It does definitely tread familiar territory, though, and is not of higher quality than the previous work that it echoes.

Klara is an "artificial friend" or what we usually think of as an android. While looking lifelike when seen from the outside, the reader is presented with a narrative told by Klara and thus sees the world from her perspective -- inside her head. The sun is, for Klara, the source of her energy and we see the sun from her perspective as well; it is an almost spiritual connection for her. When a young girl named Josie, sickly but intelligent, sees Klara in the window of the store she knows that this is the artificial friend that is meant for her. Klara goes to live with Josie and her mother and the story of their life together is at the heart of the novel. We see the impact of human emotions on Klara, but we also are presented with the argument as stated by Mr Capaldi that there is "nothing special" inside humans - that they are not very different from the machines that are their artificial friends. The narrative demonstrates the flaw in that argument and brings home the truth about what makes each individual human special. The story of their time together and how Klara develops into a very special friend for Josie is one of the most remarkable stories I have encountered in my reading experience. It presents the reader with the power of the sun, but also the power of love and how that can transcend the distance between human and machine. An amazing tour de force by one of my favorite authors. A speculative look at the not too distant future told by an android or as the narrative calls her, an artificial friend. What impressed me most was Ishiguro's ability to create a believable image of the world from the point of view of a machine and maintain it consistently. That being said this book is as much about relationships and feelings that are as human as possible. The world of the future with humans and machines has never been brought to life in a more realistic and moving way, Highly recommended for all who wonder at the nature of man and his machines.

It wasn’t till I was near the end that I realized this remarkable character-driven sci-fi saga about an AI robot (called here an AF for Artificial Friend) designed to be the companion to a teenager was not going to end apocalyptically. So if you’re looking for a how they saved the world SF, please look elsewhere. Now, for those who remain: the tale is set in the near future in some unnamed city that seems as though it’s New York, or possibly Chicago. But no matter. It’s a busy city with a lot of construction going on all around. The protagonist-narrator is solar-powered Klara, writing in the first person (and maybe you’ll find her naiveté annoying after a while--she doesn’t understand that some kind of construction machine . . . called here a Cootings Machine--is not an enemy of the sun). It begins in the store she’s displayed in and moves on from there into the tale of her attempts to save a dying girl, Josie, who prods her mother into buying Klara for her. Because Klara is solar powered, and to her the sun is a godlike figure that she hopes will be Josie’s savior. Will she succeed? The human characters--Josie's divorced mother, her sometime boyfriend and his mother, live in the exurbs--where there are few people around. Slowly we learn about their lives (Josie's father turns up for a while) and the world they are living in, where children are given genetic modifications (if their parents can afford them, apparently) in order to get into college. (The boyfriend has not been modified, which turns out to be of significance to the plot.) Anyhow the story fascinates, with its polluting machines and its hints of a fascist movement; you’ll keep turning the pages. But that apocalypse never comes. The story fades out, and in the last chapter you’ll discover the perspective from which Klara is telling the tale. Fine. But in the end it’s all just a fractured fairy tale.

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Una vez más Kazuo Ishiguro no decepciona. Su inglés es elegante, simple, lleno de sentimientos y detalles. He leído varios de sus trabajos y nunca me ha aburrido ni desencantado. Vale la pena.

Horrible cover design. (The outer cover is narrower than the book - the edge of the cover is missing.) It's feels horrible to hold, horrible to turn pages, and it looks terrible. Publishers need to stop making these, or Amazon needs to make it clearer than you're purchasing this defective cover.

It takes a few years for Kazuo Ishiguro to write each of his novels, in keeping with his restrained, careful style. But they are usually worth waiting for - and this one is especially so. Reading this makes you realise what a deserving winner of various prizes he is - including the Nobel Literature prize. He is the grand master of the old literary adage 'show, don't tell'. Ishiguro almost never explicitly states anything - but you are never in any doubt about what he wants to get across. His writing is so subtle, so clever that the reader discovers everything about the characters and their situation for themselves, in a natural way. This is particularly unusual in a science fiction novel like 'Klara and the Sun'. Any other author would have needed to explain the concepts, give the bigger picture, construct a history. introduce some technical information. Ishiguro does not. He allows the reader to build up their own picture and knowledge gradually - and without anything being spelt out, I feel I understood everything I needed to. In fact, extra 'factual' information would have got in the way of my appreciation of and absorption in the story. The restraint is really admirable - I don't doubt Ishiguro knew more about the world he wrote about - he isn't missing details for lack of ability to invent them. All too often authors overdo their excitement to show how thoroughly they have researched or imagined something. This is never the case here. The story is narrated by Klara, a robot who works as an 'artificial friend' for a teenage girl named Josie. It becomes clear that Josie is ill, perhaps terminally so. Klara, who is solar powered, has a near-religious belief in the sun and its ability to heal. So she sets out to beg the sun to cure her owner. Of course, the reader knows that her faith in the sun is based on a series of misunderstandings and aches for poor Klara as she attempts to gain comfort and hope - and becomes increasingly worried as her attempts to fulfil the sun's 'wishes' might lead her into danger. Klara is an extremely sympathetic and likeable narrator. Although she is a robot, I don't think anyone who read this book would doubt she had feelings and think of her as in some way human. There is nothing clinical about her, and she is full of compassion and empathy. It does make you think about the big questions of what it means to be human, and about how we should treat and interact with artificial intelligences in the future. Is Klara just like a 'vacuum cleaner' as someone describes her, or is she more akin to a person, with rights of her own? Is her intelligence something to be valued and protected in its own right? Besides the questions about artificial intelligences, there is also an important theme about the potential for genetic modification and enhancement of human beings. The novel's world sees a two tier society, with only children who have had genetic enhancements able to go to university and get well paid work. But the enhancements are not risk free. It's a scenario that could easily play out in the future. Ishiguro doesn't give any answers, he just presents the situation and shows some people affected by it. The other thing I really liked about Ishiguro's depiction of Klara is something you rarely find in novels about robots/artificial intelligences, and that's her imperfections. For example, Klara often describes seeing things in 'boxes' which you presume is due to delays in interfacing the feeds from her various camera sensors. Sometimes things become jumbled, particularly in bright light. And she struggles to walk on uneven surfaces. These little things give the reader the sense they are genuinely seeing things from the perspective of a different kind of being, and makes Klara all the more believable and (bizarrely) 'human'. Too often robots in sci-fi works are near perfect, with multiple superhuman abilities. The reality is probably much closer to Klara - extraordinary, but still not quite like a human and with certain imperfections/differences. Ultimately this is a very thought provoking and beautifully written novel that at its heart is about love and compassion. Klara's touching and irrational faith in the sun and its ability to heal the ailing Josie drive the narrative and provide a tear-jerking emotional core to the story. I am certain that this will be remembered as one of Ishiguro's finest and most interesting novels.