(WPF) Klara and the Sun / Kazuo Ishiguro - 4.5****

[Book Concierge]

Klara And the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro
Audio performed by Sura Siu
4.5****

What does it mean to love? Can science duplicate that essentially human quality in an artificial intelligence being? Do we want scientists to even try?

Klara, the narrator of this extraordinary work, is an artificial friend (AF). She sits in the shop with other AFs watching the world go by the shop window, listening to the Manager about how to act / react among prospective buyers. She is a keen observer and learns her lessons well. And even though she is not of the latest generation of Afs it is Klara that one young girl, Josie, wants.

But there are things in Josie’s household that don’t compute. The Housekeeper seems extra watchful when The Mother is away at work. Josie is frail but has a special friend nearby, Rick. Klara gets drawn into Josie and Rick’s “plan” for their future, while also is learning that the plans of adults may not coincide. For all her intelligence and perceptiveness, Klara cannot quite understand emotion and she certainly doesn’t have feelings of her own. Her interpretations of what she observes are sometimes quite naïve, and I was reminded of comments my niece made when she was four or five years old.

This is a dystopian world, and there is significant pollution and there are hints of potential civil war. There are distinct differences between the haves and the have nots. Wealthier parents have the option to “lift” their children (via genetic engineering) to improve their intelligence and academic performance. And AFs are not always treated kindly.

I hope there will be a movie … I can just see the crane shot of that final scene.

Sura Siu does a marvelous job of voicing the audiobook. She really made Klara a believable AF, giving her an innocence to go with her intelligence. 5***** for the audio performance.



LINK to my review

[Ashlyn]

I'm kind of freaked out by the thought of AIs roaming the world thanks to iRobot and I don't know what it is about the dystopian trope but I can't. really ever get into it fully the way I would like to.

[Olivermagnus]

I just used one of my Audible credits to get this. I was on the fence about the audio version until I saw your endorsement.

[Book Concierge]

Ashlyn wrote: "I'm kind of freaked out by the thought of AIs roaming the world thanks to iRobot and I don't know what it is about the dystopian trope but I can't. really ever get into it fully the way I would lik..."

There is definitely a dark undercurrent here. Not everyone's purpose for having an AF is simple companionship.

[Robin P]

Although there is a dark side, I found the book uplifting over all. Something that surprised me was (view spoiler)[how happy I was that a "miracle" occurred of the Sun curing Josie. I am not a believer in the supernatural at all, but I still loved it. Maybe, her illness was about to turn around anyway. I also really liked that Rick and Josie didn't end up together for life and that was perfectly ok. (hide spoiler)]

[Joy D]

I loved this book. The character of Klara is so well done. She is one of my favorite characters ever. There is a tone of melancholy running through it - an underappreciation of an intelligence that (view spoiler)[could have been so much more than what humans relegate her to. (hide spoiler)] Glad you enjoyed it too.

By the way, if anyone is looking for a "thought provoking" book for next month's tag, this is a great one.

[NancyJ]

Yes! That could be a very powerful shot at the end of the movie. Start with her and gradually pan out. This book is perfect for February. It's very thought provoking. I liked the initial lesson that when you fiddle with nature (by giving your child a "lift") there could be some negative side effects. I loved Klara's naive ideas about how to help Josie. This book made me think about the children's book The Giving Tree (which always made me cry). It seems to be a common theme in Ishiguru's books. A lower class person (or artificial person in this case) gives or sacrifices their whole life for the upper class.

Never Let Me go was brutal for me. I saw the film at the Toronto Film Festival, and the crowded theatre was totally silent at the end. It was incredibly beautiful, but I felt so sad and angry at the end that I couldn't speak.

I want to read The Remains of the Day for our author challenge, but I wonder if it will be too depressing. (I've liked many depressing books, so I don't know why I'm shying away from this one.)