I was kind of interested in reading Kazuo Ishiguro books after he received his Nobel Prize in 2021 and even more after he joined other personalities who received international awards and whose success the japanese government tried to appropriate.

And when Klara and the Sun popped up in my feed, advertised as a sci-fi story, I felt like the time had come.

What is it about

The whole story is seen and narrated through Klara, an AF (Artificial Friend) and her relationship with the family who purchase her at the beginning of the book. Trying to help the girl she is conditioned to help, she comes to view the Sun, which powers her systems, as an omnipotent deity who can help her help her owner.

So what

I waited a few days before writing this review because I needed the time to organise my thoughts. The extremely short summary above certainly summarises the main plot of the book but fails to capture the main vibe of the book.

There is a lot unsaid in the book. First what exactly are AFs? We know there’s a bunch of them but they are not omnipresent in the way smartphones have become. We don’t even know what Klara looks like beyond “she kinda looks French” and that people can immediately identify her as an AF or a machine. Why can’t she access the internet when so much of social life and resources seem to reside there.

What exactly is a “lifted person” which seems to be both the source of the problems of her owner but also her way up in the society? What kind of society is the story actually happening ? There are mentions of communes or gated communities, global warming, huge economic disparities and so on.

I am not meaning it in a bad way. That’s not Ishiguro’s focus. It’s also information which is not available to Klara as the narrator. We know as much as she does. And the gaps are filled with… whatever.

So what, bis repetita

Reading the book felt strange at time, trying to piece out what was the driving theme of the book.

Should we see Klara as a slave sold in a sci-fi boutique shop ? Is she an orphan ? For a good part of the book, it reads as both options are possible. Even more since the term AF is never fully defined. Could she be a normal kid who was not lifted ? The final third of the book closes these options as it is absolutely clear she is a machine but beyond the material aspects, the questions still linger.

From the first part of the story, when Klara is still in the shop, waiting to be bought and being moved from shelf to shelf to attract potential buyers, to the very final paragraphs, first when Josie, her owner, ages out her need for Klara leading her to move to a cupboard, then the attic and finally a dump somewhere, the book touches the topic of obsolescence. Obsolescence of everyday objects when a new model is released and then years later when they reach the end of life of their components if they have no been discarded before… And what if what is being obsoleted out of service has a conscience.

In the previous section, I mentioned I was surprised Klara couldn’t access the internet but in a way, my issue with this point goes deeper. She is supposed to have been built to support and assister children and teens. Josie is fourteen at the beginning of the book and has left for university at the end of the book. Yet Klara seems to have the knowledge (even basic science) and general awareness (she has difficulty walking on natural terrain at first) of a 6-to-8 years old. Did Ishiguro wanted to include a comment on the deficient access to education for slaves ? I have no idea. It is a key element of the story as it is the main source of misunderstanding which leads Klara into taking actions.

The only thing I found interesting in the mother-daughter relationship is how it is built in a very Fritz-Lang-Metropolis way, including the whole Rotwang subplot. Actually, I don’t know which of the original Fritz Lang or the Tezuka/Rintaro version was the biggest inspiration.

Without giving too much information on the final part of the book, I was also wondering if Ishiguro made a comment on the uselessness of individual action to fight climate change The Pollution.

Final word

I don’t know. There are some parts I really enjoyed. The whole discovery of the world through Klara’s eyes was interested.

But her relationship with the Sun and its whole religiosity fell flat to me. I already mentioned that this kind of themes or characters was not something I enjoyed when reviewing Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Naomi Alderman’s The Power. This book confirmed it.

Not sure I’ll read another book of his either.