I've just finished Klara and the Sun and was curious to discuss it with other people who have also read it. I'm an enormous fan of Kazuo Ishiguro's work – I consider Never Let Me Go to be a masterpiece, and The Remains of the Day is my favorite novel of all time – so I was very excited to pick this one up, especially since it involves him tackling sci-fi themes once again.
Some of my initial thoughts after reading (MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD):
- Similar to what he did with Never Let Me Go, I love how Ishiguro does not do a lot of explicit exposition/worldbuilding and instead leaves "clues" for the reader to pick up and infer what's going on – e.g. the idea of being "lifted" (genetically enhanced for higher intelligence), the fact that children in this version of the future are relatively isolated and learn virtually, the economic displacement of people by intelligent machines, etc.
- I don't know when Ishiguro actually finished writing this novel, but as an educator in COVID times, it was fascinating and felt VERY timely seeing his interpretation of a future where schooling occurs entirely virtually and in isolation. I've been thinking a lot lately (as many have) about the implications of virtual education, and his vision of a future where teenagers are socially anxious/stunted due to their lack of face-to-face peer interaction and have to be forced into "interaction meetings" by their parents to learn how to engage productively with others felt frighteningly realistic.
- I was left with some questions about Klara's pleading towards/worship(?) of the Sun and what we were supposed to read into it. Was it meant to be a symbol for religion, and show us Klara's "humanity" via her creation and understanding of a sort of "God" figure? A commentary on the power of hope/love? What are we meant to read into the fact that (the start of) Josie's healing did ultimately occur in the moment Klara thought it would, when the sun was shining especially powerfully into the house? I'm interested in people's takes on this aspect of the book – it was obviously important considering the title!
- Every one of Ishiguro's books that I've read has at least one moment near the end that seems to bring all the core themes together and hits me like an emotional truck, and for me it was this quote from Klara to the Manager on the second-to-last page: "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." I think this was a beautiful note to end on – the idea that our humanity and "specialness" does not lie in something about our "soul" or our brain/biology but in our capacity to love and be loved. But this scene also took on such a bittersweet tone since it came when Klara was essentially abandoned and left in what I assume was some kind of junkyard. I couldn't tell you whether I'd consider this book and its ending to be a happy or a sad one.
All in all, I really loved the book and am so glad I read it. It might take another re-read to catch everything and decide whether it ranks up there with my other two Ishiguro faves (as of right now, I think Never Let Me Go handled a lot of the same themes more powerfully), but I'd strongly recommend it to anyone interested in reading it (though I hope you haven't read all the spoilers in the body of this post lol).
Others who have finished it – what were your thoughts??
by chattahattan