Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

 


As with all the books I've read by Kazuo Ishiguro, this is a slightly odd dystopian futuristic story written in a way where he never really explains that it is a slightly odd dystopian futuristic story, he just tells it as if we are all aware and living in this reality. 

Do you know what I mean? He doesn't start with the line, "and in these slightly weird dystopian times where robots are the norm and we harvest clones for their body parts" like some weird writers. He's just straight in there with Klara telling her story like we would all expect Klara to be a robot companion in a shop and we've all seen that on the high street 1000 times.

Anyway, Klara is a robot companion for sale in a shop. But she's a little bit different, able to observe things in a different way. She's not a little bit human or anything, just more contemplative than the other robots. She's an older model, been in the shop for a while, but she's eventually chosen by a young girl to be her companion. 

The young girl is sick with an unspecified unidentified illness, but we know it's life threatening and we know her eldest sister died of the same thing. We gradually come to realise that her mother is up to something nefarious ... but what.

And we also know that there is some reason why society is divided into people who are superior and people who are not, but that this has been a choice, sort of, in some mysterious way.

Ishiguro's books (that I've read, anyway) always seems to create beautiful scenes in my mind despite the weirdness. I always imagine them set with vast stunning views or huge imposing mountain ranges or incredible orange and red glowing sunsets. I mean this one literally does focus on incredible orange and red glowing sunsets, but I mean this figuratively.

I love the way he describes what Klara sees when she's a bit lost or scared or unsure, the squares and blocks of data images. He completely makes you feel like you're in the mind of a robot but while still experiencing the human emotions in a really affecting way.

It's a weird one but I guess you expect that from his books. It does make me wonder what goes through his mind on a day-to-day basis.

 

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