Book: Klara and the Sun

Klara and the Sun
Kazuo Ishiguro
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Here is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love?

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Possible Spoilers

Similar to Never Let Me Go, this book gave me an overall creepy feeling as I was reading it. It was just some kind of unease reading it. I could understand it enough, but there was just something off about the book. Unlike Never Let Me Go though, the climax, or big reveal, wasn’t exactly shocking to me. I was kind of expecting it. Hey, futuristic world where robots or AI go around being “kid companions”? THAT was to be expected.

There were moments though, that I wasn’t exactly sure who are the robots, and who are the humans. “Lifted,” so what does it mean? There’s no exact explanation in the book (had to do a search and got some help from the bibliofile site). Sometimes, Klara describes things as going into boxes and “moving from one box to another”… for a moment, I thought those “humans” were the robots or AI in screens.

Another part was when Klara was talking to the Mother and when the Mother had a lot of emotions and broken out into different boxes. I suppose that’s where I got a confused on who’s the robot and who’s the human.

It was a bittersweet reading about Klara “praying” to the sun… she’s solar powered, so I guess it just was the thing to do? How Josie got better is a mystery, but Rick mentions that “as long as they can get over that part, then they’re good.” So Josie probably recovered not because of Klara’s “prayers.”

In the very end, it’s just so sad that Klara ends up at the Yard. But you can see how introspective she has become too. She knew there’s more to humans than normal “observation and copying”.

And humans just think that we can manipulate everything… even a robot’s feelings. When the Mother was suggesting THAT to Klara? And in the end just dumping her at the yard to “let her fade”? That’s just a low blow.

By the end of the book, it has left me very introspective.
Indeed, what if we gave AI the power of thought and feelings?

It’s a very sad story.