Kazuo Ishiguro

Ishiguro’s Lockdown novel imagines a world where children only get to interact with their teachers and each other remotely, via their Oblongs (not such a stretch in 2021), and need Artificial Friends to protect them from loneliness. One such AF, Klara, tells us how she came to be chosen by her teenager, Josie, and how she found that Josie needed more than just company from her.

As so often in science-fiction stories, a lot of the narrative interest in this book comes from the way the show more writer only gradually reveals to the reader what exactly it is in the world of the book that is so different from the world we are used to, but the novel gives us a bit more than the usual trite philosophical quibbling about how intelligent robots differ from true humans. Ishiguro is good at this sort of thing, after all. Klara is complex and fascinating and has all kinds of human attributes — empathy, the ability to feel love and sacrifice herself, even a sense of religious awe — but she herself is well aware, and we are constantly reminded, that she is in the end just a machine, to be discarded when no longer required. Very much like a domestic servant, perhaps — but that’s a different Ishiguro novel… show less

Fantasy that reads like a fable based on Arthurian legends. It is England after King Arthur’s death. The Britons and Saxons live in an uneasy peace. A mist has descended on the country, causing forgetfulness. An older couple, Axl and Beatrice, are living in darkness in a warren. They decide to go on a journey in search of their lost son. They meet Wistan, a Saxon warrior charged with slaying a dragon. They also meet Sir Gawain, Arthur’s last surviving knight, who is looking for the same show more dragon. During the journey they encounter duplicitous monks, pixies, a buried giant, ogres, and much more.

As is typical with Ishiguro, the writing is top rate. Themes include guilt, memory, and betrayal. It works as a novel about a couple’s loyalty, loss, and love, about a country’s history, battles, and bloodshed, and about an individual’s ethics, honor, and courage. It conveys how history is rewritten by the victors, and how the old legends may have morphed through distortions after multiple retellings.

I think this novel is best appreciated by looking below the surface. It works as a fantasy novel about a quest, but its brilliance comes from the thought-provoking questions it poses about human nature and collective memory. show less

No one does a repressed melancholic unreliable narrator like Ishiguro. I admire how so many of his trademarks were already so well-established and so well-done in his first novel.

There are so many themes in the book worthy of deeper dissections in an English literature class, in particular the setting of Nagasaki and the characters' occasional references to how everything is different, and not just because of the ordinary passage of time. I also enjoyed the small mundane details of everyday show more life, drinking tea, putting on your shoes, and preparing meals and so on.

The plot destines itself to multiple interpretations and if you're someone who welcomes open-ended answers, Ishiguro and this book is for you. show less

I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy a science fiction novel about an Artificial Friend, but I did! Klara is an Artificial Friend (AF) with extraordinary observational skills who studies the behaviour of people and learns from their interactions. When we meet Klara she's on a shop floor waiting to be purchased and I really enjoyed this period of the novel. Klara is soon purchased to become a companion to teenage girl Josie and the novel explores their complex relationship.

Narrated by Klara, show more I was captivated by her speech, thought processes, observations, and unwavering drive to look after Josie.

Ishiguro presents themes of loneliness, love, privacy and sacrifice and of course the complexities around treating Klara like a person, an AI, or something in between. The interactions between Klara and the Housekeeper were an amusing touch.

The book is set in a futuristic and somewhat dystopian setting that I could never really understand or fully comprehend. Having said that, I wonder if the author intended to make the setting vague to focus the reader on the family unit instead, rather than what/where/how we came to be where we are.

Longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize, Klara and the Sun was an enjoyable read for me and a slight diversion from my regular reading choices. I'm giving it an extra star for the way in which Ishiguro manipulates the reader into considering whether an AI can 'feel' and prompting in me an unexpected reaction to Klara and Josie's ending.

I enjoyed reading The Remains of the Day back in 2008 and I'm glad I have a copy of The Buried Giant waiting for me on my TBR from this Nobel Prize winning author.

* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin * show less