“I know [the word masterpiece is] something of an old-fashioned conceit, nevertheless, I'll go for broke and call Klara and the Sun a masterpiece that will make you think about life, mortality, the saving grace of love: in short, the all of it.” —Maureen Corrigan
That’s high praise from NPR’s Maureen Corrigan—she’s successfully lassoed the big daddy of deep thoughts a careful reader is bound to ponder if they pick up a copy of Klara and the Sun. Combine “masterpiece” with the fact that Rachel recommended this book to me, and well…need I go on? Seriously, I could stop here.
(Cue John Mayer) One more thing, why don’t I know more about Klara’s brainchild, Kazuo Ishiguro? I mean, come on, the man has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. I’ve been sleeping on the job. I absolutely positively need to read The Remains of the Day. (Eliane, I feel the book club selection after Emma comin’ on—oh and Emma will be comin’ on, I promise.) I’m intrigued by the man whose got me thinkin’ Coo Coo Ka Zuo. When he won the big award, Ishiguro was described as “a writer who, in novels of great emotional force, [uncovers] the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.” Go deep or go home, right?
There are deep layers in this speculative fiction. Klara is such an observant first-person narrator, even if (or because?) she’s an AF—an artificial friend. AF’s aren’t IRobot-inspired, meant to clean house; they aren’t pandemic-inspired tutors; and they’re not replacements for uninspired parents. An AF is designed to be a loyal companion. When 14-year-old Josie, sick with a life-threatening illness, chooses Klara for her AF, she couldn’t have possibly appreciated how a humanoid would impact her teenage life. With the backdrop of a futuristic world where loneliness is underscored, the importance of a true friend is amplified. Maybe we all underestimate, to some degree, the impact of a devoted friend—the kind that love freely and wholly, without conditions. All this to say, I’m grateful for a profound novel that ultimately explores the question we all should: what does it mean to love?