A review by rchristine11
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

• Melancholic sci-fi novel that focuses on what it means to be human and what it means to love. Other topics covered are class struggle, workers being replaced by machines, religious devotion, how grief is processed, bullying, mental illness, and, most interestingly, the way parents can push their children to the point of illness or even death in the name of a good education and secured future. 
• Although it is a dystopian novel, it’s not one that is very different from our present day world. 
• The narrator is an AF (Artificial Friend), a type of solar powered humanoid robot. She is exceptionally perceptive and very good at reading people’s emotions, but she has an extremely limited frame of reference. This limited frame of reference is a result of simply having been to few places and, being an AF, not having the same cognitive processing as her human companions. So as readers, we are told about how people are feeling and what they are doing, but WHY they are doing it is a mystery to Klara. Why they are experiencing the emotions are often completely unknown to her. As the book goes on, she become better at interpreting why, but she never really reaches a point of knowing how to respond. 
• I found Klara to be very relatable. I can see clearly what emotions people are feeling, but why they are feeling it is often out of my reach. And although I try to be perceptive, I, like Klara, seem to be missing a point of reference that everyone else has. As someone with autism, this felt very relatable. 
• Despite the interesting social background, the focus of the book is on interpersonal relationships. 
• I thought Klara was an endearing narrator and that the characters had depth and were complex. 
• I found that Klara’s  formal  narration did not take away from the emotional impact of the novel. 
• Notes: not everyone will enjoy this novel because of the almost stilted style of narration and content warning for
child death and illness
 

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