04/30/2021
By Kate Stone Lombardi
Last night I finished “Klara and The Sun” by Katzuo Ishiguro, and I feel like a cherished friend just left town. I loved this book. Loved it. Loved, loved, loved it.
It’s one of those novels where a plot summary can’t do it justice. Basically it’s set in the near-future, where highly sophisticated robots known as “Artificial Friends” keep young people from being lonely in a futuristic, stratified society. The story revolves around one Artificial Friend, Klara, and Josie, the girl whom she keeps company. Klara is our narrator. The novel isn’t science fiction, though – its literary fiction.
Believe me, this book first and foremost is about humanity. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to love? What does it mean to serve?
I bring up the concept of service, because Ishiguro also wrote “Remains of the Day,” another masterful novel narrated by a butler who comes to realize he has spent his life serving a Neo-Nazi. Anyway, I’m not a book reviewer, so I am just going to attach this review from NPR (which calls the the book “a masterpiece”) and this one from The Atlantic.
I’m not sure if I cried at the end because of the plot or because the book was over.
High recommend to all my reader friends!