Klara and the Sun - A Novel to Test One's Morals

 *This Review Contains Spoilers*

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Four out of Five Stars

Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro, is another book I had to read for summer reading. This book is about an AF (Artificial Friend) named Klara and Josie's serving. The novel honestly does not follow a specific plotline. It goes into depth about interactions between the characters, and Klara takes that in as an AF. 

In the novel, we learn that Josie has been genetically lifted to go to college while her friend Rick has not been genetically modified and has seemed to already have his future written for him, which is not in a good way. Josie and Rick have also claimed to be in love and often discuss their future plans. However, these plans seem to be skewed because a side effect of being genetically modified causes severe sickness, which usually happens to Josie. In fact, Josie had an older sister named Sal, who was also genetically modified but died due to this sickness. Due to this, Josie's Mother, often called "the Mother" decides to contact an engineer in the city (whose name I can not remember) to make an AF for the Mother in case if Josie passes away. The Mother plans to use Klara and her superb observation skills to mimic Josie, so she does not have to go through this grief again. 

In the end, Josie ends up overcoming her sickness through the power of the Sun. She also ends up going to college. However, Rick does not, and they ultimately decided to part paths. Due to Josie's family no longer needing Klara's help, they literally throw her in the trash, and that is the end of the novel. 

I really did not understand the part about the Sun, but it seemed that Klara worshipped the Sun-like, some sort of god. She would go to a barn, pray to the Sun, and ask for things, mainly for others. She requested the Sun to help Josie be healed from her sickness in exchange for doing things. One of these tasks was to destroy the Cootings Machine, like a crane on a construction site. However, the Sun never explicitly says this. Klara moreover makes up these tasks in her mind. 

Another interesting thing with this novel, as said in the title, is how it tends to play with your morals. When reading this novel, I often found myself extremely uncomfortable. 

The first time this happened was during the gathering Josie had with other lifted children. She wanted Rick to come very badly, which he eventually did, but his presence seemed to make everyone very uncomfortable. The reader later finds out this is because Rick has not been lifted. This is like saying Rick has brown hair, and we have blonde hair. He can not be with us. It is just simply wrong. And the fact no one, not even Klara, bat an eye at this amazed me. 

Another time was when Klara found out that the Mother wanted Klara to replace Josie if she died with a new AF body they were creating. Klara did not even bat a second eye. We also learn during this conversation that the Mother did this with her other daughter Sal but was unsatisfied with it. According to Rick's mother, she saw the Mother take this AF Sal into the prairie where they live, which I am assuming to throw her away. After these very uncomfortable conversations, they then go out to dinner and walk around the city. 

The other time where my morals were tested was near the end of the novel, where Josie's family basically threw Klara away in the trash. Klara was essentially family to these people. The Mother even wanted Klara to become her own daughter and said, "she would love her," if necessary. However, this just goes to show that Klara was not there to be loved. Klara is simply a robot in the human world. Machines mean nothing to people. They are only there to do their job for humans. 

Although this uncomfortableness could be seen as bad, I think it is terrific, which sets this novel apart from other books. The way that Ishiguro made the reader feel uncomfortable shows how good of a writer he is and why he has so many outstanding awards. However, if I had to give one critique, I wished the book was a little more fast-paced. Some parts just seemed to drag on. 

I rated this book four stars because it was honestly an excellent book, but not life-changing and not one of my favorite reads. However, I might consider reading another one of Ishiguro's books in the future.  

*This Review Contains Spoilers*

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Four out of Five Stars