Kazuro Ishiguro’s latest novel Klara and the Sun is a beautiful illustration of love, coming of age, and humanity’s complexity. A story of childhood naiveties interspersed with fleeting adult struggles of illness, separation, and loneliness, Ishiguro’s tale is narrated from the perspective of “Girl AF Klara”, a human-doll replica created using futuristic artificial intelligence (AI) technology. She is one of many models of her kind that have been produced to provide young adolescents with companions as they transition into adulthood. Her sole purpose to improve and protect her “human”, Klara’s tale is one of unwavering devotion to her “teenager” Josie, even when this means putting her own existence in peril.
Whilst Klara isn’t human, she has a child-like awe of the world that leaves her continually fascinated by aspects of life we wouldn’t think twice about: her detailed analyses of peoples’ ages, an “estimate” which the reader can assume to be almost always correct; her fear of pollution and the dreaded Cooting’s machine, industrial interruptions hardly new to city landscapes; and her undying faith in the power of the Sun as she watches its effect insidiously control the life around her.
”Although her cold exterior melts away, we can never quite tell what “the mother” truly thinks of Klara”
Klara’s world is a futuristic America and, for the most part, AFs are accepted into society, particularly amongst the privileged middle classes. However, throughout the book, technology-sceptics crop up: first, in the form of Josie’s mother. Although her cold exterior melts away, we can never quite tell what “the mother” truly thinks of Klara: does she become a second child to her, as she insinuates to Klara on their day trip, or was she only ever a back-up for if the worst were to happen to Josie? Rick, Josie’s neighbour and apparent soulmate, is initially frosty to Klara too, despite his own AI creations, but they soon become closer than perhaps any other two characters in the novel, even outdoing Rick and Josie’s relationship at points. And Paul, Josie’s dad, eventually warms to Klara like the others do, treating her like a close relative rather than his daughter’s mechanical plaything.
A pattern emerges: immediate distrust gradually morphs into fondness for Girl AF Klara, despite previous misgivings. Resolute in her hope, she confuses and consoles Josie’s family when they fear the worst is coming, and she provides crucial support, in some shape or form, to all the main characters in the novel as they are each tormented by their own troubled lives. Although we hear of a growing and widespread distrust of AFs by humans towards the book’s end, Klara seems only to bring positivity to a story that could have otherwise been so tragic.
”We understand that love isn’t simple, and we are shown the various ways in which love manifests negatively”
However, Klara and the Sun’s prevailing theme is love: through her artificial eyes, the readers are able to examine love in all its forms: Josie’s naive love for life; Rick’s platonic love for Josie; the mother’s desperate yet guarded love for her daughter; and Klara’s programmed, undying love for her owner. We understand that love isn’t simple, and we are shown the various ways in which love manifests negatively: whilst Josie is determined to spend her life with Rick, her insistence for his presence leads to fallout. The mother has a strange way of aspiring to preserve Josie’s spirit, leading us to contemplate whether pure love can also encompass selfishness. And the breakdown of love is depicted too, as shown by the clips of Josie’s mother and father.
Ishiguro’s tale is convoluted, abstract, and yet brilliantly simple in hindsight. Despite the sometimes jarringly futuristic setting, he uses artificial technology to draw out some of the most pressing of familial, and human, issues. Klara and the Sun emphasises that life will never bend in the way you expect, even with the best laid plans of machinery and men.
Lucy Dunn
Featured image courtesy of Alfons Morales via Unsplash. No changes made to this image. Image license found here.
