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BOOKS I READ: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021). Klara is an AF, an artificial friend, narrating her journey, from storefront window to junkyard. When Josie decides that Klara is the perfect AF for her, Klara begins her stay with the Arthur family. Turns out the girl is not well, and Klara does her best to keep her Josie happy. Set in an uncertain future, Ishiguro revisits themes present in his earlier books, Never Let Me Go and The Buried Giant, grappling with mortality and memory, and what it means to be sentient. These themes were especially resonant to me given I recently wrote a short story, Ludwig’s Extension, about science flirting with immortality.
I have read five books by Ishiguro, and all have been rewarding, although in Klara, there were times that I lost my place in his other world, the narrative screeching to a plodding pace, beset by trivial cul-de-sacs—here I am complaining about a Nobel Prize-winning writer, and one of my favorites, but the expectations are so high.
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