Real Time Review: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

The sun has always been a symbol to many of hope, of better and new days and this is ever present in Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. 

I enjoyed this book and found myself understanding its depth and meaning the further I read. 

Klara is an AF, an artificial friend, longs to be leave her spot in the store and be taken to a home. Klara is a wonderful, unique AF; she is keenly observant of everything around her and always trying to understand more about the human condition. Finally, she is taken home by Josie and her Mother, and brought into their complicated world and allowing Klara to learn about love, morality, kindness and more. 

The story is fully told from the POV of Klara, an ever hopeful and dedicated narrator. Throughout the book, there are many details which are alluded to or never fully explained, and while this frustrated and confused me at first, I began to understand we were experiencing this story from Klara's POV and she might not always be privy to everything that's going on around her. Somehow through her eyes, author Kazuo Ishiguro creates a world that is both vivid and mysterious to the reader. There isn't "exposition dumps" which, at first, caused me to have to reread passages to make sure I wasn't missing something. But then I thought, this is probably how Klara feels all the time. 

There were portions of the book that did drag a bit for me, for which I did not understood why they were included but then I remembered we are hearing the story from Klara's POV and that we are seeing HER story through her own eyes. She's including the details she finds important and crucial to her goal of supporting Josie.

I would recommend this one for its unique voice and the messages it conveys about love, technology and humanity. I was left pondering a lot after this one. 

On one hand it's a story about the uniqueness of humanity and how irreplaceable we are, but at the same time brings up interesting parallels between the experiences of Klara and the humans around her. 

Furthermore, it's a story of wanting to be needed, to find a purpose in the world. About wanting to do anything and everything you can for those you love.