When a book really piques my interest, I spend all afternoon reading it and finish it all in one sitting. If interrupted by dinner or some other unfortunate commitment, I’d be excited to return to it right after.
When I first put Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro on my To-Be-Read list, I had high hopes for the book by the Nobel Prize in Literature winner. I thought it would definitely be one of those books I read from start to finish all at once, and I left time in my schedule for it.
Yet, as I flipped through the pages of Ishiguro’s book, I found my pace slowing down. In fact, it took me almost half a year to finish the book since I first picked it up. I kept putting it down after a few pages, and the leisurely pace of the book, along with its mellow descriptions, resulted in an unwillingness to pick it back up for weeks.
The book is written from the perspective of Klara, an Artificial Friend (A.F.), a solar-powered, intelligent robot, purchased by Josie, a child with an unspecified sickness. I assume it is in part because of the narrative perspective Ishiguro chose that the story’s progression felt slow. Klara, despite being intelligent, was not human and did not understand things the same way humans do, which led to overly detailed and overly objective descriptions of things that could easily be summarized in a few words. While I understand and appreciate Ishiguro’s ability to write from a perspective that is so different from our own, I found it unappealing to read.
Towards the end of the book, however, the pace started picking up, and it got slightly more engaging, perhaps mirroring Klara’s character growth. Intellectually, I adore Ishiguro’s concept, and his execution worked well to reveal the idea; yet, in my opinion, the book is not the greatest fit for a casual, for-pleasure read. If you are truly interested in concepts of technology, environmentalism, perspective, humanity, and relationships, and are willing to peel through the layers of narrative, then perhaps dissecting this book would be a worthwhile endeavor.
That said, Ishiguro has other noteworthy books that are critically acclaimed — perhaps Never Let Me Go or The Remains of the Day might be better entry points to the Nobel Prize winner’s work. If I pick up an Ishiguro book again, it will most likely be one of the two. I hope they will be redeeming reads.