Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro | Review

In which I talk about Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro . . .
This video is spoiler-free up until 12m35s
Kazuo Ishiguro author spotlight: • Let's Talk About Kazuo...
Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro: / klara-and-the-sun
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[@DaMaxchi]

I am in my 70's and so my perspectives on the ending are based on my own experiences. Like Klara going through her "slow fade" in the Yard, I too struggle at times with mobility and memory. I find myself playing back special memories often as if sheer repetition will ensure their longevity. Like Klara's meeting with the Manager, I too from time to time will come across an old acquaintance and the casual talk revolves about the good ole days and mutual friends (as in Rosa). However, unlike Klara who is content and pleased with what she has accomplished as she goes through her final days with gratitude, I strive but struggle to attain the same heights. Perhaps as I continue to "slow fade", it will come. The ending was perfect from my perspective. I enjoyed your review. Well done!

[@johnfleming5470]

Loved it, just finished it. Josie is an AF - Sal that had been kept in the utility closet . Mom’s black dress and blow up at Rick - Josie was already dead . Reread the last chapter . Clues galore

[@altodomino7859]

I wish I could forget this book, so that I could read it for the first time again. This is one of his top 3 with Never let me go and Remains.... If only Ishiguro could write a new novel every month

[@Emmareads15]

I took it that the bargain didn't work, it was all coincidence. It was her version of faith and how people pray to God and Klara does the same with the sun. I think what's so clever with Ishiguro's writing is we all take different things into the book and so come away with our own conclusions and they can vary wildly. I come at this as an atheist with no faith!

[@katiejlumsden]

You see, I also come at this as an atheist and my sort of takeaway was not so much like a bargain with God but that there was a sort of scientific thing that no one else understood. I don't know, I just love how many different ways you can read Ishiguro!

[@shiningyoonie]

That’s what I took from it as well. Klara saw the Sun as a parent figure because the Sun nurtured her. As her character developed through out the book, not only did she rely on the Sun for energy, she also had more and more faith in the Sun and saw it like a god that could help her and the child she cared about. She didn’t have anything else to believe in, so the Sun was her only hope.

[@Ozgipsy]

That was really useful for me. I’ll reread it later in the year. Ishiguro gets to me every time.

[@christinacampbellbooks]

I'm really looking forward to reading this. I'm on the waiting list at my library for it. 9th in line! Great review 🖤

[@dianesellepedrosa1876]

Diane Selle Pedrosa Spoilers!! Katie I just finished Klara and the Sun and was thrilled to come across your review. Instinctively I feel Josie lived. When she hugged Klara and mentioned she probably wouldn’t see her for Christmas break it seems the Mother was going to honor her with the slow fade that was mentioned in the conversation with the artist. I just like Klara and it hurts to think she has been put out to pasture, so to say. Any ideas about the very last part with the Manager looking at the construction crane? Thank you again. Diane 0 seconds ago

[@spreadbookjoy]

I am just about to read Remains of the Day - my first ever Ishiguro! An author that I cannot believe I’ve never read. I have wanted to for some time but was inspired by your video on his books I watched a while back.

[@limeparticle]

I just read Klara and the Sun last weekend and finally got to watch your review! I really, really loved it as well and share many of your thoughts about it. And just now I had this thought: what if Josie DID die, and Klara wasn’t transferred over to the Josie replica, but was actually copied? So now there are two Klaras, one who became Josie and the original one in the junkyard, who is faulty because of the whole fluid incident? It wouldn’t be hard to erase just that single little detail from her memory, of her becoming the replacement Josie. I feel like I’ll be re-reading this book periodically for the rest of my life.

[@katiejlumsden]

What a great thought! Oh, it's such a fascinating and wonderful book.

[@lornam3637]

I loved this book and I loved this review! I completely agree about the ending - I liked it the more I reflected on it. For that reason I would put this above Never Let Me Go and another is just how wonderfully likeable Klara is. Also Rick's mother really needs to be played by Helena Bonham Carter in the movie.

[@katiejlumsden]

Agreed! And yes, so, so good.

[@paulinebelford2645]

I'm so glad that you loved this too. :-)

[@GunpowderFictionPlot]

I've been waiting for somebody to review this book. I didn't want to just pick it up because it was Ishiguro. Thank you, your enthusiasm has accomplished the admittedly easy task of getting me interested in this novel.

[@katiejlumsden]

I definitely recommend it :)

[@Leebearify]

@@katiejlumsden Me too !!!!

[@vp8671]

im really curious about this book !! and i always love your videos, you have great content

[@Leebearify]

I loved this book! My goodness, so many places that AF's could go in society, all of the different purposes they can have and at all different stages of their 'use', teachers, baby sitters, sales clerks I can go on and on. As they 'learn' through their programming they can do so many different tasks. I thought about how our society doesn't have laws surrounding the use of AF's, what type of protection do they need. Oh my goodness I loved this book. If you haven't read it please do! I didn't get caught up in Josies' life because Josie treated Klara kindly which obviously Josie had learned from her Mother and passed down. I really got caught up in Klara's life and the newer iterations of the AF's! WOW

[@nigelroberts7962]

So many thoughts about this book - the faith issue was interesting as Im a person of faith - the reality of grief and its impact on family was wonderful - the back story to the society was intriguing though only ever glimpsed in shadow. Klara's narrative voice reminded me of remains of the day - slightly detached - but also intimately connected. Like you I think I will love it more the further away I get from it. I'd put it third too and it may rise higher

[@FindMyFilm]

I was waiting for this book...!❤️

[@jziffi]

I'm doing a whizz round some online reviews having finished the book this weekend, and it seems like a lot of readers are very hung up on the realism of the universe. Personally, that (for the most part) never really bothered me - Klara is a compelling enough character, and there's so much intrigue around the family and its somewhat sinister past. The main criticism I'd have is that the gene editing aspect was barely touched upon; it was just there in the background as something the parents would occasionally mention they felt guilty about.

[@RoxanneM-]

Brilliant! I’m so glad you reviewed Klara and the Sun completely and did not shy away from discussing the ending. I agree with what you say exactly about how the ending made it smaller and yet, oh, ... so perfectly said ! I thought this ending was so refined, so elegant, not in a superficial way but in how real it made it at the end. Like real life, so down to earth. And I do too like it more the more I think of it and the time pass. 💕👍

[@kimm.7116]

I just finished the book and have many thoughts with nowhere to go, so I am so thrilled I found your "rambling" review (the rambling is my favorite part!)! I had not thought about the idea that Josie might have died. That does not seem consistent with Klara's "character" to change the narrative, but who knows if her "sacrifice" of that vital fluid may have done long-term damage which changes the way she saw things. The fact that we readers knew all along that there are kajillions of "Cootings" machines....ah! So pre-emptively heart-breaking! I don't usually thank an author for breaking my heart, but he does it with such clear-eyed honesty. Golly. Thank you so much for talking this out for us! Now I need to go find your other reviews. :)

[@anges_book_chatter]

I have just finished this book yesterday and I loved it. I have thoughts about the end, but now you have given me more things to consider. Thank you for a great review.

[@kito-]

I agree with you about the ending!

[@lifefullofwords]

Yay I’m so glad you loved it! My brother’s girlfriend sent it to me as a lovely surprise and I’ve been a bit afraid to pick it up because I haven’t loved some of Ishiguro’s latest releases as much as I wanted to. Now I’m so excited to pick it up!

[@katiejlumsden]

It was so great!

[@alquinn8576]

it was also interesting from the point of view of AI safety, where there is a bizarre failure mode wrt the Cootings Machine. the emergence of (better, mainstream) LLMs since Ishiguro wrote the book seems prescient given Klara's thought process

[@andrewmolloy8848]

Brilliant review thank you

[@katiejlumsden]

Thanks!

[@shehabaldebrky9684]

Dear friend, I am following your videos from Egypt, Alexandria

[@kimbui696]

We loved this book and were devastated by the ending. Spoilers! Your theory about the alternative ending blew us away and now we're even more devastated! The fact that Klara was glitching after losing the fluid, but it isn't mentioned again in the final act supports your theory.

[@katiejlumsden]

I do just wonder . . . Ah, what a book :)

[@shaigluskin1225]

The one interpretation I can't accept is one that suggests that Klara's deal with the sun healed Josie. Then this book would be like a fairy tale or fable. Isn't Ishiguro an atheist? I can accept that Klara could be superstitious and deluded like human beings, after all she was made by human beings.

[@davidbullen1966]

I think... the only noticeable impact of the fluid was to affect her pattern recognition, but she seems to have re-learned that, also it would require the father to have been deliberately malicious, and hurting Klara would not actually have helped Josie, but he did deny bad intentions and when people say "it's not about the money", then usually its about the money (or bad intentions in this case). The other thing I noticed that was in there almost as a throw-away line was the rise of covert drone surveillance, and Rick's enthusiasm to be involved, as though everyone's moral compass has gone a bit wonky.

[@Abhishek-fe3zs]

I bought this but haven't read it yet, still reading Lolita, been a week now oof

[@wendycayless]

I enjoyed it but didnt love it as much as you did. Some plot things just didnt work for me - did Josie's father really think that destroying ONE polluting machine on Klara's say so would heal Josie?

[@katiejlumsden]

Ah, so, I have a theory on that - I don't think he thought it would heal Josie, I think he used that as an excuse to mess with Klara's wiring so she could never take Josie's place, as he was so against that.

[@limeparticle]

Now I feel naive for thinking he went along with Klara because he felt sympathy for her 😅

[@LarryHasOpinions]

i just reviewed it last week on my channel as well but i was a bit disappointed i'm afraid :-(

[@jobuckley2999]

Here is the thing. A second grade student can read and understand this book. There is no deep hidden thought or subtle meaning. The plot is a boy gets a puppy then grows out of the puppy. Poor puppy. It is a children's book.