Book Review: Klara and the Sun

“The sun always has ways to reach us.”

It is difficult to write about ‘Klara and the Sun’ without giving too much away about the story. Basically, it is about Klara and her life. We get to know Klara in a robot store together with many artificial beings where she is available for sale.

Klara later becomes the artificial friend of Josie, a teenage girl. Josie lives together with her divorced mother in a fancy, modern house and Melania, their housekeeper. One day Klara is brought into Josie’s home and will stay there.

What is special about the story? It is told by Klara, an artificial human. Everything is told from her perspective in her own manner. Everything is new to Klara. How will she be integrated into human society? How is everyone treating Klara, and how is this affecting her thinking, feelings, and actions?

It is not clear if the story takes place today or in the near future. I do not know about the newest technology, and what today’s robots are capable of. It is not so relevant, because the story raises ethical questions. I think bottom line it is about ethics: How do we deal with one another personally as humans. How do we define life? Where does consciousness begin? How do we behave towards artificial intelligence?

Similar questions were raised in numerous sci-fi movies. I am a big fan of Star Trek Next Generation and was reminded of Data, the beloved android. I think also of the replicants in the Blade Runner-movies. Artificial life is also a topic in literature, from Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ to ‘Machines like me’ by Ian McEwan.

I liked ‘Klara and the Sun’ very much. It took me a while to get used to the writing style, and to the way Klara sees everything. She finds her own expressions to describe the world. Sometimes it is funny, when she sees a ‘dog lead woman’, ‘headset walkers’ or ‘pedal cyclists’.The narrative shows a consistent narrative style from the perspective of Klara: her language and her way of observation.

The novel is interesting. There are almost no lengths in the narrative. The plot development is stringent and logical. The story of Klara is very touching and sad. ‘Klara and the Sun’ is no light novel. It reads lightly, but all in all it is a classical drama.

Kazuo Ishiguro wrote several books about many topics. I have read ‘When We Were Orphans’, which is one of my all-time favorite, and his novel about an ukiyo-e artist ‘Artist of the Floating World’. Kazuo Ishiguro has proved his writing skills again with ‘Klara and the Sun’.

Reviewed Title

Kazuo Ishiguro: Klara and the Sun. Knopf, 2021 (Cover).

Book Review: Before the Coffee Gets Cold #1

“If you could go back, who would you want to meet?“

I took this book from the library as it was free to borrow, and I have seen it around on goodreads and on some blogs. I had no expectations, judging from the cover I thought it would be a light, entertaining novel.

The idea of time traveling sounded interesting.

The book consists of four chapters, each is a separate story of someone time traveling. The stories are loosely tied together. The time travel takes place in a café named Funiculi Funicula. There are a set of rules, and you can travel in time. Each chapter deals with basically the same characters, but different relationships are being explored. The chapters are named

1. The Lover
2. Husband and Wife
3. The Sisters
4. Mother and Child.

The four stories are different, but after a while it gets repetitive. You get to know the rules in the beginning, but they are repeated several times. Also, the ceremony is always the same.

Although the question, if you want to travel in time because there is a regret or an unresolved issue, is intriguing, I find the novel a little superficial. The personal fate of each time traveler is sad in its own way, and they deserve compassion for their situation, but I cannot feel other than that the narration is exaggerated, and all in all it was way too much drama for me. I like it better, if a story is narrated more subtle. ‘Before the Coffee Gets Cold’ is a rewritten play and maybe that is the reason, why it did not feel like a novel.

The writing style did not inspire me, because the author is telling too much. There are some lengths in the narrative, so it gets boring very quickly. I guess, the idea is good, but the stories did not work for me. There is a second book in this series, but I would not read them. After finishing it, I asked myself if I wanted to go back in time? I am still thinking, I am not sure. Maybe the book taught me to live every moment of my life mindfully.

Reviewed Title

Toshikazu Kawaguchi: Before the Coffee Gets Cold. Picador, 2019 (Cover).

川口俊 和: コーヒーが冷めないうちに. 2015.

Art on Tuesday: Plum Garden

This woodblock print shows the ‘Plum Garden in Kamata’ 蒲田の梅園 (Kamata no Umezono) otherwise called ‘Umeyashiki Park’ in Kamata. It is designed by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) as part of the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo in 1857 (picture no. 27, spring).
The ukiyo-e shows a wide plum garden in the south of Ômori. You see several plum trees in blooming. Some tea houses are surrounded by visitors. On the right there is a palanquin with a blue cushion used for travelling.