Klara is an artificial friend, AF for short, whom we meet
while she is on display in a store, waiting to be purchased. She becomes the companion of 14-year-old
Josie, who suffers from bouts of illness whose cause we don’t discover until
deep in the book. We also don’t discover
the meaning of the word “lifted,” which applies to Josie but not to her friend
Rick, until late in the novel. Ishiguro
keeps us guessing about a number of things, and each revelation was, for me, a
surprise that I felt I should have seen coming, given the numerous clues. Klara develops a somewhat distorted view of
the world that could spell trouble, not just for Josie, but also for Klara’s
future as well. Ishiguro generates more
than just suspense here; the novel builds to a sense of foreboding and almost
inevitable doom that is almost, but not quite, scary. We never forget that Klara is essentially a
sophisticated robot, but we do wish her success while at the same time doubting
it. She develops a scheme for curing
Josie’s illness that hinges on a spiritual belief in the healing qualities of
the sun, perhaps based on the fact that she is solar-powered. This book is so much more optimistic than
Never Let Me Go and covers just as many
themes as
The
Remains of the Day. While the latter
hinges on regret and misplaced allegiance, this book addresses the pros and
cons of automation, as well as the qualities which make us human and whether or
not they can be duplicated in a machine.
Ironically, Klara is sometimes more humane than the humans.
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