Klara and the Sun

I love a story about a sensitive self-aware little robot. Artificial intelligence with more anxiety than the humans surrounding it? Sign me up. I find it so endearing.

Klara is a solar-powered AF; Artificial Friend. Children are accompanied by AFs to nurture their development and wellbeing. After waiting patiently in a store to be purchased, Klara finally gets to go home with a girl named Josie. Except Josie is not well, and neither is her home, and neither is the world.

Klara and the Sun is about a society with a veneer of everyday normalcy halfheartedly concealing volatile politics, environmental ruin, inaccessible higher education, vast inequity, and desperate attempts to escape mortality. So I guess it's a book about real life but with a few more robots.

It is a naïve yet melancholy book about growing up and apart. Its ending is ambiguous, leaving Klara both triumphant and forgotten. It made my heart feel weird, and I can't tell if I liked it in the end. It made me feel both uneasy and underwhelmed. Maybe the meaning will catch up to me.

Here is a long list of things this reminded me of: the Murderbot Diaries series, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Peter Pan, Toy Story, [b:The Giver|3636|The Giver (The Giver, #1)|Lois Lowry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1342493368l/3636.SY75.jpg|2543234],[b:The Echo Wife|52379735|The Echo Wife|Sarah Gailey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1588791809l/52379735.SY75.jpg|73056559]. Oh and also, Rick reminds me of Rudy from [b:The Book Thief|19063|The Book Thief|Markus Zusak|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522157426l/19063.SY75.jpg|878368]. I found him a quiet and impressive depiction of positive masculinity, much like every male character in Emezi's [b:Pet|43568395|Pet|Akwaeke Emezi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548836225l/43568395.SX50.jpg|60224408].

I don't know that this gives a good idea of what the book is about, but if Ishiguro wanted a coherent review he could have chosen not to scramble up my soul. Now I gotta read [b:Never Let Me Go|6334|Never Let Me Go|Kazuo Ishiguro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353048590l/6334.SY75.jpg|1499998].