Klara and the Sun

My second Ishiguro in a row — why did I wait so long to discover him?? — and it seems almost impossible to talk about his books without going into spoilers. It seems safe to lay out the major themes I note in his writing: classism, empathy, loneliness. Kindness and cruelty. Both books so far have been first-person reminiscence from a quiet but watchful servant-class entity nearing the end of their life, with heavy emphasis on the unreliability of memory and on how, despite our best intentions, our understanding of the world and of others is so incomplete. Both are masterpieces of exposition, with puzzle pieces being hinted at, then appearing in due course, then finally fitting in. Both have been sublime, deeply thoughtful.

I hate using the spoiler tag because of how stupid the Goodreads phone app is with them. But although most of my Goodreads writing is for my loved ones, in part it is also for me — I, too, am reminiscing near the end of life — and it would be unfair to stop without saying more. So I really need to say more. Like: the genetic-enhancement aspect. I still can't say whether this is a major plot point or a minor one. I mean, it is central to the story, and so many of the character dynamics hinge on it; and it is a huge deal, one that ever-so-class-conscious Ishiguro wants us to ponder, but it feels incidental. Is he trying to get the reader to ask, hey waitaminit, why isn't this getting more attention? Is he, goddammit, making the reader actually think about privilege, and underprivilege, and the rights of those who have no voice in what is done to them? I felt like this deserved a lot more air time than Ishiguro gave it, so I‘m obligated to stew about it on my own.

And, empathy. Where did Klara's observation and empathy come from? And, frightening to contemplate, how much connection is there between empathy and animism? Can we ever really understand others, or do we only think we do? Obviously all we can ever see is our projection of other minds, not their true selves, but sometimes we hit and sometimes we miss. Can we really know which is when? Like, Klara tends to imbue everyone's actions with kindness... but that says much more about Klara than about the characters, especially over time as we wonder more about her reliability as narrator. Can empathy and kindness and caring skew how we view the world? (Yes, duh). Can they make us more susceptible to being abused? (Almost certainly). Then the big one: what makes for a better life? Who “wins”: those in the rat race, or those who quietly make their peace with their situation?

And, the two Ishiguro books I've read feature narrators who are disposable: created to serve the needs of others, discarded when their utility is complete. Both of them exquisitely aware of this condition, neither of them bitter or resentful. This point of view is at times jarring, but damn, it's effective. It helped me relate to Klara and to think in ways I might not have.

Dislikes: I found the Helen-Vance thing improbable, even distasteful. It was like a different writer had briefly taken over. WTF was that about? The portrait subplot, I think I see where he was going with it (projection, seeing what we want to see in others, wishful thinking), but it fell flat for me. And Josie's Miracle Recovery, well, that was disappointing. Too neat. Looking back at that list they seem enough to drop a star, but no: five stars in GR-land means “it was amazing!”, and it was, for the questions it raises and for a truly wonderful experience of seeing and feeling through Ishiguro's mind.