英語 Book Report [Klara and the Sun]　

Klara and the Sun

Spoilers ahead! And a lot of rambling as well. 

So, I read this book in literally one day, in a little bit of a rush because the clock was ticking 2 am, so I probably missed or misunderstood some details. However, this book left a big impression on me that I hadn't felt in a while. I'm not an avid reader or anything, and I also re-read books that I love many times, so I'm very glad that I picked up this book and now I can add this to my collection of books to read on repeat. 

General Plot 

The protagonist of the story is essentially an AI robot, which in this story it's called AF (Artificial Friend), and she is named Klara. She is highly observant and sensitive to human's emotions and actions. She worships the sun in sort of superstitious ways since AFs are powered by solar power. There aren't so many characters that appear in this story, so it's pretty easy to keep track of each character. Josie is a 14 year-old girl who purchases Klara, and there is the Mother, who is obviously Josie's mom. There is Rick who is a childhood friend of Josie and sort of like a boyfriend of hers. These are the main focus of the story although there are few more supporting characters. This part is not very clear, but presumably Josie is sick because of a genetic procedure that was done on her to advance her intelligence, which in this story is referred to as being "lifted". She is sick to the point where the Mother believes that she will likely pass away soon. After Klara becomes Josie's AF, Klara tries to bargain with the sun to help Josie get better. Josie and Rick develop their relationship although there are some drama between them, they ultimately stay together while Josie is sick. While that is happening, we start to understand the real motive behind the Mother wanting to get AF for Josie. The Mother actually wants Klara to "continue" Josie after she passes by mimicking her movement and speech pattern. However in the end, Klara's bargain with the sun miraculously works (or could just be a coincidence), and Josie starts to get better and better. The story kind of fizzles out at this point, and everyone, Josie, Rick, the Mother and Klara (even the Housekeeper) start to become distant. Josie and Rick do not end up together, and the plan to continue Josie of course disappears. Klara is useless now that Josie has grown up and heading to college. The novel ends with Klara in a yard(junkyard?) reminiscing on her memories.

Memorable scenes 

• Morgan Fall

The scene where the Mother and Klara go to Morgan Fall just the two of them, because Josie hid being sick and ends up staying home hit me pretty hard. The situation is so realistically human, that I almost felt uncomfortable. the author is so good at painting a picture of conflicting human emotion, that I kind of hated the mom, but couldn't at the same time. I cried when the Mother told Klara to mimic being Josie. I think at that moment I already suspected that the mom wants to make a clone of her daughter, or something like that. Klara acting and saying things that Josie would say was truly sad and kind of beautiful, with the waterfall in the background. 

• Miraculous recovery of Josie

Towards the end where the sun light fills Josie's room was outstanding too. I liked the highly tension filled conversation between the Mother and Rick in which she was accusing Rick if he's happy because he didn't take a risk and he won. They were talking about the procedure to "lift" Josie, and how the mom took the risk and she lost, because Josie is now dying. Having that conversation with a teenager is highly inappropriate, but I felt the desperation from the mom. Klara comes in to tell everyone to go up to Josie's room to see the sun, and I just loved her so much. 

• The yard 

The novel ends with Klara and the Manager, who was the manager at the shop where AFs like Klara were being sold, talking at a junkyard. After Klara fulfilled her purpose of being AF to Josie, she eventually ends up in a junkyard with other AFs. She can no longer move, but she can look back at her memories, and talk. The Manager finds Klara and they start talking about how Klara's life was. I felt an immense sadness hearing the Manager say something like "It was successful, a successful home" after Klara told the Manager that she was with Josie until she left for college. I'm not completely sure why, but to Klara, Josie was everything but to humans Klara was just an AI / robot at the end of the day. 

Thoughts / Conclusion 

Because the book is entirely written from the perspective of an AF, the narrative is not reliable, which is what makes this novel unique. Klara in someway is very naïve and just a sweetheart, but  in someway she completely understand her purpose and does not question anything. I went back on forth thinking Klara is more "human" than the real humans, and Klara is just a program written to be a friend of a rich teenager. The human characters in the story also seem to be in the same conundrum.