By Noah Monk, Junior Reporter
Klara and the Sun is a story that is from the perspective of an android Artificial Friend (AF) named Klara who is observant, curious, and eager to understand the world. Klara is eventually bought to care for and accompany a sick girl named Josie. As readers, we learn alongside Klara what various emotions like grief, sadness, loneliness, and love are like in a difficult, futuristic society, but also from the perspective of someone who has never felt them before.
Kazuo's Klara and the Sun accurately portray a specific kind of loss: the kind that only appears when one feels they are going to lose something long before it vanishes. This sort of loss is a grief that is dependent on the helpless anticipation leading to the eventual loss. Kazuo captures the feelings of helplessness so well, you cannot help but blend with characters in the story, who are powerless to prevent the figurative dark storm clouds rolling over the hills. Even the sadness people feel in this novel is unique; it is a pre-emptive sadness, one where people are sad about something going to happen, rather than the sadness following a loss.
I would give this book a five out of six. Klara and the Sun is an emotionally draining book that evokes the emotions Kazuo intends. Based on this novel, the author is quite deserving of his Nobel Prize in Literature. When I started reading, I had a slight idea of what the story was about and I had already begun to prepare myself for a particular ending that the story suggests; however, Kazuo twisted the story in such a way that readers feel the anticipated emotions in an unexpected and tragic way.
I think the subtle nuance between pre-emptive sadness and the sadness of loss is what the author excels at doing the best in this story. For me, it is hard to say anything negative about this book as it is a good work of fiction; however, if I had to speak one weakness, I find the dialogue, especially Klara's dialogue, is not spectacular and feels synthetic. I also have mixed feelings about the novel not being quotable. A lot of the dialogue is not particularly flashy or memorable, like something you might see in Hamlet or Furies of Calderon, which makes it difficult to remember anything about the book except what certain scenes felt like. I think this is both a strength and weakness of the book.
Overall, I would only recommend this book to those who, in a sense, do not mind destroying themselves a little bit or are looking to understand the feelings leading up to a tragic event, like pre-emptive sadness. Klara and the Sun is a good example of what literature deserving of a Nobel Prize should be: emotionally taxing, with complex characters, and haunting storylines.