海角大神

What makes a person 鈥渟pecial and individual鈥� and therefore irreplaceable?聽 Is there something unreachable and nontransferable deep inside each of us, something uniquely human that even advanced science and artificial intelligence can鈥檛 fathom or duplicate? These are questions that Kazuo Ishiguro probes in 鈥淜lara and the Sun,鈥� his first new novel since winning the Nobel Prize in 2017.聽

Like 鈥淣ever Let Me Go,鈥� Ishiguro鈥檚 discomfiting 2005 dystopian novel about clones raised to be organ donors, his latest involves science taken to sinister, ethically questionable levels.聽 But it is also a surprisingly warm morality tale about love, heart, hope, empathy, and the idea that 鈥渢here are all kinds of ways to lead a successful life.鈥澛犅�

The book is narrated by Klara, an uncommonly observant and sympathetic solar-powered AF (artificial friend) whose mandate is to closely study her teenage charge, a girl named Josie, to better fulfill her role as Josie鈥檚 caring companion.聽聽

Like the butler in Ishiguro鈥檚 Booker Prize-winning 鈥淭he Remains of the Day,鈥� Klara has a limited purview 鈥� partly because of her subservient, low social standing in Josie鈥檚 household, but also because she isn鈥檛 human. Her manner is simple, her speech direct, and her personality is without wiles, but she鈥檚 no dummy.聽聽

Klara worships the sun, which fuels her, and she is convinced that harnessing his power (she views the sun as masculine) will make Josie, who is in poor health, well again. This idea is taken to sometimes cloying extremes, but while Klara is by design intensely focused on her charge鈥檚 well-being, this is not another Ishiguro novel whose characters are so wrapped up in the minutiae of their daily lives that they ignore the big, darker picture.聽聽

In fact, Ishiguro upends our expectations: Klara, although a technological breakthrough, is 鈥� unlike the artificial human in Ian McEwan鈥檚 2019 novel, 鈥淢achines Like Me鈥� 鈥� not creepy. Without giving away too much, I can say that the novel鈥檚 principal 鈥� and far creepier 鈥� ethical issue involves genetic manipulations that confer special social and educational advantages, which leads to an unfair, stratified society. These 鈥渆dits鈥� can also carry grave health risks.

Klara鈥檚 perspective 鈥� her literal point of view 鈥� is key to the novel, which opens in the city shop where she awaits purchase, along with more sophisticated, newer model AFs. When she is moved from mid-store to the front window, she revels in the extra exposure to sunlight and the expanded view: 鈥淚鈥檇 always longed to see more of the outside 鈥� and to see it in all its detail,鈥� she says.聽

Ishiguro carefully limits our perspective to what Klara takes in, which means physical details in particular are often scant: Josie is thin, with an 鈥渦ncertain stride鈥�; her mother is tense and wears 鈥渉igh-rank office clothes.鈥� We never learn exactly what the mother does when she drives off to work every day (lawyer, perhaps), and why she wasn鈥檛 鈥渟ubstituted鈥� by AI like Josie鈥檚 absent father, a brilliant engineer, who now lives in a rough community of outliers.聽

Also, unlike McEwan鈥檚 fully functioning artificial man, we never learn much about Klara鈥檚 physical being. Does she have skin? How human does she look? Josie鈥檚 description of her, later quoted by Klara, is likewise limited 鈥� to a teenager鈥檚 perspective: 鈥渞eally cute, and really smart. Looked almost French? Short hair, quite dark, and all her clothes were like dark too and she had the kindest eyes and she was so smart.鈥澛�

We do learn, however, that Klara can鈥檛 smell, which she tells Josie鈥檚 boyfriend, Rick, when he apologizes for the odor of the ramshackle house in which he lives with his disheveled mother. This household provides a troubling window into the limited prospects for the 鈥渦nlifted鈥� in this brave new world. For one thing, they do not have expensive androids, and Rick鈥檚 mother, on meeting Klara, wonders whether she鈥檚 supposed to treat her like a guest, or 鈥渓ike a vacuum cleaner.鈥� Klara does not take offense, but readers feel the question鈥檚 sting.

鈥淜lara and the Sun鈥� touches on a number of weighty issues, including the insidious encroachments of AI technology; the repercussions of rampant inequality; the degradation of the environment (with smog that, to Klara鈥檚 dismay, blocks the sun鈥檚 benefits); and the prevalence of loneliness. In her dogged attempts to understand humans, Klara tries to untangle what makes them act the way they do; is it something to do with what Josie鈥檚 father calls 鈥渢he human heart ... in the poetic sense鈥�?聽

Ishiguro鈥檚 intrinsically honest narrator is limited, but she has depth. This is a character whose vision goes wonky and fractures into tiny boxes when she is overwhelmed by what she sees, yet who never stops trying to synthesize the pieces.聽聽

The book鈥檚 cinematic final scene, which underscores Ishiguro鈥檚 theme of obsolescence in the face of rapidly advancing technology, may strike readers as desolate. But Ishiguro chooses to play up its more hopeful aspects by having ever-sunny Klara use this time as an opportunity to process all she鈥檚 experienced. And his unusually likable android comes to a radiant epiphany about Josie 鈥� and by extension, other humans: 鈥淭here聽was聽something very special, but it wasn鈥檛 inside Josie. It was inside those who loved her.鈥� Corny? Well, yes. 聽But also wise and sweet 鈥� and a pleasant subversion of what we expect from a dystopian story about the dangers of technology taken too far.

In addition to the Monitor, Heller McAlpin reviews books regularly for NPR and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications.