BOOK REVIEW: What I've been reading in 2022

Klara And The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Prior to reading Klara and The Sun, I had read two novels by Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, the Anglo-Japanese, Nobel prize-winning author of novels with such irresistible titles as A Pale View Of Hills and An Artist Of The Floating World. The first was the stunning The Remains Of The Day, which I read after seeing the equally excellent film version starring Antony Hopkins. Much more recently, I read Never Let Me Go, also made into a very good film (starring Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley).

   

   

    A year or so ago, I read a fascinating conversation between Ishiguro and his friend Neil Gaiman about the way fantasy is viewed by the literary establishment, which explored among other things why fantasy is often viewed with such snobbish disdain, as if it should be fenced within a generic compound labelled 'books about wizards and stuff for the feeble-minded'. It has long been a source of bemusement to me that well-read folk of my acquaintance are so condescending about 'fantasy' and so contemptuous of it. After all, these literary types presumably hold A Midsummer Night's Dream or Gulliver's Travels in high esteem. They don't seem to dismiss Austen's novels as simply girlish romantic fantasies, or the Bronte's work as merely the fervid gothic imaginings of three isolated and over-imaginative sisters running about on the North Yorkshire moors (well, yes, in reality, they often do - and in Austen's case it is only her ascerbic wit and ironic tone that helps her rise in their estimation beyond the dual nadirs of 'chick-lit' and 'humour'). 

In reality, the fantasy genre, just like the sci-fi genre (Ishiguro's latest works straddle the two), is a huge umbrella term for a vast range of writing, much of which is most definitely 'literary'. On one level, every novel ever written is in the genre 'fantasy', but people often hear the word 'fantasy' and immediately think of dungeons and dragons, Tolkeinesque elves and orcs, and children's novels (many of which are among the best books ever written). They associate it with childhood, with cliche, with simplicity, when in fact there are hundreds of fantasy novels that are very far indeed from these things. Critics have apparently felt uneasy by the fantasy elements of Ishiguro's most recent novel, The Buried Giant - Never Let Me Go and Klara And The Sun both fit into the category of fantasy's slightly more respectable cousin, science fiction, so have escaped the worst of this knee-jerk prejudice, but they still have their detractors.

Like several other ‘literary’ novelists such as Margaret Atwood and Kate Atkinson, Ishiguro has become increasingly interested in fantasy as a genre and his recent novels have been fantasy/science fiction narratives. There are people who find it difficult to accept a writer producing work in different genres – like the outrage over Bob Dylan moving on from acoustic to electric, or the inability to accept actors associated with one role when they move onto a different one, this attitude is narrow-minded and silly, though understandable. People like to categorise others and we don’t accept change easily (at least initially). However, these days it seems to be much more common and much more acceptable for artists of all kinds to try their hand at all sorts of things, and experimentation is at the heart of creativity, whether it is The Beatles experimenting with music from different cultures or Barbara Hepworth using different media in her sculptures. It is also possible to argue that Ishiguro’s early work had a distinct fantastical element, and that he uses his exploration of fantasy and science-fiction to make profound points about life, just as all his novels do.

Klara and The Sun is narrated by Klara herself. She is an artificial life form, humanoid, highly intelligent, and created to be a companion for a child. This decision to write from the perspective of a non-human being is not new, but it gives the novel’s narrative style a simplicity which is actually quite refreshing. There is a clarity and generosity about Klara’s ‘voice’ which both charms and frustrates the reader. She is an observer who observes the people around her in minute detail, often with great incisiveness, but she also misunderstands situations due to lack of information (Ishiguro is a master of the unreliable narrator), and she is a product of her programming.  The story concerns her relationship with an isolated and ill human girl, but to tell any more would give away too much of the plot – the narrative is actually fairly thin, though beautifully-paced and satisfying in its own quiet way.

At first, I found the novel a little flat and slow, but Ishiguro includes enough hints at mysteries to be resolved to keep the reader’s attention (though readers who like more conventional, generic sci fi and fantasy might feel a little cheated by the quietness of the plot). I read this novel back in early January, and it has proved to be one which lingers in the mind, raising questions about what it is to be human, about the duality of soul and body, the nature of belief, and the purpose of existence. It is a poignant novel with a number of similarities to Ishiguro’s earlier Never Let Me Go, not least the relatively naïve narrator.

RATING:  ****  [well worth reading]