Love etc

 In Kazuo Ishiguro‘s much anticipated science fiction, Klara and the Sun, the narrator is an Artificial Friend named Klara. The story begins with the store where Klara, a solar-powered humanoid robot  is standing there watching carefully the behaviour of people who come into the shop to browse and also those who pass in the street outside. The AFs are solar-powered and designed to offer companionship to children of parents who have bought it.  Klara and all the other Artificial Friends need to take in as much sun as possible for their nourishment.  She remains hopeful that  she will soon be chosen by a customer. One day,  fourteen year-old Josie chooses her. Klara becomes  the best android friend one can possibly have. Klara is extremely observant, loyal and kind. Through Klara, we see that we are in danger of losing the human heart in the name of advancement for the human race.  

Josie hangs out with Ricky who is not lifted like her. Josie’s mother organises a gathering for her to mingle  with her peer group and she invites Ricky along. From the exchange and the way Ricky communicates with Josie’s peers, Klara notices  how Ricky is different from those lifted children  who have been invited to the interaction meeting. She also finds that  Josie behaves differently in the presence of these teenagers, and  words said  by the store Manager come to her mind. She is advised by the store manager not to invest too much in the promises of humans. She recalls the boy AF she saw ‘through the gap between the slow taxis, walking despondently along the RPO Building side, three paces behind his teenager’, and she wonders if Josie and her will ever walk in such a way.

Rick tells Klara that Josie and him have a plan for themselves. Both Josie and Rick know that if Josie hangs out much more with her peers, they are afraid she won’t be Josie anymore, she will end up becoming one of them.  Klara assures Rick that she and Rick have similar goals and as the story goes, they both care a great deal about Josie.  

Klara is indeed full of insights. Josie is frail and she has poor health. When Klara learns about what Josie’s mother’s true intent for her role is, she resolves to learn everything she can possibly learn about Josie. When Paul, Josie’s dad asks if she thinks she can pull off the role, she responds that it won’t be easy but she believes that it will be within her abilities to learn everything about Josie. Paul then asks her. Do you believe in the human heart? I don’t mean simply the organ, obviously. I’m speaking in the poetic sense. The human heart. Do you think there is such a thing? Something that makes each of us special and individual?

Klara has this to say about the human heart.

‘It might indeed be the hardest part of Josie to learn. It might be like a house with many rooms. Even so, a devoted AF, given time, could walk through each of those rooms, studying them carefully in turn, until they became like her own home.’

‘ Of course, a human heart is bound to be complex. But it must be limited. Even if Mr Paul is talking in the poetic sense, there’ll be an end to what there is to learn,’

‘ Manager, I did all I could to learn Josie and had it become necessary, I would have done my utmost. But I don’t think it would have worked out so well. Not because I wouldn’t have achieved accuracy. But however hard I tried, I believe now there would have remained something beyond my reach. The mother, Rick, Melania Housekeeper, the Father. I ‘d never have reached what they felt for Josie in their hearts. I’m now sure of this, Manager.’

 Klara has an epiphany. There is something very special about Josie, but it isn’t inside Josie because it is inside those who love her.

Klara and the Sun is a charming story. Although I enjoy reading stories about Artificial Intelligence, the premise of the story is about genetic engineering and that is definitely unsettling.

The theme of the story is in essence : what does it mean to love ? and raises the question : What makes us ‘human’?

Love after love written by Ingrid Persaud is a story about Betty Ramdin, her teenage son, Solo and their lodger Mr Chetan.

It follows three narrators – Betty, navigating life as a young widow, her teenage son Solo and their lodger Mr Chetan. They have very different temperaments and somehow together they form an unconventional family in Trinidad and have a close bond that lasts a lifetime. Mr Chetan and Betty have secrets and one night after drinking some rums they open up to one another. When she finds out that he is a closet gay man who is unable to claim his sexual identity, she spills some dark secret that she has been carrying all these years. Solo overhears the conversation and becomes enraged and confused. He manages to get his mother to purchase an air ticket for him to fly to New York. He lies about why he is going there to visit his uncle and cousins during his vacation when he has every intention to settle in America, far away from his mother who has brought him up singlehandedly.

When I began reading the novel, I did not like the voices of the narrators. The prose is intended to be rhythmic and it took me a while to get used to the language that is much colloquial, blended with Trinidadian dialect.But as the story unfolds, you get acquainted with the characters and you want to know what will become of Solo and whether Betty and Mr Chetan will remain as platonic friends.

Ingrid Persaud is a compelling storyteller. She has written a heart-wrenching story about love, loss and loneliness. It is an engaging read. Love after love is the winner for Costa Book Awards 2020.