2024 #16 Klara and the Sun (Ishiguro)

 

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It means something when the most empathetic character is the non-human one. Klara, as an AF (artificial friend), is even more observant than most, and the lesson is pretty clear (almost from the outset) that if we humans don't observe, don't listen? Then we become rather incapable of empathy.
The book muses upon faith, hope, and love. Klara's faith in the sun is based in hope, but also pragmatic observation and an innocent sense of causation. Josie's mother is hopeful about love, yet lacks faith. Ricky, Josie's pragmatic and "unlifted" friend, perhaps has the strongest faith in Klara as he is able to assist her without really knowing why. Josie is the most human of characters in her determination and courage, but also in her code-switching and mercurial teenagery-ness. Josie's father is a skeptical engineer, but he too has to take a leap of faith in Klara, for the love of Josie.

Ishiguro does not give us all the details. The AFs get only a store as a backstory context. We know there are the lifted and the unlifted children, but we only see the ramifications of that status, not the details regarding how it happens. In this sense, Ricky is one of the most interesting characters in that he represents the folly of societal categories (one is reminded of Dr. Seuss's Sneetches with the stars, and those without stars), as he's clearly one of the most intelligent characters in the novel.

Another lesson from Klara --if only we were all be able to carry the images of our memories and recall them to inform our present understanding. We do, actually, of course, but Ishiguro paints the process slowly and truly through Klara, inviting us to think about our own intentionality and how often we dismiss or suppress our memories because we are not just mere data collectors, but data manipulators.

The ending pushed this away from five stars for me...it felt too much like a saccharine epilogue. We get an explanation of Klara's REAL lesson from the store manager and it all smacked a bit too much of a Care Bears animated special for my taste. I found myself frustrated that the manager herself doesn't get much of a backstory, but Ishiguro has a way of making you accept what he gives you, despite your own desires. In her New York Times Review in 2021, Radhika Jones gets it:

"'Still, when Klara says, "I have my memories to go through and place in the right order," it strikes the quintessential Ishiguro chord. So what if a machine says it? There's no narrative instinct more essential, or more human."

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2024 #15: Murder in the Hollows (James) - Jake Cashen #1

 

Murder in the Hollows by Declan James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I care not a whit about wrestling, so I could have skipped that aspect of this book, and I also had the murderer figured out very early in the game, but still, this was very entertaining. Alexander Cendese does a terrific job of voicing the protagonist Jake Cashen. The first book in any series is important because it either is going to hook us for the long haul, or it won't. This one did, mostly through the protagonist who navigates both his demons and the quirky characters of his small town with a certain amount of earthy skepticism and hard-won good-naturedness.

I'm in for the next in the series, although the preview makes me fear that I'm in for more wrestling. However, the first book sets up enough characters that I already felt empathy (I do like how the crime happens almost immediately) knowing who dies in the second. I hope that all the books get audiobook versions with Cendese, because now that is how I hear Jake Cashen and all the other fun characters--his overbearing-but-ultimately-loving older sister, his cranky-but-ultimately-loving grandpa, the very cool sheriff, Jake's more-observant-that-she-seems high school sweetheart, and more.

Declan James's former career in law enforcement serves him well. The policing narrative is smart, and entertaining as it is seen through the critical eye of Cashen, who bemoans the idiocy of his partner, rather than parading procedure around in flattened dialogue meant only to show that the author knows his stuff.

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2024 #14: Whispers of the Dead (Tremayne) - Sister Fildema #15

 

Whispers of the Dead by Peter Tremayne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In this second collection of short stories in the Sister Fidelma series (Hemlock at Vespers is the first), we get three original stories, and the rest have appeared elsewhere. This can be frustrating for the already-initiated. I'd love to have a "dossier" or bio of Fidelma in the beginning -- she's a dalaigh, qualified to the level of anruth, etc, etc. so that these details could be left out of every story. But, I get it -- most short story collections are like this, but when they all involve the same character, it can feel tedious to go through it each time, in each story. I understand it in the books--that way they can be read out of sequence.

That aside, Fidelma fans may appreciate the appearance of characters such as Abbot Laisran, Fidelma's distant cousin/friend (not sure? varying descriptions), who appears in three different stories in the collection (see also "A Canticle for Wulfstan" in Hemlock at Vespers). Abbot Colmán, too, appears elsewhere in the Fidelmaverse. One of the more interesting stories for those wanting more of Fidelma's backstory is "The Blemish"--it is a bit of slog unless you love socratic debate, but it is nice to see Fidelma as a young law student in examination with THE Brehon Morann (of whom we hear in almost every book). Eadulf only makes one appearance in the last story, "The Lost Eagle" (and strangely, he doesn't speak). I enjoyed "The Banshee" because one of the most interesting aspects of Fildema's character is how she has to negotiate Christianity and the old religion, without dismissing the latter wholly as "superstition" and acknowledging the powertripping aspects of the former. "The Fosterer", new to the collection, is particularly sad, as no one really "wins" at the end.

The collection would work well for someone not that familiar with the series--it definitely stands alone, and readers who follow the chronology of the series might not appreciate the disruption. It is interesting to see all the different contexts, however, and amusing to see that the stories have previous appeared volumes ranging from Great Irish Drinking Stories to The Mammoth Book of Ancient Roman Whodunits.

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2024 #13: Half of a Yellow Sun (Adichie)

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a beautiful and difficult book. Difficult because of the painful narratives of the Biafran War, but beautiful in the characters who are so vivid and real in their flaws, their hopes, and their lived existence. We meet Ugwu, a thirteen year old boy from a small village who works as a servant for Odenigbo, Professor of Mathematics at Nsukka University. Odenigbo's girlfriend, then wife, is Olanna, daughter of the influential Chief Ozobia, and more significantly, twin sister to Kainene, who was one of my favorite characters in the book. Not blessed with Olanna's commonly-accepted beauty, Kainene is fearless, acerbic, and honest (especially in the latter half of the book when war reaches her heart). Kaynene takes up with Richard, an English writer who comes to Nigeria to write a book about the art. Adichie artfully uses Richard to express the more subtle racism (whereas his ex-girlfriend is outright and obviously racist). For example, in Chapter 6, Kainene says to Richard: "...it's wrong of you to think that love leaves room for nothing else. It's possible to love something, and still condescend to it." This powerful statement is made after Richard is called out at a party for going on and on about the amazing details and complexity of some African bronzes, not realizing the implication of his surprise--why would they NOT be amazing and complex? Richard is one of the three main narrative voices and the way he grows, partially due to his love for and relationship with Kainene, is really thoughtful and not a single narrative. None of the main characters are unidimensional. Odenigbo moves from idealist to grieving son. Ugwu moves from innocent to war-worn and morally compromised. But perhaps it is mostly the story of the two sisters, Olanna and Kainene where this book touched me most. The horrors of war have their own narratives, but Adichie does not lose sight of the human story that perseveres -- love, betrayal, friendship, enmity--everyone with a heart that has to question some of the time.

Adichie does not sidestep some of the particulars of the Biafran War, however. The book is an opportunity to understand better (particularly for those of us who were not taught about the Igbo and the Hausa) the complex politics, racism, and global manipulations/voyeurism that brought about between 500,000 and two million Biafran civilians dying of starvation.

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