Kazuo Ishiguro’s Style - Klara and the Sun

I recently finished Klara and the Sun, the third book I’ve read by Ishiguro after Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go.

I was browsing some of the posts on r/books about the book and it blew me away how some people miss the subtext completely or want world building and overt answers in his books.

Ishiguro’s entire style is in withholding information and letting the reader fill in the blanks. On the surface, the stories seem simplistic and linear, but there’s an entire world of emotional turbulence happening underneath. A more obvious example of this was Ricky and Josie’s bubblegum drawing game, their conveyed through Josie’s pictures and Ricky filling in the blanks. That’s the crux of Ishiguro’s style; he draws the picture for us, and the reader must fill in the blanks, almost project themselves onto the emotions of the characters to try to make sense of it.

I’ve noticed that I’ll get through his books just fine, making note of general themes and patterns, but the emotions behind them end up lingering for days afterwards. There’s a heartbreakingly quiet ache to his stories, a rich subtle devastation and that’s what makes them so brilliant. There’s no enormous climax at the end, just a silent resignation at everything that’s happened. Steven’s reflections at the end of Remains of the Day and the protagonists acknowledging their inevitable fate in Never Let Me Go are clear examples of that exact heartbreaking acceptance.

The characters repression of emotions (Josie’s mother getting upset at Josie playing the car game where characters can crash and die) force the reader to fill in the blanks. The mom isn’t mad about the game itself, she fears Josie’s death so much and doesn’t want to lose her daughter; it’s conveyed through this tension filled, almost angry conversation. The lack of answers and specific details (world building) is intentional. Therefore, the information he does include, speaks volumes about the characters and situations.

Having said all that, I’m still trying to make out a couple things that I can’t draw conclusions about and would love to hear perspectives.

• Why did Klara see the red shelf from the store during her visit to the barn? I saw it as a symbol of her own displaced identity or her fragmented memories.

• What happened to Rosa and what is its significance? The manager indicates things didn’t work out for her and earlier in the book Klara had an intrusive image of Rosa in pain/her leg broken (?). Was the intrusive image of Rosa in pain a manifestation of Klara’s own fear of being left behind?