Big Novel, Big Questions
I was drawn to this audiobook initially because I typically like novels about Japanese life and culture. And after reading all of the hype about how great Ruth Ozeki’s newest novel was, I definitely had high expectations. “A Tale for Time Being” did not disappoint. Philosophical, funny, surreal, and suspenseful, this novel manages to balance a mélange of genres and moods. The book is truly two stories—one about a Japanese school girl and the other about a middle-aged writer in Canada—that converge in the form of a Hello Kitty diary. What really makes this novel is the story of Nao—a curious, defiant teenage girl who is planning, tragically (yet also, somehow, lightheartedly), her own suicide. Ozeki’s rendering of her is so real that I almost believed that Nao was living, breathing human being. And then there’s old “old Jiko”—Nao’s 104-year-old Zen Buddhist (and feminist) great-grandmother—who deserves a novel entirely unto herself. The parallel story of Ruth—a novelist living on a remote island who discovers Nao’s diary washed up on shore—is also interesting, but it just doesn’t have the same vitality (hence the four stars). It’s a big novel that asks big questions—reality, suicide, honor, religion, family, and, most poignantly, the interconnectivity between reader and writer. It’s a novel that makes you think—resurfacing here and there, long after finishing. And this, in my opinion, is a very good thing. A definite read for anyone who enjoys literary fiction or those interested in Japanese culture.