Book Review - A Tale of The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

A Tale for The Time Being is a complex and layered novel full of darkness and light. The story begins in Tokyo with Nao Yasutani, age sixteen, writing in her diary ~ being read by Ruth on a small island in Desolation Sound in British Columbia. The diary was found washed up on a beach, in a Hello Kitty lunchbox sealed in plastic bags, by Ruth. The true value of this recovery was not realized until Ruth’s partner, Oliver, lets curiosity get the better of him. He opens the carefully wrapped package and found not just a diary, but letters and a watch. Nao, who wants to tell her great-grandmother’s story, wanders, as teen-agers are wont to do through the minutae of her life, her father’s life,  her great uncle’s time in World War II but misses telling her great grandmother's story. Jiko is 104 years old and a Zen Buddhist nun. However, it is Nao's relationship with her great grandmother, old Jiko, that binds and soothes the traumas that have been and are to come, as well as the life and death decisions of suicide for not just Nao, but her father and her great uncle who had been a Kamikaze pilot. Another character, a Jungle crow native to Japan, appears in the story on Ruth’s island and seems to be another Time Being linking all of the characters past and present.

An intriguing read, this novel promoted some great discussion in my first book group of the season. Questions about our environment, history and human relationships linger with many possibilities discussed.

“She smiled.”Life is full of stories. Or maybe 

life is only stories. Good night, my dear Nao.”

~ Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for The Time Being

Title: A Tale for the Time Being
Author: Ruth Ozeki
Publisher: the Penguin Group
Publication Date: 2013 (Hard cover)

Type: Fiction
Format:  Soft Cover (2014)
ISBN: 978-0-14-318742-4
Type:  Fiction