A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

 

Describing A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki is a challenge. Nao is a Japanese girl who grew up in California, but returned to Japan after her father lost his job in the dot-com bubble collapse.  We read her diary as she's bullied in school, watches as her father becomes a suicidal shut-in, and her life becomes harder and harder.  Meanwhile, on a small island in Canada, Ruth and her husband Oliver live a quite life with their cat Pesto and Ruth finds Nao's diary washed up on shore. She thinks maybe it's from the 2011 tsunami.  We cut between the dual perspectives.

But that description isn't really enough. It's a story about the past and the present and how we respect time and family. It's a story about writing, but not in a preachy way, but in the way that writing is challenging, but important to do. It's about the role of parents, the role of technology, and the role of dreams in a modern world.  It's about hope when hopelessness is ubiquitous. It's about a mystery and research and a marriage.  

I recommend this book, but it took me a long time to read because you can't rush through it. It's sad and painful at times, which made me sometimes not want to turn the page. But Ozeki's writing is also something you want to linger over because it's stark and spare, but insightful and full of emotion and charm.  If you're looking for a lighthearted 2020 read, this isn't for you, but if you want something immersive that will make you think outside of yourself, this is a great option.

Things of note:

Chanson (page 3): A French song

Van Willebrand's disease (page 73): A blood disorder in which the blood does not clot properly.

Kotatsu (page 80): A Japanese appliance consisting of a low table, a futon or a thick blanket or quilt, and a heating appliance. The futon is placed over the table and the heating unit is under the table. I want one of these desperately.

Image taken from Amazon.

"The sea is filled with plastic confetti. It floats around and gets eaten by the fishes or spat up onto the beach. It's in our food chain. I don't envy the anthropologists, trying to make sense of a material culture from the bright hard nuggets they'll be digging out of the middens of our future." (page 94): I think about this so much with respect to clothing. So much of our clothing is plastic and people buy and throw away so much clothing and that's the tip of the iceberg. Plastic is everywhere and impossible to get away from, even if you want to.

Permacoach composted a pair of stretch jeans to show exactly how much plastic it takes to make one pair. Too much is the answer.

"The past is weird. I mean, does it really exist? It feels like it exists, but where is it?  And if it did exist but doesn't now, then where did it go?" (page 97)