A Tale for the Time Being: A Novel

Time has come today...and so it was and so it will be. Ruth Ozeki's imaginative and delightful book has easily taken its place as one of my very favorite books of the year.The narrative interweaves two stories: that of teenage Nao, whose family turn-of-fortunes has forced her to return from Silicon Valley to a cramped Tokyo apartment and an unforgiving school setting where she is bullied and tortured by classmates. Gradually sinking into depression, Nao's only respite is a summer stay with her great-grandmother Jiko, a Zen Buddhist who encourages her to develop her own "supapawa" (superpower). Her father's suffering is equally pronounced yet more hidden, as his feeble attempts at suicide rock her world.The other narrative is from Ruth; she and her husband Oliver live in an ecologically beautiful and isolated islet called Desolation Sound and one day, she comes across Nao's Hello Kitty lunchbox with her diary and other mementos...swept onto shore. Ruth and Oliver not so coincidentally happen to possess the same names as the author and her real-life husband.As the teenager's world increasingly impinges on Ruth's, the author delves into the real meaning of time and the thin barrier of separation that peels away as we get to know each other. How much agency do we have over another person's narrative? How do we connect with that shining single moment that we need to establish our human will and attain truth?In the words of Nao's uncle, a World War II kamikaze pilot, "Both life and earth manifest in every moment of existence. Our human body appears and disappears moment by moment, without cease, and this ceaseless arising and passing away is what we experience as time and being. They are not separate."Ultimately, the theme of this book is the life force of imagination and creation: how we weave mythical stories and authentic stories, how we create stories about others, how we eventually - if we concentrate - get to own our own stories, and how we put those stories to paper. If this all sounds too "heavy", it's not. The voice of Nao is that of a genuine irreverent teenager; it's fresh, authentic, and delightful. And Ruth and Oliver - half-created, half-real - are engaging and searching characters/personages who are as large as life itself.I loved this book - how it introduces philosophical ideas in a very accessible way, how it combines insight and some humor with inventiveness, memory and myth and how ultimately it focuses on our shared humanity. It's a 6-star for me.

We are all “time beings.” Our time is limited. Finite. “Birth, death, same thing,” the beginning & ending of our time. Precious moments are passing as I write and as you read. Are we just filling our time with diversions, or are we making the best use of time? At the same time, are there parallel universes, where we are spending our time more productively becoming superheroes or ending our time through suicide? If these questions make your head hurt, then Ruth Ozeki’s novel may not be for you; but if you relish tackling the big questions of metaphysics and quantum mechanics, this book will exercise your mind. No promises that you will understand this book. I have mixed feelings about it. It held my interest, but I find it overly ambitious and unnecessarily obtuse & didactic in the end as it tries to tie Zen Buddhism; the space time continuum, through the example Schrodinger’s cat no less; and Marcel Proust (In Search of Lost Time) all together.The book has two narrators: a middle-aged writer named Ruth, who finds a diary and some precious keepsakes in a plastic baggie washed ashore near her home on a remote island in Western Canada, and Nao, a Japanese teenager whose family moved back to Japan after her father lost his tech job in the Silicon Valley during the dot.com era bust. Ruth reads Nao’s diary, a decade old, and becomes obsessed with Nao’s life. Ruth finds out that Nao was mercilessly bullied and humiliated as an outsider, a California transplant, in her Japanese school. After losing his job and self-worth, her father became despondent, distant and suicidal; and her mother became a workaholic as the family’s new bread earner. Like her father, Nao became depressed and suicidal. Marginalized and alone, she frequented fetish cafes that cater to lonely men looking for “escorts.” Although Nao fell into the dark underworld of fetish hostesses, she had an enlightening 104-year-old grandmother, Jiko. After the death of her beloved kamikaze son, Haruki, in WWII, Jiko became a Buddhist nun and dedicated her life to helping others. As a sensei, she empowered Nao by teaching her self-control through meditation and instilling Nao with a “supapawa.” Ruth wants to know what happened to Nao during the next 10 years, so she stops writing her current book and begins to research the history of Nao and her family.The intersecting stories of Nao, her parents, Ruth, Haruki and Jiko all lead to “AH, HA” moments that define their lives and build their character. I am sure the author wants us as readers to ponder the big metaphysical questions: What is a life and how do we make the most of it? Do we have more than one? It is no coincidence that the main character’s name Nao is pronounced “now.” Tick, tick, tick. What are you doing NOW for the time being?