A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki is the story of a woman on Canada's Pacific coast who finds ocean garbage one day only to discover it is the diary and other miscellaneous possessions of a young Japanese girl. The girl, Naoko, grew up in Sunnyvale, California, but has returned to Tokyo and is experiencing definite adjustment issues. Her 104-year-old Buddhist monk great-grandmother tries to help Nao, and Nao in turn determines to write the older woman's life story.
I picked this book up pretty much entirely because it is set in Japan - Ueno Park, the banks of the Sumida River, Asakusa, the Shinkansen trains...all of the things I have been living and breathing for the past year as I pull together the Japan study abroad program. The stories of Nao and the woman who finds the diary, Ruth, are nicely women together and the narrative is interesting and engaging. This is a 400-page book that reads much faster than that. I enjoyed it immensely - right up until the last 50 pages or so. Right about then, the book became a little too Time Traveler's Wife-y for me. Honestly, I hate when author's fiddle with time (for my full rant, see 13, rue Thérèse). The time lapses feel like a gimmick - this is a strong book and a strong story without resorting to such antics and, for me, the suspension of reality felt like cheating. The story didn't need it and, without giving too much away, it seemed the author used the trick of time only to answer one question that she couldn't otherwise answer.
Hmmmm, this sounds good. Would you still recommend it even though the last 50 pages were a disappointment?
ReplyDeleteYes. And, if my memory serves me, you are the one who recommended Time Traveler's Wife to me, so you might not be as bothered by how Ozeki plays with time. Also - bonus! - this book was 402 or 403 pages so it would just make the cut for this year's reading challenge. :-)
ReplyDelete