A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING, A Novel
by Ruth Ozeki
This amazing book has what is perhaps one of the most memorable and clever constructs of any novel that I’ve read. Ruth, a contemporary writer living on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest, discovers a lunchbox among the trash that washes up on her local beach. Inside she finds the diary of a sixteen-year-old Japanese girl named Nao, who is contemplating suicide. Ruth believes the lunchbox and diary are debris from the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
With this brilliant construct, Ruth’s and Nao’s stories come to life simultaneously for the reader. We learn of Nao’s poignant struggle after leaving her comfortable life and home in California and moving to Japan. We share her pain as she tries to assimilate into a Japanese society that she doesn’t understand and where she lives the life of a social outcast. We also come to know Ruth and how she has had to assimilate into a Canadian island culture very different from her native Manhattan with a husband whose mind works very differently from her own. It makes sense that Ruth feels so swept up in Nao’s struggle.
As Nao’s compelling story unfolds, Ruth must continually remind herself of the time that has passed between Nao’s writing and Ruth’s reading. Both Nao’s story and Ruth’s will draw you in and you won’t be able to put the book down until you have solved the mystery of what happened to Nao. This is a book that will stay with you long after you have finished reading. Thanks, Pam, for not only recommending it to me, but for buying it for me as a gift. (Liz)
