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A review by harry_lemon
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
4⭐
Hot take: I didn't care about Ruth and Oliver's story.
This book was absolutely fascinating. I ate up the discussions around time, Buddhism, and love and connection. So many moments had me thinking deeply about my own understanding about the world and made me question how I went about my day-to-day. Personal preference: I could have done without a lot of the scientific mumbo jumbo (e.g. the genus and species names of bugs, dissections on the multiverse, etc.).
While I loved and ate up Naoko Yasutani's story, I had difficulty caring about Ruth and Oliver's parts of the story. I understand that a lot of the book centers around this connection Ruth and Naoko have regardless of space and time, but as I was reading, I hated being jerked out of Nao's narrative to be brought back to Ruth's storyline. Additionally, I didn't feel any kind of sympathy for either her or Oliver's characters. I don't know if I'm in the minority of this, but I just couldn't care. (Sidenote: I'm really hoping the Ruth and Oliver in the book are fictional, not the real lives of Ruth Ozeki and her partner Oliver. If so, I'm SO SO sorry).
Overall, this story had amazing writing and powerful takes on time, existence, life, death, and human connection that I can't not recommend this. Be warned: suicide is a HEAVY topic in this book, so reader's discretion is advised.
Hot take: I didn't care about Ruth and Oliver's story.
This book was absolutely fascinating. I ate up the discussions around time, Buddhism, and love and connection. So many moments had me thinking deeply about my own understanding about the world and made me question how I went about my day-to-day. Personal preference: I could have done without a lot of the scientific mumbo jumbo (e.g. the genus and species names of bugs, dissections on the multiverse, etc.).
While I loved and ate up Naoko Yasutani's story, I had difficulty caring about Ruth and Oliver's parts of the story. I understand that a lot of the book centers around this connection Ruth and Naoko have regardless of space and time, but as I was reading, I hated being jerked out of Nao's narrative to be brought back to Ruth's storyline. Additionally, I didn't feel any kind of sympathy for either her or Oliver's characters. I don't know if I'm in the minority of this, but I just couldn't care. (Sidenote: I'm really hoping the Ruth and Oliver in the book are fictional, not the real lives of Ruth Ozeki and her partner Oliver. If so, I'm SO SO sorry).
Overall, this story had amazing writing and powerful takes on time, existence, life, death, and human connection that I can't not recommend this. Be warned: suicide is a HEAVY topic in this book, so reader's discretion is advised.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide