A Tale for the Time Being / Ruth Ozeki

RATINGS

Overall: 4 / 5 stars

Text Level: Medium

Entertainment: High

Self-Help: Medium

Page Count: 432

Is this book right for my inmate and me?

People searching for a meaning or purpose in their chaotic lives might learn a lesson of balance from this story.

In the world of diary stories, this one reflects the struggles of a troubled Japanese American teen and her search for acceptance.

An NPR review of this book rightfully says “We go back and forth between the text and the notes, time expands for us. It opens up into something resembling narrative eternity.” While I am not an enormous fan of NPR, they did nail this summary. A Japanese teenager from a short time in the past has written her story of abuse and life’s shortcomings after being transported to a country of her heritage she doesn't know from California. You can't help but fall in love with her. Her diary ends up in the beach of an island community in Canada where the author, Ruth Ozeki, picks it up and it begins her quest to discover who the transported teen is. Her diary is post 9/11 while Ruth's story is 4 years afterwards. What is in between is amazing and a page Turner. I love Asian cultural stories as it is and you learn about modern Japanese attitudes within this story. The “One nation, one people” attitude of Japanese culture is all throughout this book. The author is also a Zen Buddhist priest so you get a ton of Buddhist interjections and teachings throughout the chapters. I wasn't thrilled about the book's ending and thought there could have been more to it than an escape from reality (Psychological nonsense) last paragraph but as I stated, I loved the main character, Nao.