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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I just couldn't engage with it. The multiple narrators were off putting. The storyline was not for me.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The other day, I said I wasn’t a huge fan of magical realism. In fact, I’m a huge fan when it’s done right, and Ruth Ozeki does it right.
Benny Oh’s father died and so he lives with his mother, Annabelle, who isn’t dealing with bereavement very well and is hoarding in their home. One of the problems is that Benny Oh hears voices from objects, which means his home is full of noise and commotion. Escaping his home life, Benny finds solace in the library, a place he has loved since being a boy and he meets a variety of characters that teach him valuable lessons and perspectives along the way.
The plot aside, this book is engaging and exciting. There is a lot of seriousness throughout, with reference to many mental health issues, grief, family, loneliness, shame, and friendship. Ozeki manages to create these conversations, but keeping a playful approach with the magical realism of the narrator being ‘The Book’. This characterisation of an object within a literal book is very cleverly done. As a reader, the book makes comments about reading and the power of stories and language. It's done in such a tasteful way that it’s not at all cliché.
The characters are all flawed in their ways, but I genuinely liked every single one. There was elements of joy in each of them, even the saddest or unlikely characters.
The Book of Form & Emptiness is the second Ozeki book I’ve read, and I think she’s already becoming a favourite of mine. The way she encompasses you in a time and place is just incredible.
Benny Oh’s father died and so he lives with his mother, Annabelle, who isn’t dealing with bereavement very well and is hoarding in their home. One of the problems is that Benny Oh hears voices from objects, which means his home is full of noise and commotion. Escaping his home life, Benny finds solace in the library, a place he has loved since being a boy and he meets a variety of characters that teach him valuable lessons and perspectives along the way.
The plot aside, this book is engaging and exciting. There is a lot of seriousness throughout, with reference to many mental health issues, grief, family, loneliness, shame, and friendship. Ozeki manages to create these conversations, but keeping a playful approach with the magical realism of the narrator being ‘The Book’. This characterisation of an object within a literal book is very cleverly done. As a reader, the book makes comments about reading and the power of stories and language. It's done in such a tasteful way that it’s not at all cliché.
The characters are all flawed in their ways, but I genuinely liked every single one. There was elements of joy in each of them, even the saddest or unlikely characters.
The Book of Form & Emptiness is the second Ozeki book I’ve read, and I think she’s already becoming a favourite of mine. The way she encompasses you in a time and place is just incredible.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
DNF. I got to page 400 before giving up. Whilst the first 100 pages were really interesting the rest was a slog for me. I found it pretty dull and repetitive unfortunately, and I'm disappointed given the positive reviews it's had.
Not sure yet how I feel about this book. There were parts that I loved, and some aspects I wasn’t so fond of. I loved A Tale For The Time Being so much, and this didn’t hold together for me quite as well— it felt very flat in a few areas. But I love Ozeki for trying to weave in some Walter Benjamin. The end made me think of the Angel of History. https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/CONCEPT2.html
The Book of Form and Emptiness, Ruth Ozeki
I am a great fan of any author that can, through an inventive story, stretch my imagination a little further and help me to learn something new. I found myself hooked by the stories of Benny and Annabelle immediately. I rooted for teenage Benny on his personal journey of discovery and for Annabelle with her grief and struggles as a single mother and loss of her beloved husband. Mental health issues can take on so many forms. This is a story of love and perhaps a little magic with books and a library as a place where comfort, safety, healing can happen. Among several of my favorite quotes: "As objects, books were sacred, and you built temples for us, and later, libraries in whose hushed and hallowed halls we resided as mirrors of your mind, keepers of your past, evidence of your boundless imaginations, and testimony to the infinitude of your dreams and desires."
I am a great fan of any author that can, through an inventive story, stretch my imagination a little further and help me to learn something new. I found myself hooked by the stories of Benny and Annabelle immediately. I rooted for teenage Benny on his personal journey of discovery and for Annabelle with her grief and struggles as a single mother and loss of her beloved husband. Mental health issues can take on so many forms. This is a story of love and perhaps a little magic with books and a library as a place where comfort, safety, healing can happen. Among several of my favorite quotes: "As objects, books were sacred, and you built temples for us, and later, libraries in whose hushed and hallowed halls we resided as mirrors of your mind, keepers of your past, evidence of your boundless imaginations, and testimony to the infinitude of your dreams and desires."
I wished for a rainy day so I could finish multiple books that I've started, and I got one. One of the books I finished was The Book of Form and Emptiness, and my overall reaction to it was kind of a meta moment. After an incident at the crematorium where his father's funeral had taken place, Benny Oh begins hearing voices. These voices come from everything around him; some are "metallic and grating" while others are "pleasantly human". The voices want Benny's attention and even though he is in pain from the loss of his father, they tell him about their pain. He hears “the groans of moldy cheeses, the sighs of old lettuces” from the refrigerator. Meanwhile, Benny's mother can't let go of anything, gains weight, and begins hoarding. I won't recount more of the story, but Ozeki has written a book packed full of things - jazz, ideas, strange characters and their voices, space junk, climate change, and more. While I enjoyed it, I think the reason that I didn't love it might have been due to voices. I could never get used to the narration of Benny and his mother's voices despite listening to them for almost 19 hours; they sounded like cartoons. I had a lot of empathy for how Benny must have felt hearing a cacophony of voices. I would give the story four stars, but the narration was a two in my book. I may try eye-reading this one in the future.