A review by boxcar
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

In awe. Heartrending and funny. Peers over the abyss into the depths of human suffering and jumps, but also doesn't. Quantum mechanics are introduced towards the end, and it changes the whole way I understand the book. The whole being and not being at once, diametrically opposing things that can't exist at once do, in fact, exist at once. Suicide, and bullying to an extent that surpasses any idea of bullying I had are written in the voice of a sixteen year old. Father daughter relationship that is frustrating, heartbreaking, all too real and

(thank god) resolved in a flourish of satisfaction and understanding that transcends the suffocating suffering and pain all at once

. The dual narrative of the schoolgirl journaling and the older woman reading it years later across the Pacific was fascinating, and comes together so masterfully. Alzheimers and memory and death and age and time and zen and family and culture clashing and war and exploitation and fear and climate and adolescence and stagnation in adulthood and love and fighting... all packed into one book with the skill and grace that I could only dream of. Each character was unique and real, I particularly liked Oliver's meandering diatribes on obscure topics that seem unnecessary and even rudely off topic that eventually, at his own cryptic pace and path reach a final point that is poignant, striking and opens up Ruth's conception and mind. Just freaking cool. Will come back to this. 

Also, I think Ozeki gave me the most understandable account of quantum states and superpositioning. I've watched videos and stuff and tried to understand, and she provided, in a novel that I had no idea would have anything about it, the best one.