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A review by bhnmt61
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
5.0
I loved this book, but I can see how it wouldn't be for everyone. The parallel stories of two people run through it-- Nao, a Japanese teenager who moves back to Japan with her family when her father loses his job in America, and Ruth, a writer who lives on an island off the west coast of Canada. Ruth finds a diary wrapped in a plastic bag inside a lunch box on the beach near her home. The diary was written by Nao in Japan. (how did it get there? when did she write it?)
At first, the story is just interesting: Nao is an engaging writer and her story is absorbing, so it's easy to understand how Ruth becomes mesmerized by the diary. But then the story takes some darker turns as Nao has to deal with the cruelty of students at her new school (trigger warning: it's far worse than typical bullying, which is bad enough) and her father's depression and suicide attempts. Toward the end, the story takes another sharp turn into quasi-mysticism. If you can suspend disbelief and just go with the flow, it's a deeply rich, rewarding story. But it's right on the edge of being too much, so I can understand that some readers wouldn't like it. And honestly, I could have done without the awkward attempt in the final pages to explain the physics of what happened, but it wasn't enough to ruin the story for me. Loved it, highly recommended.
At first, the story is just interesting: Nao is an engaging writer and her story is absorbing, so it's easy to understand how Ruth becomes mesmerized by the diary. But then the story takes some darker turns as Nao has to deal with the cruelty of students at her new school (trigger warning: it's far worse than typical bullying, which is bad enough) and her father's depression and suicide attempts. Toward the end, the story takes another sharp turn into quasi-mysticism. If you can suspend disbelief and just go with the flow, it's a deeply rich, rewarding story. But it's right on the edge of being too much, so I can understand that some readers wouldn't like it. And honestly, I could have done without the awkward attempt in the final pages to explain the physics of what happened, but it wasn't enough to ruin the story for me. Loved it, highly recommended.