Cathy from 746 Books has been running 20 Books of Summer since 2014, and I’ve been taking part since 2015 (see all my lists and links here). And this is my first book finished (don’t worry, I’ve nearly completed the next one, too!). I acquired this from Ali in April 2023, and of the eight print books I gained then, I have now read and reviewed five, seem to have discarded two and have one on my Liz And Emma Reading Pile. Not bad going! This of course also accounts for one of my 2024 TBR project reads.
Ruth Ozeki – “The Book of Form and Emptiness”
(08 April 2023, from Ali)
You think he’s this crazy old hobo, but he’s not. He’s a poet. And a philospher. And a teacher. And it’s not him that’s crazy, Benny Oh. It’s the fucking world we live in. It’s capitalism that’s crazy. It’s neoliberalism, and materialism, and our fucked-up consumer culture that’s crazy. It’s the fucking meritocracy that tells you that feeling sad is wrong and it’s your fault if you’re broken, but hey, capitalims can fix you! Just take these miracle pills and go shoping and buy yourself some new shit!” (p. 365)
It took me a little while to get into this book, though I’m not sure why: I might have been a bit put off by having the longest book in the pile chosen for my first read!
It’s a lovely coming-of-age tale of Benny Oh and his mum Annabelle, in the months after his father dies and he starts hearing objects speaking to him, just as mum starts hoarding more and more of them (she has a peculiar job which doesn’t help with this). As Benny’s special power is seen more as a mental health condition and Annabelle’s mental health condition is seen as willful messiness, they have to negotiate their landlady’s son, keen to evict them and make money selling the house, the vagaries of school and then mental health services and then a psychiatric hospital, and some rather magical people who Benny meets who turn out not to be as magical as mental health services think they are …
Add to this the fact that Benny is in conversation with his own book throughout, the incursion of a Japanese nun who’s become a cult tidying expert and two women in the library, one of whom bears a noticeable resemblance to the author, and you’ve got a conventional coming of age / falling in love narrative and a conventional finding friends and redeeming yourself narrative (for both of them) woven into a comforting and challenging layer of Zen principles. There are some animal deaths, but I would say they are necessary to the narrative and not gratuitous.
There’s some nice stuff about reader response theory which feeds into the work I’ve done and am doing, too:
And then, when she’s finished and the book ventures out into the world, the readers take their turn, and here another kind of comingling occurs. Because the reader is not a passive receptacle for a book’s contents. Not at all. You are our collaborators, our conspirators, breathing new life into us. and because every reader is unique, each of you makes each of us mean differently, regardless of what’s written on our pages. Thus, one book, when read by different readers, bcomes different books, becomes an ever-changing array of books that flows through human consciousness like a wave. (p. 491)
In the end, a page-turner, a book I didn’t want to put down, loving Benny and his friends. Not quite as good as “A Tale for the Time Being” but definitely one I recommend.
This is Book 1 in my 20 Books of Summer 2024.
This is Book 35 in my 2024 TBR project – 106 to go!
Jun 12, 2024 @ 06:25:15
must try this one Liz. I read A Tale for the Time Being with my students and we loved it
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Jun 13, 2024 @ 17:04:21
I think you’d probably enjoy it!
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Jun 12, 2024 @ 07:54:37
Ah, this just didn’t work for me, too twee. I loved A Tale for the Time Being and My Year of Meats though, so I wasn’t cross that the WP recognised Ozeki.
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Jun 13, 2024 @ 13:00:58
Though I’ve not disliked any of her books, I really love My Year of Meats and All Over Creation. When it was new, MYoM felt like it was truly one-of-a-kind.
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Jun 13, 2024 @ 17:05:46
I loved both of those at the time; don’t think I could manage the themes of MYOM now.
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Jun 13, 2024 @ 17:05:09
Oh, OK, I can see that, it was just on the right side of twee for me, perhaps because it was an adult not YA book? Glad you weren’t fulminating against her nomination though!
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Jun 12, 2024 @ 09:10:07
This sounds really intriguing Liz – I wouldn’t necessarily have gravitated towards it in a bookshop, but you’ve piqued my interest!
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Jun 13, 2024 @ 17:06:23
Have you read any of hers? I think you’d like the multi-layering and philosophical elements in this or Tale for the Time Being.
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Jun 14, 2024 @ 09:51:19
No, I haven’t but I’ll definitely keep an eye out!
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Jun 12, 2024 @ 10:40:49
I did try this and did not get into it – now I am thinking maybe I should have persevered……!
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Jun 13, 2024 @ 17:07:03
It was odd that I got a bit bogged down in the beginning, but after a certain point it flew along. Maybe worth another go although there are so many books …
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Jun 12, 2024 @ 11:13:45
This sounds really intriguing–I do love a good coming of age story–but a bit messy? I do love her books, tho.
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Jun 13, 2024 @ 17:09:50
Hm, no messier than a standard coming of age novel, but it’s a story of the redemption of two people, really.
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Jun 12, 2024 @ 11:54:01
I’d be interested to know whether you thought Ozeki was mocking or serious about the pet ferret using they/them pronouns. I could never work that out.
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Jun 13, 2024 @ 17:10:41
Oh! I didn’t even consider that idea, so no. I just thought it was a modern touch that someone like that character probably would impose.
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Jun 12, 2024 @ 15:13:06
I agree completely with you. I loved this book, but Time Being is still my favorite.
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Jun 13, 2024 @ 17:11:06
Glad it’s not just me! This was really good, though, still.
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Jun 14, 2024 @ 07:53:32
Yes, a wonderful book. But Time Being? Well, because when you finish reading it, you’re not the same person you were when you started. If I was a faster reader, I’d have read it several times by now.
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Jun 13, 2024 @ 09:00:01
I haven’t read Time Being yet but did like this one very much–one feels for the characters and at the same time, it gives one so much food for thought as well. Glad you enjoyed the book.
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Jun 13, 2024 @ 17:11:28
You’ve got a treat coming when you read Time Being!
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Jun 14, 2024 @ 17:49:06
Looking forward 🙂
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Jun 14, 2024 @ 07:54:43
Oh, do read Time Being… I think you’ll love it!
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Jun 14, 2024 @ 17:44:50
I will 🙂
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Jun 13, 2024 @ 18:09:57
I’m so glad you enjoyed this one, Liz. In some ways, this wasn’t my kind of book, and yet I loved it. I found it compelling and unusual, but as I haven’t read anything else by Ruth Ozeki, I don’t know how it compares to her other books.
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Jun 14, 2024 @ 12:07:12
Yes, it was compelling in the end (well, from about a third of the way through) and I loved it. I think you’d like Tales for the Time Being as well.
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Jun 17, 2024 @ 09:35:45
I like what Ozeki is trying to do in all her books, I love her themes and big ambitions and in each book I have times where I think I’m reading something wonderful and extraordinary, but as a whole they never quite get there for me. But I will keep reading her because I believe that one day she will.
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Jun 17, 2024 @ 16:44:15
An interesting point. She really does have big ambitions, doesn’t she, and you have to admire her for that.
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