Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being philosophically considers the relationship between writer and reader. It’s an intriguing idea connected to numerous topics shared from the two main characters’ perspectives: one from Nao writing a diary; the other through Ruth as her reader.
Nao is a 16-year-old girl whose family recently returned to Tokyo from Northern California where she’d lived most of her life. She plans to write in her diary about her 104-year-old great grandmother, Jiko, a Buddhist nun. However, the more Nao writes, the less it’s about Jiko. Instead, she details the bullying she endures in her new school, her father’s depression and his suicide attempts. As Nao writes, she addresses her reader as if it is a single person. After all, reading is a solo experience.
Through unknown circumstances, the diary washes up on a sparsely populated island in Western Canada where Ruth and her artist/naturalist husband live. The book is in a Hello Kitty lunchbox with a collection of letters and an antique wristwatch. The letters are another cause for intrigue as Ruth discovers they were written by Nao’s uncle, a kamikaze pilot.
Ozeki describes the unforgiving conditions of island life; it’s not a place of sandy beaches and calm seas. Rather, the threat of powerful storms, rocky terrain and limited access to goods and services requires resilient residents.
As Ruth reads she comes to care about Nao and her family; she even searches for their whereabouts. Nao, of course, knows nothing of Ruth’s existence.
A Tale for the Time Being
Four Bookmarks
Viking, 2013
422, includes appendices
The Blue Page Special 
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