Play Book Tag discussion

Such an interesting book with themes of bullying, suicide, religion, war, ecology and quantum physics. Nao is a young Japanese teen, middle school aged, when she decides to write a journal to "you" planning to share the amazing story of her feminist Buddhist nun great-grandmother before she commits suicide due to extreme bullying at school and trauma in her own family. Ruth and her husband Oliver live on a small island in British Columbia (like Ruth the author in real life) and one day Ruth finds Nao's journal along with letters from her Kamikaze great uncle while he was in army training. The story goes back and forth between Ruth slowly reading the journal, getting help on the great uncle's letters in Japanese and French with lots of noisy support from her neighbors while procrastinating on her own book and Nao sharing her own story. Nao was living in Sunnyvale, CA until her dad lost his job and stock options leaving the whole family in a very difficult situation in Japan.

I loved learning about the island in BC, the small community where everyone knows everyone's business but live so close to nature and the story of Nao's great-grandmother and Nao's time visiting her. The bullying and Nao's family life including her great-uncle's time in army training get quite brutal. It is hard to imagine a young teen making through it all.

The book did lose me a bit with the meta, quantum physics of it all but I appreciated the overall theme of everyone being interconnected. It was a tough story with many elements but was well done.

The whole quantum physic thing was a bit over the top for me.

One of the stories, I loved was about the whole drop-by thing. I grew up on a farm in upstate NY and the drop-by was pretty accepted at the time, I wonder if Theresa had the same experience.

Anyway, when Oliver hid in a box to avoid it and they sat waiting, I found quite funny.

Great review. This book really has a lot going on, doesn't it? The more I thought about this book, the more I loved it, and the more I admired the author. I listened to it, then I got the kindle, and then the Print book, just to review favorite parts, and to read some of the footnotes. I especially liked the footnotes on quantum theory.* It will definitely be in my top 10 this year, and maybe the top 2. This is a book that I will definitely want to reread some day.

Nao was an interesting character, and I was both charmed and disturbed by the way she spoke. Some terrible things were described so lightly, it took me a while to really understand what was happening in her life.

The footnotes were fun to read to understand some of the Japanese slang terms. I loved Nao's grandmother's approach to life. I was struck by the story of the kamikaze pilot. It was shocking how the Japanese men were treated by their leaders. Nao's father was very disturbing, but I understand how depression can make it hard to be a great parent.

My husband grew up on an island that sounds a lot like the author's home, and I really enjoyed this part of the book. I loved how honestly the author portrayed her neighbors and her marriage. Well, it was the character's attitudes not the author's, but they were so specific and unique, you know they had to be real.

*Last year Shrodinger's Cat was a big pet peeve of mine. I must have read about it in 10 novels by now, and some of the descriptions sounded ridiculous and contradictory. The descriptions of quantum theory in this book finally made sense to me - much of this was in the footnotes. There is a Sci-fi sub genre now called Quantum Fiction, which focuses on alternate realities. I actually like it now.

I would like to read more by this author, but so far none of the other book descriptions sound very appealing to me. I'll try to get over that, and just pick one. I really admire her.

Does Ruth Ozeki have a book coming out this month or soon? I felt like I saw her name pop up recently on NY Times Books.

I read this years ago and I remember really enjoying it. Interesting concept and the characters were engaging.
I don't remember the details anymore though. Like what happened to Nao etc.

Booknblues wrote: "The whole quantum physic thing was a bit over the top for me.

One of the stories, I loved was about the whole drop-by thing. I grew up on a farm in upstate NY and the drop-by was pretty accepted a..."

Yes! Sadly I could see myself doing the same thing. Sometimes one just isn't ready to be social.

@Nancy, I really hope they neighbors are real. They were delightful! I might try her My Year of Meats.

@Meli, I haven't heard anything but I would be interested!

Found it!

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...

Meli wrote: "Found it!

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo..."

Thanks, Meli. After the review it says that Ozeki is a practicing Buddhist Priest, which makes sense for A tale for the time being.

Whoa, I missed that detail! That's interesting.

Jen K wrote: "@Nancy, I really hope they neighbors are real. They were delightful! I might try her My Year of Meats.!"

@ Jen - My Year of Meats is such a weird title. A Tale for the Time Being was not what I expected it to be at all, so the meat book might be a pleasant surprise too.

@Meli - thanks for that link. I actually had it on my TBR, which is so big it might as well be a black hole. The release date is next week! I'm going to put in my library requests asap, but I might use an audible credit for it so I'm not rushed.