AbeBooks Review: A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

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In A Tale for the Time Being the world shrinks dramatically when a woman walking along the beach of a desolate island on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada discovers the secret diary of a young Japanese girl washed up on shore. The woman is Ruth Ozeki, author of the very book I'm talking about and one of two protagonists in her own novel. The other protagonist is Nao, the writer of the secret diary that somehow traveled all the way from Tokyo to the coast of Canada.

Hi! My Name is Noa, and I am a time being. Do you know what a time being is? Well if you give me a moment, I will tell you. A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be.

Ruth stared at the page. The purple words were mostly in English, with some Japanese characters scattered here and there, but her eye wasn't really taking in their meaning as much as a felt sense, murky and emotional, of the writer's presence. The fingers that had gripped the purple gel ink pen must have belonged to a girl, a teenager. Her handwriting, these loopy purple marks impressed onto the page, retained her moods and the moment Ruth laid eyes on the page she knew without a doubt that the girl's fingertips were pink and moist, and that she had bitten her nails down to the quick.

A Tale for the Time Being rotates between Nao the writer and Ruth the reader, a style that moves the pages of the book quite quickly. At first glance, the diary seems lighthearted and juvenile, but as Ruth continues to read, the diary - and the novel itself - evolve into the intimate story of a suicidal girl's last days on earth, and the response of a woman who lives in another time, and another place.
There are a few books out there that will seep under your skin and into your every thought, and this is certainly one of them. I recommend this book to anyone willing to lose themselves entirely for 403 pages, and beyond.


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