A Tale for the Time Being

A Tale for the Time Being tells the story of Nao, a teenage girl writing a diary in Tokyo, and Ruth, a woman living in Desolation Sound in Canada, who is reading Nao’s diary. Throughout the course of the novel, Nao and Ruth form an intimate relationship despite their difference in time and space. The ending deviates strongly from the rest of the book. The majority of the novel is written in a very down to earth style with influences of Zen teaching. Then at the end, the Zen teaching takes a forefront and it becomes more mystical and supernatural. While reading the diary it abruptly ends despite the fact that Ruth knows that it was longer. Then in a dream she tells Nao’s father to go find her at the bus stop and directly affects Nao’s future although it is in Ruth’s past. After Ruth’s dream, the diary is completed. Ruth and her husband, Oliver, discuss what happened and Oliver presents the idea of quantum physics and multiple occurring universes. The ending feels discordant with the style of the rest of the novel. Ruth spends the entire book growing a relationship with Nao and then coming to terms with the fact that her story is done and she cannot save this little girl. Then suddenly at the end she affects Nao’s life and changes everything. Ruth’s acceptance of the fact that Nao has lived her life and she cannot change the past is a big moment that is then completely upturned and made irrelevant.  The ending was also a sudden shift from the very down to earth to complicated science. Personally the ending with Ruth changing the past seems like a deus ex machina and it almost feels cheap. A Tale for the Time Being is unafraid to say the hard truths of painful situations and is willing to face the fact that there isn’t always a solution to the problem. Yet the end conflict is fixed with a perfectly convenient solution with some science that came out of the left field. The ending feels forced and out of place with the rest of the novel. 

A Tale for the Time Being

A Tale for the Time Being is written by Ruth Ozeki detailing the story of Ruth reading a teenage girl’s diary. Ruth by reading Nao’s diary begins to form a close friendship with the girl despite never meeting her or being able to find any proof of her existence. Through the unique structure of the book, Nao and Ruth create a dialogue with each other and they form an intimate bond despite the distance that divides them. The distance between them is not something to underestimate. Nao wrote and finished her diary months and months before Ruth ever finds it on the beach. Their relationship transcends time and space which is a major theme of the book. Time is described as, “Do not think that time simply flies away. Do not understand ‘flying’ as the only function of time. If time simply flew away, a separation would exist between you and time. So if you understand time as only passing, then you do not understand the time being.   To grasp this truly, every being that exists in the entire world is linked together as moments in time, and at the same time they exist as individual moments of time. Because all moments are the time being, they are your time being.” This provides a unique perspective on time and points out the relativity of time.  This quote describes how Nao and Ruth’s relationship can work. There is no separation between them because they are linked together by the simple fact that they are human beings that in the universe. Ruth and Nao are both beings in time, there is no time that has passed between them because all moments of time are linked together. This quote is important to the novel because it explains how time is viewed in the novel. 

A Tale for the Time Being

A Tale for the Time Being is a novel written by Ruth Ozeki. It tells the story of a woman named Ruth who reads and finds the diary of a young girl named Nao Yatsutani. It is written in alternating chapters, starting with Nao’s intricate diary entries and the Ruth’s responses to the diary entries. This structure shapes the book and how it is read. This back and forth between Nao and Ruth create an interesting dialogue between the two characters. This relationship between Ruth and Nao ties into the theme of the relativity of time. Although Nao’s predicament happened months before Ruth even finds the diary, it feels like the events of their lives are happening simultaneously. They are two different people in two different worlds, yet they have a bond together. Throughout the course of the book, Nao and Ruth grow to genuinely care for one another. Nao is grateful for this anonymous reader who she can open up to and share her struggles with, and Ruth cares for this troubled teenage girl. Their bond is extenuated through the unique structure of the book. The structure of the book is also a unique draw-in. The story of Nao is extremely interesting and draws the reader in. As Ruth reads along with you, her reactions parallel your own. This allows a relationship between you and Ruth along with the connection you feel with Nao’s intimate diary entries. Ozeki’s masterful use of structure creates an intimate relationship between Ruth and Nao, and Ruth, Nao and the reader. 

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston. It tells the story of Janie Crawford. It is her coming of age story, following her life from childhood to when she is a grown woman. Janie goes through life looking for love. When she was sixteen she saw a bee pollinate a flower in a pear tree, and that image became her ideal version of love. As she looks at the pear tree in bloom she sees, “a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage!”  Love to Janie is when both parties reach for each other in an equal partnership and help each other find pure ecstasy. But love does not find Janie when she is sixteen. Her grandmother marries her off to a wealthy man named Logan Killicks that Janie doesn’t know or love. She feels belittled and is miserable. He does not reach for her to give her that ecstasy of love Janie is looking for. Then Janie meets Joe Starks. He is a man with big dreams and big plans. He whisks Janie away from her life and promises to make her a queen. They run away to Eatonville, a new all-black town. As time goes by, Janie and Joe’s marriage begins to crumble. Joe does not allow Janie to interact with the people and treats her as a prop. Although Joe reached for her in his love for her, there was no equal partnership. Joe contained Jodie and tried to mold her into what he thought she should be. After almost twenty years, after Joe and Janie’s marriage has completely crumbled Joe dies. That is when Janie meets Tea Cake. He is a young man who shows her how to play checkers and shows her the world. They fall in love and it is with Tea Cake that Janie finally finds love. He reaches out to her and shows her the world not as a pack mule, not as a prop, but as a partner whom he loves. Janie finally finds love and her world is transformed.