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.