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The Book of Form and Emptiness: A Novel Hardcover – September 21, 2021
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“No one writes like Ruth Ozeki—a triumph.” —Matt Haig, New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library
“Inventive, vivid, and propelled by a sense of wonder.” —TIME
“If you’ve lost your way with fiction over the last year or two, let The Book of Form and Emptiness light your way home.” —David Mitchell, Booker Prize-finalist author of Cloud Atlas
A boy who hears the voices of objects all around him; a mother drowning in her possessions; and a Book that might hold the secret to saving them both—the brilliantly inventive new novel from the Booker Prize-finalist Ruth Ozeki
One year after the death of his beloved musician father, thirteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house—a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. Although Benny doesn't understand what these things are saying, he can sense their emotional tone; some are pleasant, a gentle hum or coo, but others are snide, angry and full of pain. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous.
At first, Benny tries to ignore them, but soon the voices follow him outside the house, onto the street and at school, driving him at last to seek refuge in the silence of a large public library, where objects are well-behaved and know to speak in whispers. There, Benny discovers a strange new world. He falls in love with a mesmerizing street artist with a smug pet ferret, who uses the library as her performance space. He meets a homeless philosopher-poet, who encourages him to ask important questions and find his own voice amongst the many.
And he meets his very own Book—a talking thing—who narrates Benny’s life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter.
With its blend of sympathetic characters, riveting plot, and vibrant engagement with everything from jazz, to climate change, to our attachment to material possessions, The Book of Form and Emptiness is classic Ruth Ozeki—bold, wise, poignant, playful, humane and heartbreaking.
- Reading age1 year and up
- Print length560 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions6.25 x 1.63 x 9.26 inches
- PublisherViking
- Publication dateSeptember 21, 2021
- ISBN-100399563644
- ISBN-13978-0399563645
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover comes a novel that explores life after tragedy and the enduring spirit of love. | Learn more
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From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Review
“[A] Borgesian, Zen Buddhist parable of consumerism . . . [Ozeki] endows objects and animals with anima, the breath of life . . . [she] ensouls the world . . . There’s powerful magic here . . . Ozeki is unusually patient with her characters, even the rebarbative ones, and she is able to record the subtle peculiarities of other classes of beings that more overeager writers would probably miss . . . Ozeki gives us a metaphor for our very own American consumption disorder, our love-hate relationship with the stuff we produce and can’t let go of.” —New York Times Book Review
“A masterful meditation on consumer culture . . . This novel’s meditative pacing perfectly suits its open-hearted contemplation. The book’s self-awareness allows it to comically hedge and tiptoe, to digress into diatribes into the ‘false dichotomies and hegemonic hierarchies of materialist colonizers’ only to catch itself and sheepishly apologize: ‘Sorry. That turned into a rant. No reader likes a rant. As a book, we should know better.’ The Book of Form and Emptiness is concerned foremost with the outsiders in our world, the ones who hear voices, who are friendless, who fall into addiction and self-harm. It’s concerned, too, with the ultimate outsiders, the objects that we produce and discard, produce and discard. It is both profound and fun, a loving indictment of our consumer culture. As the novel asks the reader turning the pages, ‘has it ever occurred to you that books have feelings, too?’” —USA Today
“[A] tale of sorrow, danger and tentative redemption serves as the springboard for extended meditations on the interdependence of all beings, the magic of books, the disastrous ecological and spiritual effects of unchecked consumerism and more . . . one of Ozeki’s gifts as a novelist is the ability to enfold provocative intellectual material within a human story grounded in sharply observed social detail . . . The Book itself has a marvelous voice: adult, ironic, affirming at every turn the importance of books as a repository of humanity’s deepest wisdom and highest aspirations.” —Washington Post
“There has never been a more timely novel. . . a beautiful, funny, sad, haunting, and extremely moving narrative . . . Ozeki’s commitment to having all her novels be co-productions created by multiple figures reaches its most dazzling manifestation in a book and a protagonist, mutually engendered.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
“The Book of Form and Emptiness [stands] out for its sparkling writing, warmth, intelligence, humor and poignancy. A celebration of the power of books and reading, it tackles big issues of life and death, and is a complete joy to read. Ruth Ozeki is a truly original and masterful storyteller.” —Mary Ann Sieghart, Chair of Judges, 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction
“Objects and ideas come to life in [The Book of Form and Emptiness] . . . a vivid story of fraught adolescence, big ideas and humanity’s tenuous hold on a suffering planet . . . Ozeki, an imaginative writer with a subversive sense of humor, has an acute grasp of young people’s contemporary dilemmas . . . This would be a great book to read in tandem with an adolescent in your life, a potential classic for the young-adult audience . . . [Ozeki offers] a profound understanding of the human condition and a gift for turning it into literature.” —Los Angeles Times
“Ozeki has shifted her readers’ way of perceiving what is 'normal' through a sort of slow, capillary action. Her books are not didactic, but they are useful; they’re not mission-driven, but they are richly moral. She writes urgently about the environment—you leave an Ozeki book knowing more about ocean contamination or factory farming—and her novels tend to include a painful parent-child rupture as well as a burbling stream of absurdist humor . . . Ozeki started writing The Book of Form and Emptiness eight years ago, but it is eerily suited to what readers are going through now, a quantum companion to A Tale for the Time Being: If time is part of healing, sorting through matter—through stuff—is part of mourning.” —New York Magazine
“Heartfelt . . . Ozeki, a practicing Buddhist priest, infuses her story with Zen philosophy, using themes of mindfulness and our connection to the living world to highlight pressing modern concerns like climate change, capitalism and the function of art. Inventive, vivid and propelled by a sense of wonder, The Book of Form and Emptiness will delight younger and older readers alike.” —TIME
“[It’s hard] not to like Ozeki’s calm, dry, methodical good humour and wit, her love affairs with linguistics and jazz and the absurd, her cautious optimism, her gentle parodies . . . [she] is carefully celebrating difference, not patronizing dysfunction. Out of their fractured relations, she makes something so satisfying that it gave me the sense of being addressed not by an author but by a world, one that doesn’t quite exist yet, except in tenuous parallel to ours: a world built out of ideas that spill into the text like a continuous real-time event.” —The Guardian
“An ambitious and ingenious novel that presents a stinging exploration of grief [and] a reflection on our relationship to objects . . . combine[s] daunting intellectual complexity and accessible big-heartedness . . . The most endearing aspect of Ozeki’s novel is its unabashed celebration of words, writing, and reading . . . Ozeki’s playfulness and zaniness, her compassion and boundless curiosity, prevent the novel from ever feeling stiff or pretentious. Clever without being arch, metafictional without being arcane, dark without being nihilistic, The Book of Form and Emptiness is an exuberant delight.” —Boston Globe
“This book ponders the very nature of things . . . Do inanimate items possess a life force? How do we distinguish acute sensitivity from mental illness? These questions fuel a searching novel, one that combines a coming-of-age tale with an ode to the printed page. . . Ozeki's incisive on matters like consumerism and climate change. Meanwhile, her ruminations on life's greatest mysteries provide an elegant foundation for an intriguing story.” —Star-Tribune
“In giving the Book a point of view, Ozeki creates a loquacious, animated voice with ideas about other books, the past, the need for human stories and the mutual needs of humans and books. . . With this well-developed voice, Ozeki plays humorously with ideas about what a novel is — about the development of a story, how it gets told, who tells it, who hears it and how books affect people . . . Ozeki, who is a Zen Buddhist priest and filmmaker, takes up big ideas about this moment on our planet, but also offers close descriptions of memorable images that make the prose absorbing . . . These images reverberate long after the reading, speaking to Ozeki’s broad and benign vision of connected beings.” —Seattle Times
“What an odd and tender and lovely novel this is . . . Ruth Ozeki is a Zen Buddhist priest in addition to being an accomplished author, and this rambling, shaggy narrative has a number of Zen ideas to play with . . . In Ozeki’s world, books are urgent and powerful regardless of genre.” —Vox
“The Book of Form and Emptiness indeed has everything one wants from a novel—sympathetic and interesting characters, a propulsive story that is heartbreaking but also playful and affirming, artful structure and skillful point of view—all while wrestling with life’s big questions. The novel’s engagement with issues of climate change and consumerism culture give it an urgency, but its whimsical and epic story makes it the kind of book to settle into, where you both want to keep reading and never want it to end. It’s a novel that reminds you of the power of books, exploring the magical exchange between writer and reader.” —Fiction Writers Review
“On the surface, Ozeki’s novel is about a grief-stricken family struggling to find meaning in the aftermath of a tragedy. But dig deeper and the story is an intricately layered commentary on modern society and the significance it puts on material objects, a study on subjectivity and the nature of reality. All the while, it’s a book about the unknown, all-knowing realms of the imagination…When spending time in Ozeki’s world, the empirically provable and quantifiable become less important, and the truths of our inner lives grow louder, if only we can honor those voices.” —Japan Times
“With her characteristic charm, empathy, and perspicacity, Ozeki writes Benny’s story of learning to hear, and manage, the voices, and hear himself along the way.” —The Millions
“[A] beautiful, heartbreaking, and hopeful novel” —Reader’s Digest
“[A] poignant and funny story.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“If what you need right now is to sink into a big, warm, literary bath, this is the book for you. It’s not that Ozeki’s latest novel isn’t challenging, it’s just that it manages to be so while also being pure pleasure, especially if you’re the kind of person who once had mostly books for friends . . . It’s a big book in more ways than one, complex and ambitious and wide-ranging, but honestly also just so charming I found it hard to walk away from, even when I was done.” —Emily Temple, Lit Hub
“Spectacular . . . this novel is filled with hope, compassion and more than a little wonder . . . Ozeki's books consistently nourish the soul.” —Shelf Awareness (starred)
“With all confidence, I can say that The Book of Form and Emptiness is very real. It’s a wonderful, heartwarming story of emotional growth filled with characters as real as anyone you would meet on the street. Except we are meeting them through the Book. And the Book, as we learn, knows all.” —Washington Independent Review of Books
“Ozeki’s illuminating postmodern latest [...] explores themes of mourning, madness, and the powers of the imagination . . . Ozeki playfully and successfully breaks the fourth wall [...] and she cultivates a striking blend of young adult fiction tropes with complex references to Walter Benjamin, Zen Buddhism, and Marxist philosophy. This is the rare work that will entertain teenagers, literary fiction readers, and academics alike.” —Publishers Weekly
“[Ozeki] writes with bountiful insight, exuberant imagination, and levitating grace about psychic diversity, our complicated attitude toward our possessions, street protests, climate change, and such wonders as crows, the moon, and snow globes. Most inventively, Ozeki celebrates the profound relationship between reader and writer. This enthralling, poignant, funny, and mysterious saga, thrumming with grief and tenderness, beauty and compassion, offers much wisdom.” —Booklist (starred)
“A great premise, one that perfectly captures how it feels to be a child falling into a lifelong love of reading. It’s a book for book people, exploring how books can offer meaning and – in this case, literally – speak to us.” —BookPage
“A meditative tribute to books, libraries, and Zen wisdom.” —Kirkus
“This compassionate novel of life, love and loss glows in the dark. Its strange, beautiful pages turn themselves. If you’ve lost your way with fiction over the last year or two, let The Book of Form and Emptiness light your way home.” —David Mitchell, Booker Prize-finalist author of Cloud Atlas and Utopia Avenue
“Heart-breaking and heart-healing—a book to not only keep us absorbed but also to help us think and love and live and listen. No one writes quite like Ruth Ozeki and The Book of Form and Emptiness is a triumph.” —Matt Haig, New York Timesbestselling author of The Midnight Library
“This is both an extremely vivid picture of a small family enduring unimaginable loss, and a very powerful meditation on the way books can contain the chaos of the world and give it meaning and order. Annabelle and Benny Oh try to stay afloat in a sea of things, news, substances, technological soullessness, and psychiatric quagmires, and the way they learn to live and breathe and even swim through it all feels like the struggle we all face. The Book of Form and Emptiness builds on the themes of A Tale for the Time Being, and ratifies Ozeki as one of our era’s most compassionate and original minds.” —Dave Eggers, author of The Circle and The Parade
“Once again, Ozeki has created a masterpiece. Her generous heart, remarkable imagination, and brilliant mind light up every page.” —Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
“Ozeki has done it again. This time she crosses into new dimensions, breathing life into pages, enticing us into an intimate world. Richly imagined, gorgeously executed, The Book of Form and Emptiness is a remarkable book.” —David Eagleman, acclaimed neuroscientist and author of Livewired
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
PART ONE
Home
Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's
passion borders on the chaos of memories.
-Walter Benjamin, "Unpacking My Library"
The Book
1
So, start with the voices, then.
When did he first hear them? When he was still little? Benny was always a small boy and slow to develop, as though his cells were reluctant to multiply and take up space in the world. It seems he pretty much stopped growing when he turned twelve, the same year his father died and his mother started putting on weight. The change was subtle, but Benny seemed to shrink as Annabelle grew, as if she were metabolizing her small son's grief along with her own.
Yes. That seems right.
So, perhaps the voices started around then, too, shortly after Kenny died? It was a car accident that killed him-no, it was a truck. Kenny Oh was a jazz clarinetist, but his real name was Kenji, so we'll call him that. He played swing mostly, big band stuff, at weddings and bar mitzvahs and in campy downtown hipster clubs, where the dudes all wore beards and porkpie hats and checkered shirts and mothy tweed jackets from the Salvation Army. He'd been playing a gig, and afterward he went out drinking or drugging or whatever he did with his musician friends-just a little toot, but enough so that on his way home, when he stumbled and fell in the alley, he didn't see the necessity of getting up right away. He wasn't far from home, only a few yards from the rickety gate that led to the back of his house. If he'd managed to crawl a bit further, he would have been okay, but instead he just lay there on his back, in a dim pool of light cast by the streetlamp above the Gospel Mission Thrift Shop dumpster. The long chill of winter had begun to lift, and a spring mist hung in the alleyway. He lay there, gazing up at the light and the tiny particles of moisture that swarmed brightly in the air. He was drunk. Or high. Or both. The light was beautiful. Earlier in the evening, he'd had a fight with his wife. Maybe he was feeling sorry. Maybe in his mind he was vowing to be better. Who knows what he was doing? Maybe he fell asleep. Let's hope so. In any case, that's where he was still lying an hour or so later, when the delivery truck came rattling down the alleyway.
It wasn't the truck driver's fault. The alley was filled with ruts and potholes. It was littered with half-emptied garbage bags, food waste, sodden clumps of clothes and broken appliances, which the dumpster divers had left behind. In the flat, gray light of the drizzling dawn, the truck driver couldn't distinguish between the debris and the musician's slim body, which by then was covered in crows. The crows were Kenji's friends. They were just trying to help by keeping him warm and dry, but everyone knows that crows love garbage. Is it any wonder that the driver mistook Kenji for a garbage bag? The driver hated crows. Crows were bad luck, and so he aimed his truck right at them. The truck was carrying crates of live chickens to the Chinese slaughterhouse at the end the alleyway. He stepped on the gas and felt the body bump beneath the wheels as the crows flew up in front of his windshield, obscuring his view and causing him to lose control and careen into the loading dock of the Eternal Happiness Printing Company Ltd. The truck tipped, and the crates of chickens went flying.
The noise of squawking birds woke Benny, whose bedroom window overlooked the dumpster. He lay there, listening, and then the back door slammed. A high, thin cry rose from the alley, uncoiling like a rope, like a living tentacle, snaking up into his window and hooking him, drawing him from bed. He went to the window, parted the curtains, and peered down into the street. The sky was just growing light. He could see the truck on its side, wheels spinning, and the air was filled with flapping wings and flying feathers, although, being cage-raised, these chickens couldn't really fly. They didn't really even look like birds. They were just these white Tribble-like things, scrabbling away into the shadows. The thin cry tightened like a wire, drawing Benny's eyes to a spectral figure, enveloped in a cloud of diaphanous white, the source of the sound, the source of his world: his mother, Annabelle.
She stood there in her nightgown, alone in the pool of light cast by the streetlamp. All around her there was motion, feathers drifting like snow, but she stood perfectly still, like a frozen princess, Benny thought. She was looking down at something on the ground, and in a flash, he knew that something was his father. From where he watched, high up in his window, he couldn't see his father's face, but he recognized his legs, which were bent and kicking, just like they did when Kenji was dancing, only now he was lying on his side.
His mother took a step forward. "Nooo!" she cried, and fell to her knees. Her thick golden hair spilled down her shoulders, catching the light from the streetlamp and curtaining her husband's head. She leaned over, crooning as she tried to gather him up. "No, Kenji, no, no, please, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. . . ."
Did he hear her? If he had opened his eyes just then, he would have seen his wife's lovely face hanging over him like a pale moon. Maybe he did. He would have seen the crows, perched on the rooftops and the swaying powerlines, watching. And maybe, looking over his wife's shoulder and beyond, he would have seen his son watching, too, from his distant window. Let's say he did see, because his dancing legs slowed then, stopped kicking and grew still. If, in that moment, Annabelle was Kenji's moon, then Benny was his distant star, and seeing him there, twinkling brightly in the pale dawn sky, he made an effort to move his arm, to raise his hand, to wiggle his fingers.
Like he was waving to me, Benny thought later. Like he was waving goodbye.
Kenji died on the way to the hospital, and the funeral was held the following week. It was up to Annabelle to make the arrangements, but she wasnÕt much for planning these kinds of things. Kenji was the outgoing one, and as a couple theyÕd never entertained or had people over. She had few, if any, friends.
The funeral director asked her many questions about her loved one's family and religious faith, which she had trouble answering. Kenji didn't have any family that she knew of. He was born in Hiroshima, but his parents had died when he was young. His sister, who was still an infant at the time, had been sent to live with his aunt and uncle, while Kenji had been raised by their grandparents in Kyoto. He rarely talked about his childhood, except to say that his grandparents were very traditional and strict and he didn't get along with them, but of course they were dead now, too. Presumably his sister was still alive, but he'd lost touch with her. Early in their marriage, when Annabelle asked, he just smiled and stroked her cheek and said that she was all the family he needed.
As for faith, she knew his grandparents had been Buddhist, and once he told her about a time in college when he'd lived in a Zen monastery. She remembered how he'd laughed. So funny, right? Me, a monk! And she laughed, too, because he didn't seem at all monkish. He said he didn't need religion because he had jazz. The only religious thing he owned were some prayer beads, which he sometimes wore around his wrist. They were pretty, but she'd never seen him use them for praying. Given his Buddhist roots, it seemed wrong to have a Christian minister preside at his funeral, and so in answer to the director's questions, Annabelle said no, there was no family, no faith, and there would be no service. The director seemed disappointed.
"And on your side?" he asked solicitously, and when she hesitated, he added, "At times like these, it's good to have family-"
Memory flickered, ghostlike. She thought of her mother's shrunken body in the hospital bed. Her stepfather's dark shadow, looming in her doorway. She shook her head. "No," she said, firmly, cutting him off. "I said no family."
Couldn't he see? That she and Kenji were alone in the world, and this was what united them until Benny came along.
The funeral director glanced at his watch and moved on. He wondered about her thoughts regarding a viewing. Again, she hesitated, and so he explained. Viewing a loved one's carefully restored remains could reduce the trauma that witnessing a tragic accident often caused. It would ease their painful memories and help those left behind accept the reality of the physical death. The viewing room was intimate and tastefully appointed. The funeral home would be happy to provide liquid refreshments for their guests, a wide selection of teas, coffee with an assortment of delicious flavored creamers, as well as some cookies, perhaps?
Creamers? she thought, trying not to smile. Seriously? She wanted to remember this to tell Kenji later-it was just the kind of absurd thing that would make him laugh-but the director was waiting, so she readily agreed that yes, cookies would be nice. He made a note and then inquired as to her wishes regarding the final disposition of her loved one's remains. She sat on the edge of the overstuffed couch, heard herself answering yes to a cremation and no to a burial plot or a shelf in the crypt, when suddenly a thought arose: that she couldn't tell Kenji about the delicious flavored creamers because Kenji was dead. This thought was quickly followed by a succession of others: that the loved one whose remains they were discussing was Kenji, and that these remains were the remains of Kenji's body, the same beloved body that she knew so well and which, when she closed her eyes, she could picture so clearly, the sinewy muscles of his shoulders, the smooth tawny skin, the slope of his naked back.
She excused herself and asked if she might use the washroom. Certainly, the director said, and pointed her down the carpeted hallway. She closed the door behind her. Inside, scented fresheners infused the air from every wall socket. She dropped to her knees in front of the toilet bowl and vomited into the bright blue sanitized water.
Now KenjiÕs body lay in an open coffin in a parlor-like room at the funeral home. When Benny and Annabelle arrived for the viewing, the funeral director ushered them in and then backed away, discreetly, to give them a moment. Annabelle took a deep breath. Gripping her sonÕs elbow, she started toward the coffin. Benny had never walked like this before, with his mother holding on to his arm like he was the one in charge. He felt like a handrail or a banister. Stiffly, he supported her, guiding her forward, and then they were standing side by side at the coffinÕs edge.
Kenji was a small man, grown smaller now in death. He was dressed in the light blue seersucker blazer that Annabelle had chosen for him, the one he wore with black jeans when he played summer weddings, minus the porkpie hat. His clarinet lay across his chest. Annabelle exhaled, a long, soft, punctured sigh.
"He looks okay," she whispered. "Like he's just sleeping. And the coffin's nice, too." When Benny didn't answer, she tugged on his arm. "Don't you think?"
"I guess," Benny said. He studied the body, lying there in the fancy coffin. The eyes were closed, but the face didn't look alive enough to be asleep. Didn't look alive enough to be dead, even. Didn't look like something that had ever lived. Someone had used makeup to cover up the bruises, but his dad would never have worn makeup. Someone had brushed the long black hair and arranged it loosely on the satin pillow. Kenji only wore his hair loose and hanging down like that when he was relaxing at home. In public, he always tied it back in a thick, black ponytail. All these details proved to Benny that the thing in the coffin was not his father. "You going to burn his clarinet, too?"
They sat in stiff folding chairs off to the side and waited. People started to arrive. Their ancient Chinese landlady, Mrs. Wong. Two of Annabelle's coworkers. Kenji's bandmates and his friends from the club scene. The musicians stood inside the doorway, looking like they wanted to leave, but the funeral director urged them forward. Nervously, they wandered up to the coffin. Some of them lingered and stared. Others talked to the corpse, or cracked a joke-Seriously, dude, a chicken truck?-which Annabelle pretended not to hear, and then spotting the refreshment table, they headed quickly toward it, pausing to say a few awkward words to her and to give Benny a quick hug and a pat on the head. Annabelle was gracious. These were her husband's friends. Benny was twelve and hated the pats, but the hugs he hated worse. Some of the band members punched him on the shoulder. He didn't mind the punches.
Maybe it was the clarinet in the coffin that gave someone the idea, but as more people trickled in, more instruments started to appear, and then a couple of the band members set up in a corner of the room and began to play. Mellow jazz, nothing flashy. More guests arrived. When a bottle of whiskey showed up on the refreshment table, next to the creamers, the funeral director looked like he might object, but the trumpet player took him aside and talked to him. He receded, and the band played on.
Kenji knew people who knew how to party, and so when it was time to transport their friend's body to the crematorium, the musicians canceled the hearse and took matters into their own hands. Annabelle went along with them. The coffin was heavy, but Kenji added little to its weight, and so they were able to lift it, taking turns carrying it on their shoulders, New Orleans-style, through the narrow back alleys and the dark, rain-slick streets. Annabelle and Benny walked with them. Someone ushered them to the front of the procession, just behind the coffin, and handed Benny a bright red umbrella, which he held up high above his mother's head, proudly, like a brave flag or a pennant, until his arm stiffened and he thought it would break.
Product details
- Publisher : Viking; First Edition (September 21, 2021)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 560 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0399563644
- ISBN-13 : 978-0399563645
- Reading age : 1 year and up
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1.63 x 9.26 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #397,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #687 in Asian American Literature & Fiction
- #4,195 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)
- #21,468 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Ruth Ozeki (born March 12, 1956) is an American-Canadian novelist, filmmaker and Zen Buddhist priest. She worked in commercial television and media production for over a decade and made several independent films before turning to writing fiction.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Latrippi (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
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Customers find the book insightful and thought-provoking. They describe it as a lovely, brilliant novel that reads like an ode to books. The storytelling is compelling and poignant, weaving together a unique journey. Readers praise the writing style as well-written, masterful, and a blend of grounded fiction with a hint of magical realism and Zen Buddhism. They find the characters engaging and quirky, with human personalities. The empathy and compassionate portrayal of mental illness resonate with customers. Overall, the book is described as creative, original, and a powerful novelist.
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Customers find the book insightful and thought-provoking. They appreciate the characters' inner lives and backstories. The book profoundly moves them, offering wisdom and a widening of the soul. Readers also mention the book offers solitude and comfort found in words shared in books.
"...ode to books, to reading, writing, and the haven and solace found in words shared in books, especially when there is no person who can provide that..." Read more
"...The characters' interactions, inner lives, and backstories are a poignant, thoughtful commentary on the human condition...." Read more
"...on all mental illness, but being a therapist, this book itself felt therapeutic and provided me with a sense of catharsis that I rarely find in books..." Read more
"...This is an important book on so many levels. It touches on many current topics, relationships, coming of age at any age, mental illness redefined,..." Read more
Customers find the book engaging and insightful. They describe it as a lovely, brilliant novel that reads like an ode to reading and writing. The book is described as satisfying and amazing at the end.
"...At times, this reads like an ode to books, to reading, writing, and the haven and solace found in words shared in books, especially when there is no..." Read more
"...So good! One of the best books I have ever read. I highly recommend it." Read more
"...reader, a book does not qualify as “good” unless it is both enjoyable to read and makes me think about things in a different way...." Read more
"...This book is so beautiful and unique, I really just want you to experience it through some quotes I highlighted......" Read more
Customers find the storytelling compelling and poignant. They describe the book as a unique journey that rewards patience with its captivating story, fun characters, cozy interiors, and excellent plotting. The author brings a gift for storytelling to bear on deep questions about life.
"...Other times, it is an adventure story, as well as a story of love. A mother’s love, a young boy’s first love...." Read more
"...The characters' interactions, inner lives, and backstories are a poignant, thoughtful commentary on the human condition...." Read more
"...Her writing is a unique blend of grounded fiction, a hint of magical realism, a touch of Zen Buddhism, and an astonishing understanding of the way..." Read more
"...Well drawn characters and I appreciated the ending." Read more
Customers appreciate the writing style. They find it well-written with a masterful play of words. The book is described as a unique blend of grounded fiction with a hint of magical realism and a touch of Zen Buddhism. Readers praise the author's gift for storytelling and relatable characters. However, some feel the ideas are interesting but poorly executed.
"...At times, this reads like an ode to books, to reading, writing, and the haven and solace found in words shared in books, especially when there is no..." Read more
"...The book itself is a character and narrates several sections of the text...." Read more
"...Her writing is a unique blend of grounded fiction, a hint of magical realism, a touch of Zen Buddhism, and an astonishing understanding of the way..." Read more
"...This was part of the beauty of Ozeki’s writing style. Each newly learned word drew me deeper into this story...." Read more
Customers find the characters engaging and quirky. They also appreciate the human personality and plot.
"...The book itself is a character and narrates several sections of the text...." Read more
"...Well drawn characters and I appreciated the ending." Read more
"...The characters are engaging and there is a plot, but the unfamiliar and quirky perspectives are unforgettable...." Read more
"...Memorable characters. I loved the depiction of a mother who struggles with her own demons and yet stops at nothing for her boy." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's empathy and thoughtful commentary on the human condition. They find the backstories poignant and meaningful, painting compassionate portraits of mental illness, psychosis, homelessness, and coming of age. The book leaves readers with a sense of empathy and respect for others and their surroundings.
"...An enchanting story of love and its power to heal shared with a sprinkling of magical realism." Read more
"...inner lives, and backstories are a poignant, thoughtful commentary on the human condition...." Read more
"...This book paints compellingly compassionate portraits of mental illness, making you ask yourself questions about "what is real?"..." Read more
"...I also think, from a therapeutic point of view, that this book handles mental illness, psychosis, homelessness, and death with a grace that allows..." Read more
Customers find the book creative, unique, and unusual. They say it's well-written with an original style and flavor that draws them in.
"...This book is so beautiful and unique, I really just want you to experience it through some quotes I highlighted......" Read more
"Sad and frustrating and sad. And yet beautifully written and original and a style and flavor that is uniquely this author's own...." Read more
"Unique and simultaneously familiar, this story resonates wisdom and timeless empathy for the disaffected who struggle in the acquisitive world." Read more
"I really liked this book. It's unique and unusual as well as very well written...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's voice. They mention it has its own voice, and that someone hears voices from objects and makes sense of it all.
"I loved the premise of the book. Someone hearing voices from objects, and making sense of it all...." Read more
"I enjoyed the creative use of the book to have the agency to communicate by speaking. The characters in the book are memorable...." Read more
"...I also enjoyed the fact that the actual book had its own voice. Very complicated but also easy to read...." Read more
"...The narration POV includes that of books themselves and a boy who hears objects. Excellent like Park I'd prior writing." Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2021’A book must start somewhere. One brave letter must volunteer to go first, laying itself on the line in an act of faith, from which a word takes heart and follows., drawing a sentence into its wake. From there, a paragraph amasses, and soon a page, and the book is on its way, finding a voice, calling itself into being.’
The year that Benny Oh turns 12 is the year that his father dies. His life, and the life of his mother begin to unravel quickly. Benny begins to hear the voices of inanimate objects, some of which insist that he use them for evil purposes, which is how he ends up in a psychiatric ward. Meanwhile, his mother is worried. Worried about him. Worried about her job. Worried about the landlord’s son who keeps trying to have her evicted. Worried about the crows which she befriends that seem to hover over this story. Worried about life and how best to live it. She is unwilling to part with a number of objects that have some sentimental meaning to her, from her son’s clothing when he was a young boy to broken teapots and other objects that she keeps meaning to repair. At the same time, she frequently finds new objects to add to this collection, and in perusing a store for yet more to add, she discovers a book called ’Tidy Magic’, the author of which is a ‘real Zen monk.’
’Things are needy. They take up space. They want attention, and they will drive you mad if you let them.’
When Benny returns home, his mother has tried to put some of the ’Tidy Magic’ recommendations into practice, but since almost everything she owns, to borrow a phrase from Marie Kondo, ’sparks joy’ almost nothing ends up in the toss bin. Benny begins to spend more and more time at the library, the time he is meant to be spending in school. At the library he meets up with The Aleph, a young girl slightly older than him. She becomes somewhat of an influence on him, and eventually a friend, although he harbors a somewhat secret crush on her.
’Pencils have stories inside them, and they’re safe as long as you don’t stick the point in your ear. Just hold it next to your head and listen. Can you hear the wood whisper? The ghost of the pine? The mutter of lead?’
At times, this reads like an ode to books, to reading, writing, and the haven and solace found in words shared in books, especially when there is no person who can provide that comfort, that safe shelter for the soul. Other times, it is an adventure story, as well as a story of love. A mother’s love, a young boy’s first love. At times it is heartrending, other times it provides a healing touch.
An enchanting story of love and its power to heal shared with a sprinkling of magical realism.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2023“Stories never start at the beginning, Benny. They differ from life in that regard. Life is lived from birth to death, from the beginning into an unknowable future. But stories are told in hindsight. Stories are life lived backward.” (p28)
I was deep into this book before I made peace with it. Early on, I was frustrated and a bit annoyed. The story seemed to meander, and “the book” that talks to the protagonist struck me as little more than a device that makes possible a mildly quirky omniscient narrator. But the story slowly came into focus. The author eventually hooked me and reeled me in. I can’t shake the feeling that my initial reaction was part of her plan all along.
This is a novel that rewards patience. People connect in interesting and surprising ways across time and space. First impressions of seemingly cardboard characters give way to nuance, depth, and empathy. The characters' interactions, inner lives, and backstories are a poignant, thoughtful commentary on the human condition. By the time I neared the end I cared deeply about the characters and the story. I didn’t want the book to end.
If you enjoy this novel, you’ll probably also like Ozeki’s “A Tale for the Time Being”. It’s clear that Ozeki, a Zen Buddhist priest, has a knack for compelling stories that help us see how we are all connected in profound and important ways.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2022I was intrigued by the description of this book in a New Yorker book review. And reading it was even better than I could ever have imagined. It is quite different from any book you're likely to have read before. The book itself is a character and narrates several sections of the text. This book paints compellingly compassionate portraits of mental illness, making you ask yourself questions about "what is real?" and "what is the nature of the soul?" without openly leading you there. And that isn't even what the book is about. It's just the story of a teenaged boy and his mother dealing with the loss of their father/husband in a tragic accident. So good! One of the best books I have ever read. I highly recommend it.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2024I have loved Ruth Ozeki's writing since I read 'My Year of Meats' a few years back, and have been eagerly reading through her bibliography since that point in time. Her writing is a unique blend of grounded fiction, a hint of magical realism, a touch of Zen Buddhism, and an astonishing understanding of the way people work. And 'The Book of Form and Emptiness' has all of that in spades. I loved my time with this book, and beyond the story itself, I love that it provided me with a new way to look at the objects in my own life and provide more respect to each thing that I own and encounter. I also think, from a therapeutic point of view, that this book handles mental illness, psychosis, homelessness, and death with a grace that allows readers to feel compassion for every character involved. I am certainly not an expert on all mental illness, but being a therapist, this book itself felt therapeutic and provided me with a sense of catharsis that I rarely find in books. I could probably go on for a long time about this one, but what I will stop with is that I fully and wholly enjoyed this book and find it difficult to put down as I found myself more and more wrapped in a strange comfort of the struggles and realities of the life of others.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2021I’m not going to summarize the plot here; you can read that in the description. For me, an avid fiction reader, a book does not qualify as “good” unless it is both enjoyable to read and makes me think about things in a different way.
This book gave me a new and interesting perspective on consumer culture and the power that things have over us, mental illness and what it means to really help and not just go through the motions. At the same time, I rally cared about Benny, Annabelle, the Aleph and the B-man. Well drawn characters and I appreciated the ending.
Top reviews from other countries
- XimenaReviewed in Mexico on April 24, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars SUPERB
Beautifully and masterly written. A round story with impecably well profiled characters who deliver deep, meaningful messages. A cherishable book, indeed!
XimenaSUPERB
Reviewed in Mexico on April 24, 2023
Images in this review
- Katia NovikovaReviewed in Spain on October 29, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Strangely engaging
One of the best summer reads despite the fact that it took me around 4 weeks to get through it. Compelling characters and unmistakable writing style.
- ABIABIReviewed in Italy on September 22, 2022
2.0 out of 5 stars not what I expected
boring, slow, repetitive, not my cup of tea; disappointed
- Patricia E.Reviewed in Germany on September 13, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars I loved every word of this book
I knew nothing about the book at all before I read the sample, which is what I like to do. Ruth Ozeki is a new author for me and I found her writing wonderful. I chose the book initially because she had won a prize.
I loved the characters , the story and everything about it. I was sorry when I finished it.
- PerryReviewed in Australia on December 23, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars perfection
This book will stay with me forever. It is incredible. Although I do recommend reading this in paper form. If the book is an actual character in the story, reading it on Kindle felt like cheating!