I liked this one and its treatment of the mysteries of time, narrative, agency and day to day life, though for mine it was perhaps a bit too straight up in its thematising of what were admittedly some inherently complex subjects and ideas, and perhaps overly engineered in structure (although maybe that was unavoidable).
Also, book club rides again (inaugural attendees this time round were Ash, Cass, Meribah, Erandathie, Jade, Nicolette and Kelly) and voila from my post-meeting wrap:
... impressively, everyone enjoyed the book, in some cases a bit against expectations. There were different views about how likeable some of the characters were (notably Oliver), but I'm pretty sure everyone liked Nao. For some of us, the fantastic elements not only made sense but were integral; for others, they were an obstacle to enjoyment. Either way, the events of the novel and 'what's it all about' were equally mind-bending - and also poignant, even if the impact of the harrowing experiences suffered by Nao seemed oddly filtered, at least to some of us.
We talked about how Ruth's (the character, as distinct from the author Ruth - or is she?) unreliability as a narrator conditions our understanding of what's transpiring between the pages (pages within the pages - Haruki #1's letters, Nao's diary, Ruth's annotations, A Tale For The Time Being). There were certainly plenty of interesting parallels across the two sets of narratives - Ruth's and Nao's. And we figured that Ruth Ozeki actually being a Buddhist nun may not have been completely irrelevant to the Buddhist feel of the novel itself.
Plus, appropriately for a novel interested in how narrative can affect the external world, we ranged well beyond the confines of the book to take in bullying, religion, suicide, Japanese culture generally and, of course, clams.
Also, book club rides again (inaugural attendees this time round were Ash, Cass, Meribah, Erandathie, Jade, Nicolette and Kelly) and voila from my post-meeting wrap:
... impressively, everyone enjoyed the book, in some cases a bit against expectations. There were different views about how likeable some of the characters were (notably Oliver), but I'm pretty sure everyone liked Nao. For some of us, the fantastic elements not only made sense but were integral; for others, they were an obstacle to enjoyment. Either way, the events of the novel and 'what's it all about' were equally mind-bending - and also poignant, even if the impact of the harrowing experiences suffered by Nao seemed oddly filtered, at least to some of us.
We talked about how Ruth's (the character, as distinct from the author Ruth - or is she?) unreliability as a narrator conditions our understanding of what's transpiring between the pages (pages within the pages - Haruki #1's letters, Nao's diary, Ruth's annotations, A Tale For The Time Being). There were certainly plenty of interesting parallels across the two sets of narratives - Ruth's and Nao's. And we figured that Ruth Ozeki actually being a Buddhist nun may not have been completely irrelevant to the Buddhist feel of the novel itself.
Plus, appropriately for a novel interested in how narrative can affect the external world, we ranged well beyond the confines of the book to take in bullying, religion, suicide, Japanese culture generally and, of course, clams.
