(Oliver, who is of German heritage, cannot call it Jap Ranch.) (Ruth’s life matches that of author Ruth Ozeki suspiciously closely.) Ruth found the diary and a few other artifacts, well-wrapped in a barnacle-encrusted ziploc bag, on a beach near her home: the beach near Jap Ranch, as she calls it, her own Japanese heritage giving her the right and motivating her to remember the mistreatment of her people during World War II in these parts. The diary is being read by Ruth, a novelist living on Canada’s west coast on a remote island with her husband Oliver and their cat, named Schrodinger but more commonly called Pest, or Pesto. She is the victim of criminal bullying at school, and has decided to end her life, but before she does, she wants to record the amazing life of her great-grandmother Jiko, a Buddhist nun and radical anarchist feminist.

(In this time-obsessed novel, you can bet her name is a meaningful homonym.) Nao is Japanese but has lived most of her life in Sunnyvale, California, and the recent move to Tokyo has been very hard on her. The opening voice is that of Nao, a sixteen-year-old girl living in Tokyo. Now I’ve finished, and she hasn’t yet, so we haven’t done our final debrief together but we have discussed as we’ve leapfrogged down the middle.Ī Tale for the Time Being is unusual in a few delightful, fresh ways. She had already very much enjoyed the audiobook. With her own print copy ready, we set out to read together. My mother gave me this audiobook for my birthday. 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.

A tale for the time being meaning