Indeed of the decade: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.
Looking back over the archives, in November 2003 we read Ozeki's early novel My Year of Meats. I loathed it! Yet, I was interested to see what she had written a decade later. And A Tale for the Time Being completely engaged me.
I have very little in common with the punk teenager Nao, and would not have been her friend when I was a teen myself. Yet, I was shocked at how she was so unfairly tortured by her classmates and worse yet, by her teachers. Given her family situation plus what she suffered at school, many of her choices were not completely surprising.
I also never had a Buddhist nun great-grandmother, although I fervently wish I had!
The counter story of Ruth, the novelist who found the Hello Kitty lunchbox and the amazing diary, added a surprising depth and mystery to the novel that might not have been with a linear telling of Nao's story.
Add this to my list of favorite books, the ones I actually reread, and find so much more each time I do.
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