Ruth Ozeki

Ruth, living on an island in Canada, discovers a diary (written by Nau who lives in Japan), letters from WWII, and a watch inside a Hello Kitty lunchbox on the beach. They presumably made the Pacific crossing from Japan’s massive tsunami. Ruth, who is half Japanese is able to read the diary but not the letters. The diary, though, leads her to believe Nau and her father are intent on committing suicide. Ruth illogically thinks she can save them when in reality, given the time for the diary to cross the ocean, the deeds are probably already done. Everything about this situation though is unusual and time isn’t what we think it is. This is a very dark book and there are so many trigger warnings, I made a list:
Sexual Assault
Suicide
Harm to animals
9-11 jumper
Kamikazi pilot who doesn’t want to die
Prostitution
Tsunami
Radiation
Bullying is the one of the worst, and it makes the reader want to bail. However, it is resolved in the end with a most unique ending I may have ever read. I wish this book weren’t so dark. It really felt like the author was trying to make it as horrific as possible. So I had to take quite a long time to think on it before writing a review. Because of the ending, I recommend it. But beware of the darkness before the light.… (mer)

Benny Oh is fourteen when he loses his father to a tragic accident. The trauma and grief that Benny suffers from, leads him to hearing voices from everyday objects. The voices become overwhelming and he finally takes refuge in a public library, where they can be silenced for a time. In the meantime, his mother suffers from her own grieving issues. I liked this fresh, interesting story. It is an oddball mix of fantasy and reality. The main drawback for me, is how frustrating these two main characters can be. The continuous bad choices they make got to be a bit tiresome. In the end, I still found it a worthy read.… (mer)

Annabelle and her son Benny are thrown completely off course by the accidental death of husband and father Kenji. Annabelle works from home and Benny is a bit of an outcast at school; without a social support network things begin to fall apart. Annabelle’s grief manifests itself in hoarding behavior. In addition to demonstrating typical early adolescent behaviors like testing boundaries and creating emotional distance from his mom, Benny begins hearing voices from inanimate objects.

Ruth Ozeki introduces a number of colorful supporting characters, including a book that serves as narrator. This provides much-needed objectivity and emotional distance, as well as structure for Annabelle and Benny’s journey through grief and healing, which is anything but linear. I found both Annabelle and Benny annoying at times, but their flaws and idiosyncrasies are essential elements of the story. There were a couple of plot developments that I failed to connect with and didn’t add much to the story, but despite that I found the book hard to put down and zipped through it.… (mer)