Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - A Tale for the Time Being

There's a lot I liked about the book: contrary to the other reviewers I've seen, I liked Ruth, even if she is an author-self-insert. I liked how well fleshed-out the characters on the island are, they felt very realistic. I was initially annoyed by Nao's writing, since I think it attempted (at first) to sound like a teenager and it came off a little cringeworthy, but I eventually warmed up to it. The book ebbs and flows, and I found myself reading to get it over with in some spots, but I will say I did stay up late to finish the last one hundred pages. If I had one major complaint,

it's the fact that, near the end of the book, Nao becomes a prostitute for... what reason? After the very disturbing rape scene, the prostitution didn't really add much to the story, and I think you could have bumped that and made the assault the "rock bottom", which is what I think Ozeki was going for.

The story wraps up nicely, and I really enjoyed the

weird, almost dreamlike

aspects of the story, that alone made me enjoy the ending quite a bit more.

Content Warnings

miiii's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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jackienelson's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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_ge_gardner's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was so striking. It was intimate, devastating, and hopeful, I was often crying while reading this and I wondered why do we read things that move us so much, I thought maybe it was a mistake to keep reading, especially I thought it might be a mistake to keep reading while feeling low and maybe I should have at times. Nonetheless, I kept reading.

I am so intrigued by the Zen Buddhist insight aswell as the quantum physics, both of which weave through. Questions of morality, and doing good, being anarchist when unseen were familiar and emotional.

i found the bathroom scene as well as some of the ‘dates’/underage sexwork too much for me. I am putting this down to my own unwillingness to expose myself to that rather than a flaw of the book

take content warnings (sexual violence, hazing, suicidality of this book seriously as the narrator is graphic.

It is often about suicide, but it is also about the tenderness of loving family members, conscience and responsibility, the vulnerability of acceptance, and the ultimate unknowability of the flip-side of the coin.

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kaatelin's review against another edition

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3.5

i liked how the book explored some aspects of time and the impact on the reader on the story, but i felt like it dove too deep too few times so it didn’t feel like a really consistent motif

My favourite section of this book easily was Nao’s time with her great grandmother, it was atmospheric, and considering Nao and her great grandma are the only character who felt really flushed out to me, it felt like such a well developed part of the story. I also just love all her prayers and the relationship built between the two of them. It was the one clear and believable moment of hope in the novel

Ruth is really there to represent us as the reader, but I also felt a bit mislead by this idea of Ruth as a sort of detective trying to figure out Nao’s story. I think there was little more I got out of the story by having her as this sort of facilitator of discovery. In some ways I wish I was first hand experiencing it, with Nao talking to me, or even it could be an interesting opportunity to use a second person voice to pull the reader in even more beyond Nao’s direct calls to the reader/Ruth.
—> after checking out the print version it does some interesting things with footnotes! Most are just translations but a few are Ruth questioning Nao’s narrative, which does a good job as positioning Ruth as an investigative force in the story! The appendixes did nothing for me though

I am glad Ruth’s husband called her out for her bullshit about being worried about Nao as an “urgent issue” but also reading the journal so slowly!! And naming that the timing was so unclear, how did she not thing earlier that the journal was many years old!!

I also just did not care for Ruth’s side of the story!! See narrative development reasons above, but also everyone in that story was either boring or part of this rotating cast on the island who each got one moment of importance

Certain points of this book just got too much for me, Nao’s bathroom attack in particular as well as her “dates”. They really soured the story for me and the redemption only happened when she went to be by her great grandmother.

take all the content warnings at face value, because Nao does not sugar coat or glance over anything. She’s got a clear narrative voice and it’s a blunt one.

I don’t love how we had to spell out some things, like having Ruth and her husband state clearly Haruki One and Haruki Two’s motivations for their actions and directly drawing a parallel. I kind of want the author to trust the reader a bit more. It also felt like everything had to be justified - I’m not sure it added more to the story to me to learn that Nao’s dad had this other motive behind his firing and his suicidality

I seem to have a lot of thoughts on this book!! I’ll edit and add more if I think of anything else, but overall despite the more mediocre rating, it did really catch my attention and I got through it fairly quickly!!

Content Warnings

jesus_wept's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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