Readings for September 4, 2022

A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki

Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being has Zen Buddhism, French translation, the Pacific Northwest, and quantum physics, footnotes, appendices, and intertwining narratives that make for a beautiful structure. It’s everything I want in a book, and it easily took a spot in my top five all-time favorite books one day after finishing it.

This novel was published a decade ago, so there are plenty of reviews out there, and if you like the kinds of books I like, you will like this book. The thing I want to talk about, though, is book friends.

I often post about books on Instagram (it’s almost entirely books and pets over there, though I don’t post very regularly). My friend Sara asked in a comment if I’d ever read A Tale for the Time Being, and I said no, and she was aghast. She said it was the perfect book for me and I must read it. Actually, I just looked up the DM from Sara which said: DO IT. And then report back. This is me reporting back, because I think she reads this newsletter.

I bought the book when she recommended it, and it sat on the TBR pile most of the summer. When I picked it up, I loved it from the first page. From the first sentence. Not only did I love this book, but I kept remembering that Sara knew how much I would love it. She saw what I read and what I liked, and she was kind enough to Insta-insist that I read it. In all caps.

Book friends don’t always recommend; sometimes they warn you away. Carly and I are close friends and avid readers, but the Venn diagram of our tastes has only a medium-sized overlap. When we talk about books, we’ll often sketch the plot or style for each other and then ask, “Do you think you’ll read it?” At least half the time, the answer is no, so then we can spoil the ending and talk about the entirety of the book. But that means that when we do find a book that fits into the overlapping circles of our Venn diagrams, like the dark academia Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo or the gently uplifting Long Live the Post Horn by Vigdis Hjorth and translated by Charlotte Barslund, we read them, no questions asked. Well, until we discuss them later. Then we might have lots of spoiler-y questions.

The best book friends know where your tastes converge and can help you stretch your boundaries a little. They also take no offense when you give a recommendation of theirs a go then cannot finish it. And maybe best of all, they warn you away from books they know you will not enjoy.

Bonus fact: A Tale for the Time Being is the 2023 Everybody Reads pick for Multnomah County Library! I will be able to talk to everyone in the city about one of my favorite books next year. Cannot wait.

I read this essay about essays by Kieran Setiya in the TLS. It did what an essay is supposed to do in that it made me think, in this case, about the role of the personal in my writing. I shared above two of my book friends, and I reward you with pictures of my very own dog. But I am very careful about what I share and how relevant it is to the subject of anything I write. A professor I had last term noted that women are often expected to reveal more of their lives in their work, no matter the genre. Do we give the people what they want? Do we protect ourselves at the expense of building community? It’s a line to be renegotiated and redrawn in the shifting sands of every essay.

This essay by Alicia Andrzejewski probes Hamlet for Shakespeare’s take on abortion. Her ability to tie together the current moment in reproductive rights and practices with early modern rights and practices, backed up by passages from this play, is enlightening. What if Ophelia’s “madness” was her reaction to being pregnant out of wedlock? This essay falls into my favorite type, where literature of any era is used to shine a light on our own moment.

I also found an older essay from 2020 by Hilary Mantel about her writing life. It has this great quote:

Don’t try to cater to an audience you think may not be keeping up with you—find the audience who will.

You all have kept up with me all summer, and there are more of you each week, which is astonishing. Thank you.

And Now for a Cat

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