review of the book of form and emptiness

' Borgesian, Zen Buddhist parable of consumerism. 'A meditative tribute to books, libraries, and Zen wisdom.' - Kirkus Reviews

This is the rare work that will entertain teenagers, literary fiction readers, and academics alike.' - Publishers Weekly 'Ozeki playfully and successfully breaks the fourth wall and she cultivates a striking blend of young adult fiction tropes with complex references to Walter Benjamin, Zen Buddhism, and Marxist philosophy. This enthralling, poignant, funny, and mysterious saga, thrumming with grief and tenderness, beauty and compassion, offers much wisdom.' - Booklist (Starred Review) Most inventively, Ozeki celebrates the profound relationship between reader and writer. ' writes with bountiful insight, exuberant imagination, and levitating grace about psychic diversity, our complicated attitude toward our possessions, street protests, climate change, and such wonders as crows, the moon, and snow globes. With its blend of sympathetic characters, riveting plot, and vibrant engagement with everything from jazz, to climate change, to our attachment to material possessions, The Book of Form and Emptiness is classic Ruth Ozeki-bold, wise, poignant, playful, humane and heartbreaking. He meets a homeless philosopher-poet, who encourages him to ask important questions and find his own voice amongst the many.Īnd he meets his very own Book-a talking thing-who narrates Benny's life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter. He falls in love with a mesmerizing street artist with a smug pet ferret, who uses the library as her performance space.

There, Benny discovers a strange new world. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous.Īt first, Benny tries to ignore them, but soon the voices follow him outside the house, onto the street and at school, driving him at last to seek refuge in the silence of a large public library, where objects are well-behaved and know to speak in whispers. Although Benny doesn't understand what these things are saying, he can sense their emotional tone some are pleasant, a gentle hum or coo, but others are snide, angry and full of pain. The voices belong to the things in his house-a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. One year after the death of his beloved musician father, thirteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. A boy who hears the voices of objects all around him a mother drowning in her possessions and a Book that might hold the secret to saving them both-the brilliantly inventive new novel from the Booker Prize-finalist Ruth Ozeki.

Review of the book of form and emptiness