the book of form and emptiness book review

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. “If you’ve lost your way with fiction over the last year or two, let The Book of Form and Emptiness light your way home.” -David Mitchell, Booker Prize-finalist author of Cloud AtlasĪ 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 “Inventive, vivid, and propelled by a sense of wonder.” - TIME

And this device was used brilliantly to drive home the book's larger themes about the meaning that we give objects in our lives, especially when dealing with grief.“No one writes like Ruth Ozeki-a triumph.” -Matt Haig, New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library And the narrative toggles back and forth between Benny's perspective and the perspective of the eponymous anthropomorphic book. And one of those is an omniscient voice called 'The Book'. A teenager and his mother both battle mental illness in the aftermath of the sudden death of their father/husband.

So this is sort of a “you know what, f**ck it, despite its flaws I loved it” 5 stars. Still a very good book, but there were parts that definitely didn't work or felt narratively clumsy, but truthfully, forest for the trees I found it deeply emotional, moving, and what did work was breathtaking and deeply deeply affecting for me. And to be honest, if I was rating only on the quality of the writing, both prose and structure, it probably deserves a 4. I kept going back and forth on my rating for this one between a 4 and a 5.

The book of form and emptiness book review