A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki Publisher of this edition: Cannongate Books Ltd. (Edinburgh) 2013 My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is beautiful beautiful. The sixteen-year-old protagonist, Nao, and her 104-year-old great-grandmother, Jiko, are the life’s blood of this wonderful book, but all of the characters are essential to the ensemble, which is one of the points of the book: the necessity of playing one’s part in the HERE and NOW of life. A Tale for the Time Being is funny and tender and sad and sweet and brimming with the compassion and hope one would expect from a Buddhist priest (which Ozeki is, which I only just learnt) without being sappy or sentimental. Here’s a quote that…
