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Ruth Ozeki

Author of A Tale for the Time Being

11+ Works 8,104 Members 364 Reviews 13 Favorited

About the Author

Ruth Ozeki received degrees in English literature and Asian studies from Smith College. She is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest. Her first novel, My Year of Meats, was published in 1998. Her other novels include All Over Creation and A Tale for the Time-Being, which was shortlisted show more for the Man Booker Prize. Her documentary and dramatic independent films, including Body of Correspondence and Halving the Bones, have been shown on PBS and at the Sundance Film Festival. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Works by Ruth Ozeki

Associated Works

No-No Boy (1957) — Foreword, some editions — 692 copies
Click (2007) — Contributor — 449 copies
Granta 127: Japan (2014) — Contributor — 121 copies
Inside and Other Short Fiction: Japanese Women by Japanese Women (2008) — Foreword, some editions — 71 copies

Tagged

2013 (39) 2014 (38) American (46) American literature (52) Asian American (51) audiobook (57) book club (45) British Columbia (42) Buddhism (139) bullying (102) Canada (129) coming of age (59) contemporary (52) contemporary fiction (70) diary (46) ebook (46) family (66) farming (37) fiction (1,099) food (67) Idaho (43) Japan (472) Japanese (48) Japanese American (66) Kindle (53) literary fiction (40) literature (50) magical realism (109) meat industry (42) novel (136) own (42) read (108) short stories (43) suicide (140) to-read (811) tsunami (74) unread (50) USA (63) WWII (84) zen (51)

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Reviews

My Year of Meats reads like a dual memoir told by a young Japanese American filmmaker and a Japanese housewife. The filmmaker is working on a TV show about American housewives who cook beef for dinner-- to be aired in Japan. It's an amusing premise but it started off rough. It is Ozeki's first novel and read as such, but it improved about 1/3 way through and started to hang together and find its footing as the filmmaker made discoveries about meat production. I enjoyed the characters and the story was satisfying, if not entirely believable. **Some people won't read this afraid they will be grossed out by meat after reading. This is NOT The Jungle. It's more about drugs used in the meat industry that are now outlawed. There are some unsavory meat factory scenes but I had several steaks while reading this book.**… (more)
 
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technodiabla | 56 other reviews | Nov 22, 2023 |
A contender for book of the year for me. Sci-fi bordering on magical realism slowly seeps into the book, until it explodes and creates a narrative as worth of manga as print.
 
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jscape2000 | 243 other reviews | Nov 3, 2023 |
Hands down one of the best fiction books I've read in a long time. The continuing theme of suicide might be hard for some but I found the book original, inspiring, and engrossing.

Seriously--go read this.
 
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meallenreads | 243 other reviews | Oct 24, 2023 |
I was going to write some long, fancy, heart-felt review about the beauty and depth of this complicated novel to offer a little balance between the people who rave about it and the folks who hate it. But I realized that this book is also a time-being. And maybe in THIS world, it only really IMPACTS the reader or writer for whom it was written.

And that reader AND writer, for the time being, is me.

Pick it up and give it a cursory go. If it feels like you’re fighting a wave, put it back down. It’s not your time. If it feels like you’re falling into and of the story – then (and now), you’re it.
… (more)
 
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BreePye | 243 other reviews | Oct 6, 2023 |

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Asia (1)

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Associated Authors

Ruud Rook Translator
Anna Fields Narrator

Statistics

Works
11
Also by
7
Members
8,104
Popularity
#2,990
Rating
4.0
Reviews
364
ISBNs
161
Languages
18
Favorited
13
Touchstones
495

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