Q3 Journal 4

Besides reading lots of poetry, I also used any of the scarce free time that I had to continue reading Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being, which I wish to finish soon.  Right now, I have gotten through Nao’s summer at Jiko’s palace as well as Ruth’s search for translations and more clues to Nao’s existence.  In Nao’s part of the story, it seems as if Nao has become a happier person throughout the summer away from her terrible life at school.  It must feel horrible every day being bullied horrifically and then being treated as if you did not exist.  The peaceful, colorful summer with Jiko contrasts greatly with Nao’s struggles in her stressful, drab city.  The reader meets Jiko in person for the first time, and she immediately strikes readers as a wise and calm person.  It is also interesting to meet the ghost of Nao’s grandfather, a kamikaze bomber, at one point in the book.  At this part, I start to wonder if I can call this book realistic fiction because it is not normal to converse with ghosts and actually gain insight about the ghost’s life unless Nao is just imagining things.  However, when Nao leaves, Jiko gives her all of the war materials later found by Ruth in the lunch box, which I thought was a nice touch to tie together the stories once more.  Still, I wonder about how that lunch box began to drift in the first place and whether Nao is alive as well.

In Ruth’s section, Ruth seeks translators and others who would likely be able to help her solve this mystery of who Nao might be.  She also looks up Jiko’s writings and emails a professor about Nao’s father, though the writings coincidentally disappear afterwards and the professor never responds.  Again, I wonder if this is truly coincidence or if there is something supernatural going on in the story.  Like in Nao’s section, I am beginning to question whether this is all realistic fiction.  So far, I still do not know the results of what the translators will find, and I hope that all of the questions raised in this section will be answered soon.