When does a book become real? And for that matter, what is real? These questions run through Ruth Ozeki’s The Book of Form and Emptiness as the main character, Benny, fourteen years old, struggles with the death of his father, adolescence and the voices of inanimate objects that he cannot shut out. The story is told by Benny, and also a book. The book not only narrates Benny’s story, but talks with Benny directly, or talks directly to the reader pontificating on books, the art […]
Do You Hear What I Hear? and if Not, So?
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
