The Book of Form & Emptiness
Ruth Ozeki · 2021
A young boy begins to hear objects speak after his father's death. Ozeki's novel about grief, hoarding, mental illness, and the magic of books is genuinely strange and genuinely warm. The metafictional elements (the book itself is a character) could be precious but instead feel earned.
The case against
At 550 pages, the novel hoards subplots the way Annabelle hoards craft supplies: a talking crow, a Zen decluttering nun, a street poet philosopher, a sentient Book that narrates in cosy aphorisms. That Book is the problem; its voice slides from charming to twee to lecturing you about attention and consumerism. Ozeki the teacher keeps interrupting Ozeki the novelist.
Best of Last 10 Years · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
