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Round 5: Never Let Me Go v. A Tale for the Time Being judged by Isaac

During the first weekend of every May, the men of my stepfather’s family go on a fishing trip to Lake Tenkiller in eastern Oklahoma. I call this a fishing trip, but it could more accurately be called a feeding trip. What fishing does get done is almost secondary, an activity to fill the time between the inordinately large meals that we partake in, especially on Saturday. This was suspended for the pandemic the last two years, but typically the day will begin with the breakfast buffet at a local resort which features a made-to-order omelette bar and Belgian waffles in addition to Eggs Benedict, crispy bacon, and flavorful home fries. It is a delightful smorgasbord. The rest of the day is wiled away at the marina dock where my uncles and cousins lazily hope to catch something worth reeling in; I don’t bother even doing that much, opting instead to just read by the lake (this year my book of choice was The Removed by Brandon Hobson, which is mostly set near Lake Tenkiller, but was not as satisfying as I was hoping it’d be). We do this until it’s time to reconvene for a steak dinner with baked potato, corn-on-the-cob, and strawberry shortcake dessert. It is a truly indulgent feast.
I look forward to these meals all year long, and I couldn’t help but think of them as I read the two novels it is my unfortunate task to judge between (it has been one of my ToB pet peeves for a Judge to start their decision with a “woe is me� lament for having to make a decision they freely agreed to write; now that I’m the one wearing the robe I refuse to give in, but I certainly understand the temptation better). I must decide between Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, and A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. Ishiguro’s novel was in the 2006 Tournament of Books, Ozeki’s in the 2014 edition. NLMG lost in the second round to eventual runner-up Home Land by Sam Lipsyte, and ATftTB was exited by no less a personage than John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats when it went up against that year’s champion The Good Lord Bird in the Semifinals (while I did read the Judge’s decisions related to these books, I did not read anything from the Commentariat so I don’t know whether or not these judgments were viewed favorably).
It did not escape my notice going into this match-up that NLMG is far-and-away the oldest book on the Tournament of Favorites shortlist, being the only one published before 2010, meaning it escaped a fairly substantial recency bias. It’s also one of the few books on the shortlist I’ve previously read (in 2014, I gave it 5 stars on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ without a review). I find it interesting that it was paired with a novel by Ozeki, who, like Ishiguro, is part of the Japanese diaspora. She is mixed-race, born in Connecticut to a white father and Japanese mother, and spent her career as a filmmaker before starting to write in her 40’s; she is also a practicing Zen Buddhist priest. He was born in Nagasaki but moved to England with his parents in early childhood and has gone on to become one of the UK’s preeminent novelists, so much so that he became the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature laureate. This shared cultural heritage seems about the only commonality between the two, as their writing styles in these novels could hardly be more different.
A Tale for the Time Being is about everything. Written from two perspectives, Nao Yusitani, a Japanese teenager writing a diary in a French maid cafe in Tokyo soon after the dot com bubble burst, and Ruth, a woman who is clearly a pastiche for the author who finds the diary and other papers over a decade later in a Hello Kitty lunchbox on the beach near her home on the western Canadian coast, its themes and topics include Japanese culture, Zen Buddhism, suicide, bullying, ocean currents, jungle crows, marriage to a mansplaining polymath, underage prostitution, World War II, and, towards the end, quantum mechanics and the role of the author. Ostensibly, Nao is setting out to write the life story of her great-grandmother, Jiko, a 104-year-old Zen Buddhist priest, but along the way she gets sidetracked into chronicling her daily life, which gets progressively darker and more dangerous. Ruth, a novelist struggling with writer’s block, becomes obsessed with the diary, its writer, and the desire to know how things turn out for the Yusitanis and how the diary came to her in the first place.
It is a novel that is packed full of all the pain and joys of human experience. While the voice of the teenage diarist does sometimes veer towards the overly-precocious, a frequent issue with young characters written by older writers, its warmth and vitality carries that plot line wonderfully. It’s when the author writes about herself and her husband that things can drag a bit, but in the end I came to appreciate these sections, too, because they gave me space to think about and reflect on the diary and lightened it a bit when things get dark later on. The novel would have been too heavy if it weren’t for Ruth and her husband’s quasi-Greek chorus commentary on the action.
Never Let Me Go is also about what it is to be human, but from a very different perspective. It’s the middle book in what I call Ishiguro’s “English Memory� trilogy, coming between 1989’s The Remains of the Day and 2015’s The Buried Giant, each of which takes a traditional English topos and focuses on the memories of their protagonists, the upstairs-downstairs narrative in the case of the former, Aurthorian legend for the latter. In NLMG, it’s a boarding school story, but with a soft sci-fi twist. In this version, the school, Hailsham, is a home for students whose sole purpose in life is to eventually donate their vital organs to the people from whom they were cloned. The person telling the story is Kathy H., a former Hailsham student working as a carer helping clones who are making their donations, as she looks back on her time at the school and the with the friends she made there.
In Ishiguro fashion none of this is stated so bluntly. With the exception of an outburst from a teacher and some exposition towards the end very little of what’s going on is ever explicitly stated. Everything is told through digressions, hints, and innuendo. Much of it consists of conversations Kathy has with other students, especially fellow-love triangle members Tommy and Ruth, then tangents to explain the issues that made this conversation notable, before circling back to the matter at hand. I’ve said in the Commentariat that Ishiguro is a Japanese-born English novelist who writes the way French is spoken; only half of it is pronounced. This can produce a distancing effect, keeping the reader from the emotional heart of the story, and yet at the ending I found myself getting choked up reading about Kathy reflecting on the things and people she’s lost while standing in a field in Norfolk in a scene reminiscent of Humbert Humbert’s moral apotheosis in Lolita.
To return to the breakfast buffet and steak dinner I started this decision talking about, it should be obvious which book is which in that metaphor. Both are delicious and filling, satisfying favorites, worthy of their position on this list. I can see why they both resonate so much with the Commentariat. I’m sure that Never Let Me Go had a lot to do with Ishiguro winning the Nobel, and I think it was deserved. In this match-up, though, I have to advance A Tale for the Time Being. While I did enjoy re-reading NLMG, I can’t imagine it was as rewarding as re-reading ATftTB will be. It is a smorgasbord of the human experience, and there is the possibility of finding something different and enriching with each visit. Maybe this time I’ll have the omelet, next time the Eggs Benedict. The Ishiguro is the steak dinner, wonderful every time, but never changing. I am aware that I may be alone in this view, as this novel is still a favorite after 16 years, but for this Tournament, in which we are revisiting these favorites rather than honoring past winners, I am more interested in how others enjoy and take away new perspectives from a novel of endless variety like Ozeki’s than how they still enjoy a beloved one like Ishiguro’s. I didn’t like everything I got in her book, but I can always go back for more of what I did. Samuel Johnson once said that a man who is tired of London is tired of life. There is so much life in A Tale for the Time Being, and I am hungry for it.

Yay! What wonderful thoughts! You've made me want to re-read Ozeki's novel immediately!

Wonderful review Isaac! I didn't have a favorite in this match-up, so I didn't envy your task, but as I read your review, everything you said about both books resonated exactly with me - especially what you said about NLMG:

"[Ishiguro] writes the way French is spoken; only half of it is pronounced. This can produce a distancing effect, keeping the reader from the emotional heart of the story, and yet at the ending I found myself getting choked up reading about Kathy reflecting on the things and people she’s lost."

Although I am wondering - if Ishiguro let us get closer during the course of the story, would the emotional intensity be either unbearable, or too cheaply melodramatic? I was starting to think Ishiguro had no other choice but to distance. I'm trying and failing to think of another book with a similarly heartbreaking core that dove right instead of distancing, and how that worked out. Lolita is close, but nothing beats out the planned and accepted suicide of a healthy young person. These thoughts had me leaning toward NLMG, but your cornucopia theory of ATftTB won me over.

lark wrote: "Yay! What wonderful thoughts! Maggie, you've made me want to re-read Ozeki's novel immediately!"

Isaac wrote this lovely judgement, I am but it's keeper!

Another fantastic judgment! (I love your metaphor, Isaac.) Gosh I've loved reading these.

I just this morning reviewed Cloud Cuckoo Land with some of the same thoughts I have about Never Let Me Go, which also came up in Bob's review of Version Control. What makes a book worth reading and rereading? Does it need to change me and offer real insights, or is pure enjoyment of the storytelling enough to make a book "worthy?"

I remember reading NLMG when it first came out, and staying up late because I was so enraptured. (I was also 15 years younger, ha.) I have it on my shelf, so when I saw it had made the shortlist (I think I actually voted for it to be there) I started rereading, but my feelings were exactly the same as yours; a few pages in I put it down again. Because I knew what would happen, there'd be no suspense, and because of that I was already bored. It's a powerful book, for sure, and perfect in its way, unlike the sprawling Ozeki. No wasted words, everything perfectly constructed. But yeah, there's nowhere near as much to ponder and discuss.

I did reread the Ozeki, though, and I think I liked it even more this time...In the first read I thought it was trying to be too much, cramming Proust and Zen and Japanese history and culture, then trying to use physics to explain its magical realism (which, as a former scientist, is a real pet peeve of mine.) But this book has true magic that lifts it above all its parts, and a perfect mix of humor and agony, and I think slowing down the read (I interspersed the reread with another book) really helped me appreciate the weaving of the threads.

I'm reading Ozeki's newest now, and feeling that same joy in it. She has so much love for her characters, I think that must be what makes them shine for me, there's so much humanity.

A Tale for the Time Being made work really, really hard but it was completely worth it in the end. The play with language, the play with meditations on time, our obsession with strangers' stories that can help us understand ourselves better and shine uncomfortable lights on who we are...all of it worked.

Happy with this thoughtful judgement!

Maggie wrote: "lark wrote: "Yay! What wonderful thoughts! Maggie, you've made me want to re-read Ozeki's novel immediately!"

Isaac wrote this lovely judgement, I am but it's keeper!"

Thanks for the clarification, Maggie!

And thanks so much, Isaac!

I remember our first alt-tob--there was always a challenge to be solved about who the note is ascribed to in the thread, when mods are posting for someone else--sorry to have made this mistake.

I loved what you wrote, Isaac. I feel so lucky to be part of a group that reads so deeply (and re-reads!)

Nice, all of these rounds have been going how I wanted them to so far! I have Strong Opinions with loving/disliking the books in the last three of the opening rounds, so I hope those go my way too. Then it will be ton of my favorites remaining! Which will be very tough!

Great job, Isaac. It's interesting a book that you gave five stars didn't make the cut. I never connected with 'Never Let Me Go'... but I'm glad the ToFavorites finally made me get around to 'A Tale For the Time Being'.

I simply could not decide for myself which of these two books I would favor if I had to write this decision. Last Friday, I spent a little time, Isaac, going back to read some of your book reviews to see if I could place a personal bet on which you would choose (I always enjoy reading your reviews) - I couldn't. And today, with your smorgasbord/steak dinner analogy and beautiful story about your family's Lake Tenkiller fishing trip, you still had me guessing! Thank you so much for this amazing and thoughtful review of these two wonderful books.

Honestly, I would have been happy for you to choose either of these to progress. For myself, I'll keep on reading all that Ozeki and Ishiguro will give me.

Gosh, I don't re-read books often, but I might need to re-read A Tale for the Time Being. I loved it when I read it, but I've probably forgotten enough that it would feel like a fresh read.

I need to reread both of these - it's been too long for me to remember too much, although I felt the link between Ruth and Nao's stories to be... less than convincing.

Beautiful writing in your judgement Isaac. I would have chosen the same way I think. I’m really looking forward to Ozeki’s new book.

Just popping in to say that I am enjoying these judgments so much -- even (dare I say it?) more than many of those in our ToB. Every one of our commentariat colleagues has been so thoughtful AND also offered such loving tributes to the pleasures of great fiction. Thank you, thank you to all!

These are both wonderful novels that I am so glad to have read. Klara & the Sun was a bit of a disappointment to me (I read it for this summer's Camp ToB almost immediately after reading NLMG in preparation for this tournament; the comparison between the two books did Klara no favors, at least from my vantage point). I am dearly hoping that, unlike that experience, Ozeki's followup to Tales will instead prove to be another delight.

Risa wrote: "Just popping in to say that I am enjoying these judgments so much -- even (dare I say it?) more than many of those in our ToB. ..."

I feel the same way. It's because we're a community, and because we know how much the other people here care about fiction. It's been continuously amazing to be part of this group (for me since 2015 but many people have been here longer).

I credit TOB folk though for choosing such an interesting mix of books every year. I love the way they consistently choose books without too much fuss about whether the books are literary or genre or famous or obscure. A lot of what they pick is in an interesting crossover zone and I've loved that.

Thank you so much to everyone here for saying all the nice things you have about my judgment. It was a joy to be a part of this Tournament, but a bit nerve wracking waiting to see how people would react to what I wrote and the decision, especially knowing that the choice I’d made was against a classic novel by a Nobel Prize laureate. I’m happy to see that turned out to not be as controversial as I was worried it would be.

This was an interesting day for this to go up, as I spent much of it at a funeral for a member of my wife’s family and driving back from the eastern Oklahoma city where they live. I had to wait to see this posted and how it was received until I got home. It made for a nice ending to a somber day.

Lark, it’s okay that you got the writer of the judgment confused at first. Risa, I thought the same thing about Klara and the Sun. I’m also very much looking forward to reading Ozeki’s new novel; it sounds really good. Everyone, again, thank you.

Risa wrote: "Just popping in to say that I am enjoying these judgments so much -- even (dare I say it?) more than many of those in our ToB. Every one of our commentariat colleagues has been so thoughtful AND also offered such loving tributes to the pleasures of great fiction."

Totally agree Risa! ToB judges could take a page from this group on how to write an astute and entertaining judgement.

I think I would have chosen NLMG over ATFTTB, but I can't argue with Isaac's logic and analogy which I very much enjoyed reading.

Just a note that SMDB interviewed Ozeki this week for their podcast. I just finished listening; she was every bit as lovely as you’d expect.

lark wrote: "Risa wrote: "Just popping in to say that I am enjoying these judgments so much -- even (dare I say it?) more than many of those in our ToB. ..."

I feel the same way. It's because we're a community..."

Yes to the point about gratitude toward ToB for the book selection. As many others have noted, every year there are several gems about which I'd not have heard but for the ToB organizers. Plus - I've met all of you fellow travelers, which has been yet a greater gift still.

Just wanted to thank everyone for their discussion, I was planning on being more involved in these threads, but a family health issue has zapped my critical brain. Reading these threads when able to each day has been such a blessing.

Loved both these books immensely when I read them, but ATFTTB is such a one of one book reading experience for me, happy to see it move forward. Truly the TOB book that switched my mindset from reading the ones I *thought* sounded good to reading as many as possible and being blown away when my expectations were way below the highs a book was capable of hitting.

Bretnie wrote: "Gosh, I don't re-read books often, but I might need to re-read A Tale for the Time Being. I loved it when I read it, but I've probably forgotten enough that it would feel like a fresh read."

Same! I remember enjoying ATftTB when I listened to it a few years ago, but thought I'd enjoy it even more in a second read in print. I don't remember much about NLMG but would consider reading that again as well. My reading plans rarely have room for re-reads, but maybe I should figure out how to change that.

Cheers to your decision here, Isaac, and I'm sorry for your loss. I'm glad the comments here relieved some concern.

I hope things improve for your situation as well, Kip!

Kip wrote: "Just wanted to thank everyone for their discussion, I was planning on being more involved in these threads, but a family health issue has zapped my critical brain. Reading these threads when able t..."

Kip - best wishes to you for speedy resolution to the family health issue. Those can be overwhelming, and I am glad that this forum/tournament has given you some much-needed respite.

Isaac - it was a great write-up and very heartfelt. Thank you, and may the memory of your family member be a blessing to you.

Kip - thanks for joining in, to whatever degree you're able!

Maggie wrote: "lark wrote: "Yay! What wonderful thoughts! Maggie, you've made me want to re-read Ozeki's novel immediately!"

Isaac wrote this lovely judgement, I am but it's keeper!"

Maggie, thanks for pointing out that Isaac wrote the piece. I was wondering how you got to go on the men's fishing trip!

The Ozeki is one of the few I reread for the ToF and I really changed my mind about it. I was annoyed by everything she was trying to do with it the first time around, the second time I was different, and had been back to the PNW again, and it just resonated differently. I'm glad to see it move forward.