The Book of Form and Emptiness: A Novel

by Ruth Ozeki

Hardcover, 2021

Call number

FIC OZE

Collection

Fiction

Genres

Publication

Viking (2021), 560 pages

Description

"A brilliantly inventive new novel about loss, growing up, and our relationship with things, by the Booker Prize-finalist author of A Tale for the Time Being After the tragic death his beloved musician father, fourteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house-a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. Although Benny doesn't understand what these things are saying, he can sense their emotional tone; some are pleasant, a gentle hum or coo, but others are snide, angry and full of pain. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous. At first, Benny tries to ignore them, but soon the voices follow him outside the house, onto the street and at school, driving him at last to seek refuge in the silence of a large public library, where objects are well-behaved and know to speak in whispers. There, Benny discovers a strange new world, where "things happen." He falls in love with a mesmerizing street artist with a smug pet ferret, who uses the library as her performance space. He meets a homeless philosopher-poet, who encourages him to ask important questions and find his own voice amongst the many. And he meets his very own Book-a talking thing-who narrates Benny's life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter. With its blend of sympathetic characters, riveting plot, and vibrant engagement with everything from jazz, to climate change, to our attachment to material possessions, The Book of Form and Emptiness is classic Ruth Ozeki-bold, wise, poignant, playful, humane and heartbreaking"--… (more)

Media reviews

The Observer
The title – taken from the Buddhist heart sutra – implies a more earnest book than is the case; The Book of Form and Emptiness is a big, polyphonic, often comic, magical-realist collage of a novel [...]

User reviews

LibraryThing member sleahey
Through its rich characters, this novel has several stories, and they're all powerful. The focus is on thirteen year old Benny and his mother, who are both grieving after the death of their father/husband who was run over by a chicken truck after passing out on the street. Benny has been hiding
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 that he hears the voices of the things around him for a long time, but the voices have become louder and now interfere with his life. His mother Annabelle is a compulsive hoarder who loves pretty things and cannot part with anything, so that her house is nearly impassible, except for Benny's very neat room. Benny is finally hospitalized and meets fellow patient the Aleph, and she introduces him to the Bottleman, an elderly philosopher, who also happens to be homeless and alcoholic. Benny finds peace and quiet at his public library, where there is a sympathetic children's librarian as well as a fellow patron who spends her days typing and observing Benny. (We have to picture Ozeki herself in this role) Another character is the Japanese Zen monk who has authored a book about simplifying and decluttering, a book which Annabelle finds on one of her thrift store shopping sprees and tries to take to heart. The portrait of Benny and his mental health struggles, side by side with his mother's self-destructive behaviors is heart wrenching. The author conveys just how fond she is of her characters, and so we are too, and so we suffer with them and welcome their resilience and kindness to each other.
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LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
When Benny's father dies, Benny's mother grieves and he begins to hear voices in inanimate objects. Sometimes, those objects tell him to do things. Benny is labeled as mentally ill and his mother's coping skills and even her fierce love for her son are unable to deal with everything. Benny finds
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 solace in the library, where he finds friends of a sort.

[[Ruth Ozeki]]'s novel has an off-putting title and cover that that fails to communicate how approachable and interesting this book is. It's the story of a boy growing up with sadness and with the book that narrates his life. It's a deeply humane novel that doesn't feel as long as it is.
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LibraryThing member quondame
A story about a fractured family, reality, sanity, hoarding, Zen and books. After the accidental, drug related, death of Kenji, Annabelle and 14 year old Benny are left on their own with no family or friends. Annabelle, working from home and having to keep old work, literally buries herself
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 hoarding and Benji hears objects and sometimes knows how they feel. The instability in this occupies most of the book and isn't an easy ride.
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LibraryThing member grandpahobo
This is a very intense story. It seems to be headed in one direction at the beginning, but takes a completely different tack about 20% of the way in. I found myself having to take breaks from time to time simply because the story pulled me in so completely I needed to back away. I imagine its
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 similar to becoming so engrossed in a video game that hours go by before you know it.
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LibraryThing member NeedMoreShelves
"Because the reader is not a passive receptacle for a book's contents. Not at all. You are our collaborators, our conspirators, breathing new life into us....According to the capabilities of the reader, books have their own destinies." (The Book of Form and Emptiness, p. 491)

It was a satisfying
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 experience to immerse myself in this chunkster of a novel as 2021 turned into 2022. (Thanks @carolynnrising !)
It was a slow burn, telling the story of teenaged Benny, whose father has recently died, and who begins to experience voices inside his head; his mother, Annabelle, who is struggling with her own depression as she tries to help Benny; and The Book, the narrator of our story, who often addresses the reader directly, and engages Benny in conversation as well.

This novel is ambitious in scope, tackling mental health, family dynamics, teen angst, and the role of stories in our lives, and while I didn't find it to be as successful in all areas at all times as I expect the author would intend, it did continually engage my interest and keep me wanting to know more of Benny's story.

I think this novel will be a bit divisive - I can definitively predict it will not work for a lot of readers. Personally, I found that some of the scenes involving mental health struggles and treatment just didn't ring true. (Disclosure: My husband and I were full time caregivers for a decade to my father-in-law, who had multiple mental health diagnosis including schizophrenia, so I am a harsh critic of fictionalized writing about mental health.) I also think the dialogue between Benny and The Book will be a tough sell for some readers.

Overall, I enjoyed the read. While not perfect, I found plenty that kept me turning pages, and felt very satisfied with the ending.
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LibraryThing member jpe9
So much to love in this book! I felt strong empathy for the all of the flawed characters in this book (and they certainly are all flawed). I loved the way Ruth Ozeki invoked the magic of music (especially the recording of Benny Goodman’s 1938 Carnegie Hall concert). I appreciated her
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 incorporation of Zen temples and their inhabitants, but of course, most of all: much of the action of this novel takes place in ‘the Public Library,’ including the spooky, soon-to-be-closed, Bindery.

I appreciated the deft use of multiple narrators and points of view and the gentle commentary on materialism, consumerism, and capitalism.
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LibraryThing member hemlokgang
This novel is classic Ruth Ozeki. The plot is complex, at times confusing, and riveting. The line between imagination and mental illness becomes very blurry. Benny hears voices coming from objects and lives with a mentally ill mother. They both struggle so very painfully to navigate the system and
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 to find some kind of peace. Ozeki really masters magical realism with her intense plot. The characters are tremendously complex and also endearing. How does an emotionally challenged young man come of age? How complicated coming of age is when the parent is going through the same process. Above all, the mother/son relationship is gripping, powerful, and oh so moving! Fantastic novel!
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LibraryThing member gypsysmom
If the rest of my reading in 2022 lives up to this first book then it should be a banner year. At over 500 pages, The Book of Form and Emptiness could have been a daunting read but I enjoyed it greatly. I found myself stealing moments to sit down and read it and then realizing that 30 or 40 minutes
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 had gone by.

Benny Oh was twelve years old when his father, Kenny, fell in their back lane, passed out and was killed when a delivery truck driver, who couldn't see him for the crows gathered over him, drove over him. Kenny was a jazz musician, originally from Japan where he spent some time living in a Buddhist temple. Benny's mother, Annabelle, was grief-stricken and also felt guilty because she and Kenny had a fight before he left the house the night he died. Benny was also grief-stricken but maybe Annabelle didn't recognize that since he was so quiet. Annabelle worked for a media clipping service and soon after her husband's death she was told to work from home. Since the company also required that all items be archived for some length of time, the home quickly became cluttered with bags and bags of paper and then bags and bags of CDs. Annabelle was naturally a collector so soon the house was a health and safety hazard. The one island of tidiness was Benny's bedroom which he kept neat and tidy. Perhaps because of all the stuff or perhaps because of his grief or maybe a combination of both plus some underlying mental health condition, but about a year after his father's death Benny began hearing voices. These were the voices of the objects all around him.One day in school a pair of scissors told Benny to stab his teacher; Benny resisted but only insofar as he didn't stab his teacher but himself. This resulted in a stay in the Pediatric Psychiatry ward where Benny formed an attachment to an older girl named Alice. Alice preferred to be called the Aleph after a character in a story by Jorge Luis Borges. The Aleph was too old to stay on the pediatric ward but before she was transferred she left Benny a note to meet at the Library. The Library was one of Benny's favourite places; actually it was one of his mother's favourite places too as she had studied to be a librarian before she had to leave school to have Benny. It was in the library that Benny first heard from The Book, which was the book of his life. Annabelle also had a significant book come into her hands (in Michaels of all places) called Tidy Magic, a how-to book about decluttering written by a Japanese Zen Buddhist priest. Ultimately the books win the day but there are many days of turmoil and arguments and violence to get through before they can work their magic.

In one of those weird incidents of literary synchronicity this book and the audiobook I just finished both feature crows. In this book Kenny and then Annabelle feed a group of crows on their back porch. In return the crows give Annabelle little gifts and not only Kenny was sheltered by the crows but so was Annabelle when she fell down her porch steps. The Buddhist nun who wrote Tidy Magic also was directed to her calling by a crow. Crows aren't my favourite avian species but I have to admit that they are clever birds. I have to wonder if any more crows are going to pop up in 2022.
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LibraryThing member Dreesie
I admit I never would have picked up this book if it weren't for the Tournament of Books. I read Ozeki's [book:A Tale for the Time Being|15811545] years ago, and did not like it.

But trying to be a completist, I got this one, and decided to just go with it.

And this book. I admit I am a sucker for
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 books told in unusual ways, and the main narrator here is Benny's personal Book. Benny also narrates, sometimes arguing with his Book. But this book (as opposed to Benny's book) is about grief, mental illness, loneliness, coming-of-age, drugs/addiction, downsizing, working from home, family/found family, and strength. And this is all going on in Seattle in 2016, mostly before Trump was elected.

You can read the summary, which gets the gist of the story. But this book lets the reader explore the intersections between grief, despair, mental illness, puberty, genius, strength, kindness. There is more than the story itself.
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LibraryThing member banjo123
This book is another winner. So far, I think it's my favorite books of this year, a long, lovely dive into the world of Benny Oh, a teenager who is struggling with his father's death, his mother's ineptitude, and his own experience of mental illness. He starts to hear the voices of objects around
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 him, and also of A BOOK, which also helps to narrate Benny's life. There are lots of sad parts, but it's a big-hearted book, the characters are lovingly drawn and real-seeming.

I know some found this book too long, but that was fine with me. Ozeki brings a lot of issues together, with a sense of humor and a big nod to Buddhism.

I loved that the book was set in the Pacific Northwest, and it really felt like here. It's not an identified city; apparently she based the library off the library in Vancouver, BC; but the book is set in the States, so I thought of it as Seattle. The people felt familiar to me also. There is a scene in the beginning, with Kenji (Benny's father's) musician friends, and the friends felt so much like my brother-in-law and his music buddies. Only if it were my BIL, he would be checking in on Annabelle and Benny regularly Kenji's death, and there would be a benefit concert for them also.

Annabelle and Benny's isolation was necessary to the story, however, and Ozeki goes on to show how community can come form unexpected places.
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LibraryThing member fromthecomfychair
This story takes place in the Pacific Northwest and features Annabelle and Benny Oh, mother and son, whose husband and father, Kenji, has died in a tragic and somewhat ridiculous accident, being run over by a truck bearing chickens while he lay passed out in the alley behind their home.

Neither
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 Annabelle nor Benny cope with his loss well: Annabelle develops a compulsion to hoard, and Benny develops mental problems, which over time are diagnosed as schizophrenia.

At the beginning, it is not a happy story. The way Annabelle can't let go of anything and Benny is bullied at school to the point where he starts skipping regularly, does not make for a fun reading experience.

But these characters all seemed so real to me, and of course, Benny's connection to the library was something I could relate to, so I kept on.

There's also a Buddhist nun in Japan who figures in this story. She writes a book called Tidy Magic that Annabelle has collected and started to read.

The homeless wheelchair-bound poet, and the homeless street artist Alice, or Aleph, are memorable characters, as is the wonderful children's librarian Cory, who ultimately comes to Annabelle's aid and keeps her from being evicted from her home.

It is hard to boil down this story, but if it has a message or theme, it is about capitalism, materialism, and Buddhism. But it is also about lives lived, and transformations that are possible, sometimes with help from unexpected sources.

My one criticism of the book is the use of The Book as the narrator. It just didn't work for me. I suppose the author is telling us about the effects of books on our lives. But anyone who reads enough to be reading this particular author already knows that implicitly. I just found it unnecessary and it accounts for the 4 1/2 star rating.

I feel I should read this book again, as well as The Book of the Time Being. They are both unusual in perspective and powerful.
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LibraryThing member kazzer2u
Well put together, imaginative novel that is an easy read and for me a page turner. Maybe it was the occasional jazz reference but I felt the echo of Murikami. It has a definite West Coast sensibility plus it felt to me like a young adult kind of book. None of the above bothered me and for the most
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 part I enjoyed it. Some strong characters, especially the mother, Annabelle. I know a family where the husband/father died in a tragic accident (was actually run over by his own truck, so please always double check your handbrake and leave it in gear!) and believe me everything in this novel rang true. I don't agree with the 'Magic Realism' tag; books have always talked to me. The bit I didn't enjoy was the way the book ended. A bit lame really, as it it just kind of fizzled out. Maybe there will be a sequel? (I wanted to know where the Aleph was heading). I also enjoyed 'The Time for the Time Being' by Ruth Ozeki.
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LibraryThing member rmarcin
Oh this book was NOT for me. I plodded through the entire thing -- entering the world of Benny Oh and his mother, Annabelle. Her husband, Kenji, a musician, dies, and both Benny and Annabelle's lives spiral downward. Annabelle becomes a hoarder, Benny begins hearing voices and is considering
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 mentally ill. The novel is narrated by a book and is steeped in Zen mysticism.
To me, the book went on and on and I couldn't wait for it to end.
I know this book won the Women's Prize for Fiction, but it just was a long, drawn out book to me.
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LibraryThing member eas7788
Hard to reduce down to a quick response. The depiction of Benny's voices and mental illness is so compelling. Annabelle's mental illness less so. But I was drawn in completely and mesmerized, and every character sang, no matter how major or minor. The crows! The snow globes! The library! The book!
LibraryThing member kayanelson
TOB 2022–This is a real thought provoking book.

This is the story of Benny, a teenager, who hears voices after his dad dies and Annabelle, Benny’s mom who is a hoarder and has other issues too. Despite the problems of these two, Ozeki writes in a way that makes you root for them both. And you
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 like them too.

Ozeki’s writing about mental health issues is remarkable. You become totally immersed in Benny’s and Annabelle’s separate worlds. You can feel their pain and understand how they move forward in life despite their adversities.

My only quibble is with the ending. The book wraps up quickly and I would have preferred to have learned a little more about their life moving forward.
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LibraryThing member streamsong
This is a story told by a book – a sentient book that is the narrator that not only records but tells a boy the story of his life. As the book tells him: “Stories never start at the beginning, Benny. They differ from life in that regard. Life is lived from birth to death, from the beginning
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 into an unknowable future. But stories are told in hindsight. Stories are life lived backward.” P 28

Benny’s life begins to spiral downwards soon after his father’s death. His mother is also having a hard time, sinking into depression and hoarding especially when the job she has held for years is downsized and then eliminated.

Benny begins to hear voices of the inanimate items around him. His tennis shoes whisper to him, but more seriously a scissors urges him to stab a teacher.

This results in Benny’s stay at a mental health hospital. On his return to school, his classmates make him a target of bullying. With school intolerable, he devises a plan where neither the school nor his mother know he is no longer attending. He hides out in an out of the way study carroll at the local library. There he meets up with a slightly older girl that he met in the hospital, as well as a disabled homeless philosopher poet.

I enjoyed the book-as-narrator’s unique perspectives on book-hood and life, although Benny also has short chapters where he addresses what the book has written. The book has strong opinions about books – whether writers should get any credit for writing if they are mere midwives of an idea; whether Japanese authors who write decluttering manuals hate books; and how books can move themselves into people’s lives at a specific time when needed.

. There is a lot of sadness in this book. I actually put it aside for a bit and started another until my sadness dissipated a bit. I thought the ending was a bit too neat as people came together in unexpected ways, (although the book-narrator itself pointed out that it could even have ended up even more perfectly).

All in all, an interesting read. I’ll give it four stars.
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LibraryThing member brianinbuffalo
A work of fiction that exceeds 400 pages must be exceptional to earn at least four stars using my rating formula. A book that exceeds 500 pages must be a masterpiece. Ozeki’s work is not a masterpiece, nor is it exceptional. Don’t get wrong. The book is imaginative, enlightening and even
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 touching in some spots. But it simply drags on for too long. The saga of Benny and his mom could have been a riveting tale in the hands of a more discerning editor. I was intrigued by the book’s examination of mental illness and the challenges of coping with profound loss. But as the story moved beyond 400 pages, I was eager for it to end.
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LibraryThing member Castlelass
Benny Oh’s father, Kenji, dies in a tragic accident when he is twelve, and he starts hearing voices from inanimate objects. His mother, Annabelle, starts hoarding. To help organize her life, Annabelle reads Tidy Magic and feels a connection with the author, a Buddhist nun. Benny begins skipping
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 school and finds solace in the library. He develops friendships with two eccentric characters – a street artist and a wheelchair-bound veteran. A metaphysical aspect is introduced through the use of “the book” as a character. It speaks to Benny, and Benny speaks back. Benny is diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, but his true mental state remains unclear.

This book a long and ambitious undertaking. It addresses a massive number of topics. One of the main topics is the impermanence of things and the inability to obtain happiness by accumulating them. Another is how books and readers interact – how each book is interpreted differently by each individual. Mental health is another topic, particularly how it is impacted by grief and loss, and the importance of social support networks. It contains philosophical elements of Zen Buddhism. It addresses homelessness and addiction.

I liked the combination of themes and topics but perhaps it was overly ambitious. It is a book filled with a continuous stream of tension, discomfort, stresses, and struggles. Overall, I can say I liked it and found it worthwhile, but I think it would have been more impactful if it had been more focused and shorter.
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LibraryThing member mykl-s
Interesting story, well told, like all of Ozeki's books.
LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce
I can't figure out why Ozeki wrote this. I've read 3 of her other books and loved them, but I could never get a handle on this one. It won the Women's Prize for Fiction last year and is highly regarded, but it created whiplash in this reader. It took forever for me to get into the atmosphere of it,
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 and each time I did, it would take a quick 180-degree turn to some fresh disaster. I guess there's a movement now saying schizophrenia isn't a psychiatric illness, so she's bought into that. There's a large dollop of Marie Kondo with an overlying sauce of zen Budhism. You can say the characters are well-rounded in that you can see multiple sides to their characters, but the sides are pretty intense, all except for the mother who is just pitiful. I think ultimately I would have been just fine if I'd followed my first instincts and stopped reading after the first 50 pages.
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LibraryThing member srms.reads
Winner of The Women's Prize for Fiction 2022!

4.5⭐️

The Book of Form and Emptiness is an astonishingly beautiful novel written by Ruth Ozeki. At the heart of this novel are Benny Oh and his mother Annabelle who are reeling from the shock of Benny’s father’s untimely death in an accident. A
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 young sensitive 12 year old boy , Benny starts hearing inanimate objects speaking to him with their voices cluttering his mind. His mother deals with her emotions by hoarding material possessions. Benny’s problems cause him to exhibit behavior that gets him into trouble at school and subsequently institutionalized more than once while Annabelle struggles with guilt, grief and loneliness while trying to hold her family together.

What sets this novel apart is the unique narrative shared by Benny and his Book (The Book) which is telling Benny’s story to help him recall details of his life and emerge from the shell he has wrapped himself in. As The Book tells Benny, “We have to be real, even if it hurts, and that’s your doing. That was your philosophical question, remember? What is real? Every book has a question at its heart, and that was yours. Once the question is asked, it’s our job to help you find the answer. So, yes, we’re your book, Benny, but this is your story. We can help you, but in the end, only you can live your life."

Themes of love, family, grief, substance abuse and mental health are touched upon with great compassion by the author. As the narrative progresses, the author paints a compelling portrait of how our interpersonal relationships are impacted by the importance we give to material belongings and the clutter we allow in our lives. Our inability to comprehend the “impermanence of form, and the empty nature of all things” often costs us our human connections.

The profound impact that books can have on our lives is a running theme in this novel and is eloquently expressed throughout the narrative.
“Every person is trapped in their own particular bubble of delusion, and it’s every person’s task in life to break free. Books can help. We can make the past into the present, take you back in time and help you remember. We can show you things, shift your realities and widen your world, but the work of waking up is up to you.”

Adding to the depth of this novel are elements of magical realism and an interesting mix of characters such as the Zen Buddhist monk whose book on decluttering finds its way into Annabelle’s proximity, the European 'hobo’ Slavoj who befriends Benny in the library (the only place the voices are quiet and Benny finds some respite) and shares his wisdom and insight with him and a young teenage girl who calls herself The Aleph- ‘a gleaner, a freegan, an artist who worked with garbage’ who Benny meets while institutionalized.

The Book of Form and Emptiness is a complex, layered and lengthy novel that inspires pause and reflection. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and definitely recommend it.
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LibraryThing member lauralkeet
Annabelle and her son Benny are thrown completely off course by the accidental death of husband and father Kenji. Annabelle works from home and Benny is a bit of an outcast at school; without a social support network things begin to fall apart. Annabelle’s grief manifests itself in hoarding
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 behavior. In addition to demonstrating typical early adolescent behaviors like testing boundaries and creating emotional distance from his mom, Benny begins hearing voices from inanimate objects.

Ruth Ozeki introduces a number of colorful supporting characters, including a book that serves as narrator. This provides much-needed objectivity and emotional distance, as well as structure for Annabelle and Benny’s journey through grief and healing, which is anything but linear. I found both Annabelle and Benny annoying at times, but their flaws and idiosyncrasies are essential elements of the story. There were a couple of plot developments that I failed to connect with and didn’t add much to the story, but despite that I found the book hard to put down and zipped through it.
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LibraryThing member DonnaMarieMerritt
Not sure I can describe this unique book. Grief. Hearing voices. Friendship. Gifts. Hoarding. Homelessness. Poetry. Books. Libraries. I loved it from beginning to end.
LibraryThing member msf59
Benny Oh is fourteen when he loses his father to a tragic accident. The trauma and grief that Benny suffers from, leads him to hearing voices from everyday objects. The voices become overwhelming and he finally takes refuge in a public library, where they can be silenced for a time. In the
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 meantime, his mother suffers from her own grieving issues. I liked this fresh, interesting story. It is an oddball mix of fantasy and reality. The main drawback for me, is how frustrating these two main characters can be. The continuous bad choices they make got to be a bit tiresome. In the end, I still found it a worthy read.
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Awards

Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist — 2022)
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2023)
The Morning News Tournament of Books (Short List — 2022)
BC and Yukon Book Prizes (Winner — Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize — 2022)
Massachusetts Book Award (Must-Read (Longlist) — Fiction — 2022)
3 more
BookTube Prize (Octofinalist — Fiction — 2022)
Julia Ward Howe Book Award (Winner — Fiction — 2022)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Fiction — 2021)

Pages

560

ISBN

0399563644 / 9780399563645

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