DAVID PALUMBO-LIU, LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS
"... a radical novel ... Benny begins to hear a rather distinct voice, one with which he begins a minimalist kind of dialogue. The voice belongs to the Book. From that point on, Ozeki creates a beautiful, funny, sad, haunting, and extremely moving narrative whose length, in my view, is more than warranted ... There has never been a more timely novel ... Ozeki sees the real dangers of fascism, bureaucratic and political paralysis, and environmental disaster not on the horizon, but before our very eyes ... I believe Ruth Ozeki is as concerned with what we can bring to a book as what it can give us. One message of this marvelously catalytic narrative event is that it’s all about relations, not individual ontology."
VALERIE MINER, THE WOMEN'S REVIEW OF BOOKS
"[Ozeki] turns the abstract into the dramatic, vividly chronicling the misadventures and mutual devotion of Annabelle and her son Benny. This, Ozeki’s fifth book, is a wild ride with a diverse supporting cast ... Clearly the novelist had fun inventing so many fantastical episodes with quirky characters, but the novel would benefit from Tidy Magic’s advice or from an editor skilled in de-cluttering. There’s a difference between a successful philosophical novelist like Iris Murdoch and a writer whose goal wavers from dharma to self-help to wacky entertainment ... Despite its bagginess, Ozeki’s project reveals a wondrous imagination and profound compassion. Through the great vastness of this novel, she celebrates the interconnectedness of humans and ferrets and pottery shards and rubber ducks and protective crows."
