推薦好書：”A Tale for the Time Being” by Ruth Ozeki

還是在海邊度假時選了這本 “A Tale for the Time Being”，誰知道這本書一點不輕鬆，探討了很多深刻甚至痛苦的話題，且富含哲理，充滿思考。 

在介紹本書前，先要介紹作者－－Ruth Ozeki是美日混血，在美國大學畢業後在日本進修工作多年，又回到北美，對兩地文化都有深入的了解。 她是小說家、電影製作人，還是禪宗講師。

這本書的構思實在很特別，很新穎。

書名Time Being很有意思，Time Being即是‘此刻’，這一個‘刹那’。 每一天，有百萬個刹那，一瞬間就已消失。“But in the time it takes to say now, now is already over. It's already then.”

任何故事和文字，在作者寫完的一刹就已經死亡；但當有緣和讀者幸會的當下，又在讀者眼中重新複活。 作者和讀者的關連是那麽奇妙－－“I am reaching through time to touch you...you're reaching back to touch me.”

開篇的自敘，是一個日本少女Nao寫的日記。 Nao是個在加州長大的日裔少女，因為.com的泡沫破碎，做電腦的父親在美國失業而且喪失一切股票存款，隻好全家卷鋪蓋回國定居。 父親被失業擊垮，人生跌落穀底，幾度企圖自殺。 Nao在學校遭到全校（包括人渣老師）令人怵目驚心的bullying，逼得她也想自殺。。。在她孤寂絕望的生命中，隻有曾祖母，一位104歲的禪宗老尼給予她理解、智慧和力量。 

這本日記被海嘯衝到溫哥華附近的太平洋小島，被作家Ruth（是的，作家自己也做了小說裏的人物，還把老公也拉進去！）撿到。 Ruth開始細細閱讀Nao的日記，為她的故事動容，為她的遭遇擔心，同時焦急地在網上努力找尋Nao的行蹤，希望能阻止Nao的自殺。。。直到Ruth的老公指出，如果Nao沒有自殺，按時間事件推算，她也該是28，29歲的成人了！ 啊，一切都晚了嗎？

故事還有一支強勁的分線：Nao的granduncle，原本讀哲學和法文的大學生，在二戰末期被迫征召做神風特攻隊的自殺飛行員。 他和其他新兵在軍營被惡劣軍官殘酷bully，偷偷用法文寫下日記，披露內心的煎熬，最終決定在特攻時‘叛國’，不衝向敵艦而是投海。 

Bullying－>自殺，這似乎是貫穿了這個家族的主題。 當下的痛苦如此巨大，世界充滿了灰敗困頓，看不到一絲絲希望，死亡真的就是解脫人生羈絆的唯一出路？ 不可能再破繭而出嗎？

這本書需要讀者靜下心來細細品味。 作者的文字溫婉細膩，作為少女Nao的口氣非常authentic，那樣一個倔強俏皮的她栩栩如生。 整部書架構完整，雖然故事的主線支線都相當灰暗，但作者以Nao和Ruth的時空轉換做節奏上的調節，且話語中不失幽默，叫人在沉重情節中仍然能夠透一口氣。

書裏涵蓋的話題相當廣泛：bullying、自殺、軍國主義、神風特攻隊、海嘯、禪宗、女性新思想、日本的女仆咖啡屋、環保、核災、量子力學等等。。。 層次豐富，收放自如；還有一些令人匪夷所思的幽幻情節，虛實難辨，的確有些‘玄’惑，到後來連小說裏的Ruth都懷疑自己的理性。 

身為美日混血，作者勇於批判日本在二戰時的軍國罪行和現今社會的種種畸形，有些恐怖殘忍程度實在令人發指。 但同時在巨大的傷痛中，她的筆觸又這樣溫柔而堅定，也許是禪宗對人性的洞察和同情，對時光和存在的參悟。 

Quotes:

“Sometimes when she told stories about the past her eyes would get teary from all the memories she had, but they weren't tears. She wasn't crying. They were just the memories, leaking out.”

“Both life and death manifest in every moment of existence. Our human body appears and disappears moment by moment, without cease, and this ceaseless arising and passing away is what we experience as time and being. They are not separate. They are one thing, and in even a fraction of a second, we have the opportunity to choose, and to turn the course of our action either toward the attainment of truth or away from it. Each instant is utterly critical to the whole world.”

“Assumptions and expectations will kill any relationship, so let’s you and me not go there, okay?”

“No hits is the mark of how deeply unfamous you are, because true freedom comes from being unknown.”

“When I run out of the things I love, I move on to the things I don't hate too much, and sometimes I even discover that I can love the things I think I hate.”

“The way you write ronin is 浪人 with the character for wave and the character for person, which is pretty much how I feel, like a little wave person, floating around on the stormy sea of life.”

“Live. For Now. For the time being.”

“Jiko looked out accross the ocean to where the water met the sky. "A wave is born from the deep conditions of the ocean," she said. "A person is born form the deep conditions of the world. A person pokes up from the world and roll along like a wave. Until it's time to sink down again. Up, down. Person, wave.”

“When you beat a drum, you create NOW, when silence becomes a sound so enormous and alive it feels like you're breathing in the clouds and the sky, and your heart is the rain and the thunder.”