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The Book of Form and Emptiness

By: Ruth Ozeki
Narrated by: Kerry Shale, Ruth Ozeki
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Summary

Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022.

When a book and a reader are meant for each other, both of them know it....

After the tragic death of his father, fourteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house and sound variously pleasant, angry or sad. Then his mother develops a hoarding problem, and the voices grow more clamorous. So Benny seeks refuge in the silence of a large public library. There he meets a mesmerising street artist with a smug pet ferret; a homeless philosopher-poet; and his very own Book, who narrates Benny’s life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter.

Blending unforgettable characters with jazz, climate change and our attachment to material possessions, this is classic Ruth Ozeki – bold, humane and heartbreaking.

©2021 Ruth Ozeki (P)2021 Canongate Books Ltd.
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What listeners say about The Book of Form and Emptiness

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Deep and meaningful

The story is excellent and has so much meaning behind it. It talks about relationships with objects through the story.
The narration when performing voices was irritating. Why do they have to shout and the accents and voices mix up at times. I only persevered because of the story. And listened to it at speed.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful.

The narrator is simply brilliant. The novel makes you think about so many things. Heartbreaking, joyful and funny at the same time. Very philosophical, but playfully. I loved it!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful and full of wonder

An extraordinary book, exploring mental ill health, cultural pressures, modern and sustainable living and a wealth of amazing characters. Just give yourself up to this and let it move you along. The book knows where it’s going. Enjoy the ride.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Very mixed feeling about this one

Overall, I think I really enjoyed the story but I don't quite know. Bits of it I found really heavy going. I think I might have done better if I had read it myself instead of listening.
I didn't like the narration. Some of the voices were heavily accented - overly so, in my view. But the thing that stuck in my throat was how the narrator made Annabel (the mother) sound like a complete moron. It spoilt the story for me. Somewhere towards the end, the narrator seemed to find a little empathy for her and toned down the airhead voice.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

What a terrible terrible ending.

For a rather unusual - long - book, I couldn’t believe the sudden ‘and they all lived happily ever after’. Ruined a story that interestingly explored mental health difficulties and homelessness. I liked the characters and the story development, but the ending trashed the whole thing for me. The performance was interesting, kind of amazing and excellent in parts, and annoying and off putting too. Would not be able to recommend this to anyone I’m afraid.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

The voicing of the mother was too annoying to continue

I’ve had to stop listening at the beginning of Part 2 as I found the characterisation (infantilisation) of the mother extremely annoying. It made me worry I was getting a totally skewed impression of the book, so I’m going to read it instead. Waste of a credit.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A little slow

There is lots of good stuff in this book. The depiction of hearing voices, of humanity in unexpected places, of the slow spiralling of a life out of control. The sections of the Tidy Magic book read by Ruth Ozeki, and the exploration of our relationship with stuff (including the contrast between Japan and America) are gentle and lyrical. But the pace is very slow, the scenery repetitive, some of the characterisation not entirely believable (Alice) and as much of the subject matter is quite dark, it felt like a very long haul. I also did not entirely enjoy the narration - whilst technically good, I felt that the voices used for Annabel, Dr M and Benny were unsympathetic, making the story more dismal than needed. I absolutely loved Ruth Ozeki's A Tale For The Time Being and was looking forward to this - it doesn't remotely reach the class of the former. Perhaps if half the length and more simply read, I'd have rated it higher - it IS good, just hard work.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wasted potential poor narration

I’m very sensitive to noise and the constant change of voices was very jarring. The female characters sound like a joke and that horrible gruff angry voice in Benny’s head is horrible. I like to listen to a book as I go to sleep and that horrible voice makes it so hard to stay immersed. I LOVE the story, it’s very magic- surrealist, just a shame the narrator got in my nerves. This is the issue with most audiobooks

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Read it

Complex and involving. I loved it.

That’s it. That’s my review Audible. No more words.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Just my kind of book

I’ve only listened to a few hours so far but I already know I love this book. It’s my kind of thing completely. Not the story (although that is really good) but the writing. I can’t say why, it’s just something. When I start a book like this one I think ‘ah thank goodness’
I’m quite fussy, many books and narrators I can’t stand, I have to stop listening, they bore annoy and irritate but this is the opposite. For me it’s the novel equivalent of all the beautiful, comforting, soothing and interesting things in life! The narrator does a great job in my view.

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