THE TYPING LADY and Other Fictions
by Ruth Ozeki
When I spotted a brand new Ruth Ozeki book in an adorable vacation town bookstore, you better believe this beautiful little collection came home with me that very day. A Tale For The Time Being (read review here) and The Book Of Form And Emptiness (read review here) are two of my favorite books of all time, so I was eager to see how Ozeki’s masterful fiction would translate to this shorter form. These thrilling short stories do not disappoint!
The titular story begins the collection and is offered as an author’s note, although it, like all the other stories, is entirely fiction. The narrator begins her tale at a library where she notices a woman typing furiously, and also observing those around her with particularly acute attention. Years later, the narrator discovers that this woman was a fellow author and she begins to read her book. Right from the beginning Ozeki is interweaving multiple narratives and realities to create her signature dreamlike style where “what happens” is entirely subjective. And yet, as a reader, I have intense emotional reactions each and every time I read one.
The Typing Lady has a clever throughline to do with typewriters and a major theme of secret keeping and how well we can ever know the interior life of another person. I both loved and was disturbed by the final story about a young writer caring for an aging couple while her own life disintegrates around her. I hope it’s abundantly clear that I highly recommend picking up a copy of this gem of a book as soon as possible! (Lily)
