Time, Impermanence, and the Present
The term “time being” refers to the present, and A Tale for the Time Being aptly examines the importance of the present moment. Nao, a Japanese teenager who records her experiences in her diary, explains that all creatures are “time beings,” meaning that everything and everyone is impermanent. This pun in the title hints that the novel will explore these two notions of time that are influenced by Zen Buddhist philosophy: the importance of…
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The Difficulty of Communication
In A Tale for the Time Being, characters find it difficult to communicate with one another. Even when they love each other—like Nao and her father Haruki, or Ruth and her husband Oliver—they are rarely able to speak about their fears or concerns. As a result, they lead isolated lives. Their loneliness is exacerbated by the environments they live in, which they perceive as strange, unwelcoming, or even hostile. Yet the book…
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Life vs. Death
Death comes up frequently in A Tale for the Time Being: not only are Nao and her father, Haruki, preoccupied with death and suicide, but the world these characters live in is also slowly dying. Huge gyres of plastic trash are floating around the oceans, animals are going extinct, and climate change threatens life everywhere. Images of death and destruction—for instance, from Japan’s 2011 tsunami and the 9/11 terrorist attack—frequently appear on the…
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Coincidences and Connections
Characters in A Tale for the Time Being lead difficult lives, and they often feel lonely and disconnected from others. However, their lives overlap in ways that demonstrate the connections and similarities between these characters. They often find one another through almost-impossible coincidences, which sets up the idea that human connections have a magical or spiritual quality to them. Additionally, the characters are alike not only in their thoughts and mannerisms but even experience similar…
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Sexual Perversion and Violence
In A Tale for the Time Being, Nao is a young teenager who is curious about sex. At the beginning of the novel, she has had no sexual experiences, but she is keenly aware of the men who stare at her body and of her body itself changing. When she is at the public baths, one of the bar hostesses who is bathing next to her teases Nao about “her breasts, which [have] started…
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