make the cutĥ books not to miss: Richard Power’s ‘Bewilderment,’ Anderson Cooper’s ‘Vanderbilt’īenny’s had a hard year. National Book Award nominees: Lauren Groff's 'Matrix,' Robert Jones Jr. Though Benny gets sent to the principal, then a therapist and finally a children’s psychiatric ward, maybe his is the most rational response to a consumer culture that positions material goods as the sources of our wellbeing. But as narrated, Benny’s banging on the glass is a perfectly reasonable response to the heartache underlying everything in our world. In some ways this episode could be read as an early symptom of mental illness, and Ozeki leaves that door open. After he starts pounding on the glass to get it to shut up, he’s sent to the principal’s office. When a sparrow strikes a window in his classroom, the other children return to their work because they “were accustomed to death, and this was a minor one.” But the glass knows it has killed the bird and starts to whimper, “to vibrate as its cries grew shrill.” Because the window is crying, Benny can no longer concentrate on his schoolwork. In Ruth Ozeki's "The Book and Form and Emptiness" (Viking, 560 pp., ★★★★ out of four, out Tuesday), 13-year-old Benny Oh hears voices. Watch Video: Meditation tips for beginners
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |