Ruth Ozeki is a multipurpose writer and thinker. A novelist, filmmaker, Zen Buddhist priest, and a Smith College professor emerita, she is the bestselling author of THE BOOK OF FORM AND EMPTINESS, winner of the UK’s 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction; MY YEAR OF MEATS; ALL OVER CREATION; and A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She also has written nonfiction and created award-winning documentary films.

There seems to be nothing that Ozeki can’t do --- including producing short stories, a very different animal from the well-populated, many-themed, long-form novels she is so good at penning. In THE TYPING LADY, she draws her literary sword and attempts to unravel a series of strange and inventive tales in the contemporary world.

"THE TYPING LADY is written in delightfully lithesome language that draws us into even the nuttiest of adventures with a firm hand, allowing for some truly enjoyable reading. Although it would never posit itself as such, it could be one heck of a wonderful beach read..."

The lead story is a strong one. A woman who visits her local library takes a prolonged interest in the “typing lady.” She is an older individual who sits at a table day in and day out, surrounded by papers and books, and she types. However, that's not all she does; she also writes. When her book is published, the patron goes to see her read from it. There she becomes enamored with the typewriter as a machine for her own use and discovers the power behind the click-clack of the metal giant that was in heavy use before laptops made lugging your work around with you the thing to do. 

It is exactly this kind of whimsical drawing in --- bringing up one tale just to dissolve it into another, where the protagonist is inspired by someone else’s doings to try something new --- that makes it a very pointed example of Ozeki’s outstanding characterization and storytelling techniques.

Ozeki brings so many fascinating scenes to life in this collection. When a college student develops feelings for her professor, she learns to put that longing into something constructive. Another woman’s unresolved ambitions turn into a ghost that haunts her home, and her husband is unprepared for the feelings it stirs up in their domestic life. A young publishing assistant becomes the transit for an angry dead Beat poet who takes up space in her head and lashes out at what now passes for modern literature. 

Ozeki loves to build a character from another character’s clues or inspiration and cares deeply about how people affect each other’s vibrations, for better or worse. There is always a strong relationship between the spiritual and earthly realms, an emotional bridge bringing the two together in someone’s life. Ozeki finds the outrageous, sanguine and desperate acts of humans funny and heartwarming but never really sad. There is always hope in her works and the ways in which she allows her characters to grow stronger from whatever it is that they discover about these things.

THE TYPING LADY is written in delightfully lithesome language that draws us into even the nuttiest of adventures with a firm hand, allowing for some truly enjoyable reading. Although it would never posit itself as such, it could be one heck of a wonderful beach read, the variety of stories and structures giving us a lovely respite from everyday life. And isn’t that what any good book should do for someone, first and foremost? I highly recommend it for beach bags around the world.