All Over Creation: A Novel Paperback – Deckle Edge, March 30, 2004

Ruth Ozwki did it yet again, capturing my mind and my heart with her characters and story. As in her "A Tale for the TIme Being" she artfully spins a story from then to now and everything in between while keeping her readers engaged and focused. All Over Creation had a little something for everyone. The main character, Yumi Yummy, (you'll figure it out) was totally wrong yet oh so right. She is flawed in very human ways, hurt and focused, she trudges on like so many of do in life. Her family and friends love and hate her all at the same time, both passionately. While at times I grew weary of some of the "hippie" characters, they had a time, a place, a reason. The story turns like clockwork. Predictable, or, is it ? As I neared the end it was with a certain sadness that I would no longer be a voyeur in the life of Yummy and her little family. A great summer read, not frustrating, yet concerning and engaging. I look forward to more work from this author. She researches, does background and then takes you on a life journey. Thanks, again. Ruth Ozeki !

Ozeki’s All Over Creation is an amazing example of how food ways affect even the smallest potato farmers in Idaho. The book it self had an encapsulating storyline that was able to keep the story going until the end. However, the book seems to sum up rather quickly near the end.The author does an extraordinary job of incorporating the letters Yumi is writing home into the storyline. The letters allow for time to pass while still allowing for explanation to what is happening to Yumi. Additionally, it develops relationships that foreshadow events that will happen in the future.The books ability to explore controversial issues such as the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) while still maintaining a fictional story line is a talent that Ozeki is known for. The storyline has the power to convict a reader and encourages questions such as “what am I really eating?”Overall the book was a brilliant literary work that I would recommend it strongly to any audience. If it’s anything like All Over Creation I look forward to reading My Year of Meats sometime in the near future.

I’ve now read everything I can find by this interesting author. In this earliest novel of hers that I’ve found, you can already see the major themes that underlie her later books: a fundamentally Buddhist world view and concerns about the moral quandaries inherent in the materialistic consumerism of typical modern American lifestyles. The very human stories she tells are no less compelling because of the weighty themes she examines - quite the contrary! Ruth Ozeki examines these compromised characters with respectful care and real empathy that makes them come alive for the reader in a deeply genuine way. Combined with her talent for inventive plot lines, her compassionate approach makes for compelling, ultra-modern fiction.

This is the 2nd novel by Ruth Ozeiki, whose 3rd novel "Tale For the Time Being" is now short listed for the Man Booker Prize. I'm pulling for her to get it. All of her novels are so inventive, playing with the form, but also full of real, complex, interesting characters -- never simple minded -- and very funny, in the absurd way that life itself is. This novel is a gem, and should make you think about your own youth. Then run right out and get Tale for the Time Being, one of the best novels I've read in ten years, and I sure hope she gets the Booker. She deserves it, for taking such delightful risks and leading the reader into such echoing chambers of the heart.

I just had to read more of Ruth Ozeki so I read an older book called All Over Creation. If I tell you that it is a book about seeds that won't convey the whole of it but it would be entirely accurate. Not only does the plot revolve around the idea of genetically engineered seeds and their ruinous effect on the planet's diversity but the book also rather deftly ties in philosophies of generation, birth and death and renewal. It isn't at all as dry as it sounds. In fact it's a charming story of the hippie movement in the 80s and 90s to save Gaia. Similar to ATFTTB, Ozeki uses her own mixed heritage as the basis for the plot but with aging parents who run a seed farm in the US, and a runaway daughter who returns home after living in Hawaii with her three children, each one sired by a different father. Gummi or Gumi, more correctly, is not at all likeable as a protagonist and is counterpointed with some unforgettable characters who are part of the seed revolution. A very good read but Ozeki has definitely matured as a writer since then.

I am giving a rating of 3 only because this book was well written. Other than that, I had a lot of problems with this book. It starts out with the sexual exploitation of a teenager by a teacher and diverges into a diatribe about genetically engineered plants: And it’s especially disturbing that, in the end, the latter issue is much more resolved than the former. Overall, it seemed like the author did little to research the effects of sexual abuse. The main character, Yumi, had absolutely no redeeming qualities and many of the other characters were improbable. Yumi’s mother, Momoko, who could have been a rich and pivotal character, is treated like a sideshow throughout the entire storyline. A lot of the dialogue and semantics seemed out of time. For example, I don’t think anyone still uses the term “hippie”. As a person who lives in Hawaii, I have to say that the references to Hawaii seemed artificial and gratuitous. The best thing that comes out this story is that Yumi’s friend, Cass, gets a baby. That was predictable, but the means to that end was despicable.