Customer Reviews

All Over Creation

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Genetically Engineered potatoes and a prodigal daughter are at the heart of the book ALL OVER CREATION, Ruth Ozeki's second novel. Yumi, or Yummy as she is called, is the daughter of Lloyd Fuller and his Japanese War-Bride Momoko, who settled in Idaho after the war growing potatoes and other crops to earn their living. Although the Fuller's are rather conservative people, their daughter Yummy grows up a little too wild for Lloyd's tastes. After a falling-out when Yummy is 14 years old, she runs away from home and does not set foot again on her parent's property until 25 years later, after she receives a call from her childhood bestfriend Cass, who asks Yummy to return home to her parents. Cass herself had been caring for the Fuller's at this point, since neither of them could take care of themselves.

As Yummy deals with her feelings about her parents and her life as a whole, a group of protesters that call themselves THE SEEDS are slowly making their feelings known across the Midwest. They protest their sentiments against genetically engineered crops, in particular potatoes, and soon end up in Idaho and on the Fuller's farm. Their intention is to meet Lloyd, who they feel is their guru in the war against this unnatural vegetation that will eventually hurt the environment. The Seeds bond with Lloyd, and actually do him a bit of good, giving him a new lease on life.

I highly enjoyed ALL OVER CREATION. Although the main themes about the environment are not typically what draws me to good fiction, I found that Ruth Ozeki did a great job with creating characters and situations that felt realistic to me. She successfully created a series of subplots that all fit together and fell into place quite logically. I also found her writing very easy to read, and I also learned something about the war on genetically engineered crops. I am looking forward to reading her other novel, MY YEAR OF MEATS.

When I finished reading Ozeki's first book, My Year of Meats, I knew that I would be anxious to read her next one. Sure enough, this was definitely worth the wait. This author has an enviable ability to take important issues, whether the use of chemicals by the meat industry, or the genetic engineering of potatoes, and develop her position regarding these issues within the context of exquisitely written literature.

In All Over Creation, she succeeds in drawing her readers into the lives of characters who are complex, fascinating and very real. She stimulates thought by artfully imparting information without preaching, weaving it seamlessly into the fabric of plot and character. Above all, again and again she moves the reader deeply with her ability to convey the depths of human relationships, as well as the joys and tribulations of youth, maturity and old age. Her exposition of the many forms that the family dynamic can take is done with great feeling and delicacy. Parent and child, man and woman, husband and wife, young and old, she explores them all with great wisdom and compassion, all the while maintaining the edge that is required to treat some very large issues of good and evil.

I do not like to read reviews that give away too much plot, but I cannot praise this story enough. It is thought provoking, gut wrenching, warm, frightening, heartening, joyous and sad, all at once. This is a book that draws you deeply into the lives of the characters, and when you come to the end of the story, you are left with a profound feeling of having partaken in their journey. Once again, I can't wait for Ms. Ozeki's next one.

I read My Year of Meats several years ago and loved it. I wasn't sure if I would feel the same about All Over Creation. However, Ruth Ozeki has managed to write another brilliant, sensitive and well informed novel. The characters are deeply human - idealistic and flawed yet somehow lovable. Ozeki manages to enlighten and educate on the subject of factory farming and genetically modified organisms without sounding preachy or self righteous. I did not want this book to end!

After reading "My Year of Meats", I was excited to start Ozeki's next work, "All over Creation". Having just finished it, I can say that I was left with very mixed feelings.

As with her previous book, Ozeki has a flair for writing and painting a picture of place, time and characters. Her character development is first rate and she never goes for the black and white. Everyone is cast in rich shades of gray. These are people we could know, who might live next door or in the town where we grew up.

In addition, she is a courageous writer. Ozeki is not afraid to use her fiction to tackle important subjects, such as Genetic Engineering and its impact on our lives.

However, I was bothered by a story that was so terribly contrived. The arrival of Elliot Rhodes and the Seeds at just the moment when Yummy Fuller comes back to Liberty Falls for the first time in 25 years is hard to swallow. The intersection of these events and the subsequent impact on the lives of the Fullers and the Quinns feels too neat and convenient and frankly, forced. Unlike her character development, Ozeki's plot development is very flawed.

I hope with time that Ozeki learns how to craft a credible story. With her gift for character and description, she can go far in the literary world.

I have fallen in love with, it seems, an unusual author. I found Ruth Ozeki's first novel, "My Year of Meats," when I was working at a little independent book store in Northern California. I read it on whim, and just absolutely fell in love with Ozeki's way of story-telling, her technique of uniquely blending Japanese and American cultures with agro-industry.

A few years later, and I have just finished Ruth Ozeki's "All Over Creation". Once again, I was startled at how poetically she wove together a truly human story with a profound analysis of our carnivorous consumerist culture, and the side effects of this for farmers, children, etc. The profundity of her first novel rang true in her second. An Idaho farming family, genetically modified foods, and a hippie bunch...a strange setting for a novel? Absolutely. Heart-warming, well-crafted, and moving? Again, absolutely.

Her works are just wonderful, very personal, very earthbound. Very highly recommended.

Overall, this book is a stunning showcase of Ruth Ozeki's talent. The book covers a range of topics from a poignant father-daughter relationship to genetically-modified organisms and their impact on our food supply. Those who enjoyed "My Year of Meats" will find that "All Over Creation" is another fine example of literature which combines social commentary with familial issues.
This book made me laugh, cry, and, finally, dread the ending because it meant that I had to stop reading the book. Ozeki has created an intelletually satisfying read for those who enjoy novels about environmental issues sans the preachiness. Brava!

Ruth Ozeki has produced another iconoclastic, sardonic, and hair raising novel raising further awareness about corporate subversion of our food supply. While not as ambitious as her earlier "My Year of Meats", this novel spotlights the threats to our health and nature as a whole posed by the genetic engineering of food crops. While we knew that green crops such as celery and lettuce were full of pesticides, immediately after finishing this book, and before I'd had a chance to turn the first page, my wife committed to only buying organic potatoes. Living not far from the site of this fictional tale, and where most of the nation's potatoes are grown, I was even more engaged in the author's description of how the dwindling number of remaining small farmers are coerced by corporate agricultural practices -- and how their own health is compromised as an added result.

Ozeki again proved able to weave an entertaining and touching tale interwining human nature and our food supply. She tells a poignant and touching story about the unpredictability of nature while simultaneously making you laugh out loud.

While Ozeki's satirical style makes the situation sound far fetched, she is again absolutely on time, as confirmed in recent articles in "Harpers" and the "New York Times" have confirmed. There is a sound basis in fear underlying the strident opposition of the Europeans to genetically alerted crops besides a seemingly elitist aversion to the American largely convenience food diet. Ozeki accurately represents how genetic modification of the agriculture is a critical threat to the world's health supply as a whole. Unfortunately, the actual outcome is less likely to be as upbeat as the novel's end.

This novel, following Ruth Ozeki's 1st novel My Year of Meats, is at once educational and entertaining with its multidimensional characters on a quest of self-discovery. A daughter's homecoming 25 yrs after she ran away from her now-ailing parents' Idaho potato farm forms the basis of the plot that examines the repercussions of genetically modified organisms.
Powerful - and it's a good read.

Ruth Ozeki is a wonderful writer and environmentalist. This story is as good as "My Year of Meats," or better. I could not stop reading till the last page.

I loved this book. If you've already read My Year of Meats, don't hesitate to read this as well. I'd have a hard time saying which I enjoyed more. Ozeki tells a great story but explores important topics as well...without ever swamping the story. She also has a great sense of humor. My only question is whether she's working on another novel. I hope so.