The Book of Form and Emptiness

Benny accuses the Book of being the voice he heard encouraging him to kiss Alice: “You were just using me, making me do stuff, so you could tell a better story” (386). He curses at the Book for manipulating him.

The Book tells Benny it was his desires taking the form of a voice. The Book appreciates the kiss as it allows the Book to experience what it feels like to kiss someone. Benny pulls away from the Book. Without Benny actively interacting with it, the Book claims it has no choice but to continue filling in the story, even without Benny’s input.

The Book switches to narrating Benny’s story in the second person. When Benny wakes up the next morning, Alice and Slavoj are making coffee. Benny hates coffee, and Alice makes him a hot chocolate, which he resents, feeling infantized. Alice and Benny are awkward with each other and don’t talk as the group packs up and drives back to San Francisco. When they drop Benny off at home, Alice says that she loves Benny but not romantically.

Benny enters a quiet house, goes to his room and falls asleep. He wakes later to the doorbell ringing. A hospital social worker tells him about his mother’s fall and brings him to the hospital. Benny is overcome with guilt, thinking that if he had not stayed overnight with Alice and Slavoj, he would have been home to help Annabelle.

Annabelle wakes in the ER to find Benny next to her wearing Kenji’s old headphones. Annabelle’s injuries will prevent her from using the stairs or cleaning up the house; Benny must take care of her while she heals from a broken ankle and concussion. No-Good has agreed to postpone his inspection. When they return home, Annabelle calls her supervisor to explain that she can’t use a computer for a few days while her head recovers.

Being forced to rest reminds Annabelle of the days immediately following Benny’s birth, when she would rest on the couch as Kenji took care of the both of them. She can limp around the first floor, and hearing the crows outside, takes them scraps of food. The crows have brought her gifts, such as a pearl earring and some sea glass. She is still touched that the crows attempted to keep her warm while she lay in the rain, unconscious.

Annabelle finally emails Aikon. She describes how hard is has been coping with Kenji’s death, especially when she and Benny are in public, and people assume that he is adopted because of their different racial appearances. Annabelle expands upon the connections she perceives between herself and Aikon. Most important to her is the fact that Kenji once studied Zen Buddhism. She then begins to write about the crows, knowing that Aikon’s transition to Zen Buddhism was largely influenced by a crow.

This chapter uses second person and the fly-on-the-wall point of view to narrate Benny’s story. Benny has come to distrust books, blaming them for his disappointment with Alice. In library class, Benny believes that the words on the page of the book he is reading are desperate to be freed, so he begins poking holes in the pages with a thumbtack.

He buys a pizza on his way home from school so that Annabelle doesn’t have to cook dinner. In his room, Benny contemplates the Andromeda constellation tattoo he remembers seeing on Alice’s arm and now realizes that it is covering track marks from her drug use. He looks up the constellation and begins poking holes into his arm with the same thumbtack and a felt marker.

Annabelle feels better after sending the email to Aikon. She shows Benny Tidy Magic and tells him about the different ways of folding clothes, how she believes Aikon connects her to Kenji, and how the book encourages a life of minimalism. Benny already knows that clothes like to be folded because he heard them asking to be treated mindfully.

Benny “blocks” the Book from accessing his thoughts, so the Book narrates from Aikon’s third-person point of view.

Following the success of Tidy Magic, Aikon regularly checks her email. She frequently receives long response that describe how the book has helped the sender. Annabelle’s emails have caught her attention, and she waits for each successive one, invested in the story of a recently widowed woman and her son. Aikon adds Annabelle’s and Benny’s names to those she prayers for during a well-being ceremony.

Aikon’s book succeeded in bringing more awareness and monetary donations to the temple. However, Aikon’s teacher has died, and she is sad that he will never know how much the book has helped the temple. The temple receives many more visitors on a daily basis now, particularly women. She calls them “a lineage of women” (408) to follow the monk’s benevolent and mindful teachings.

Annabelle continues to write even though she receives no response from Aikon; the simple act of writing allows her to process the emotions of her situation. She describes to Aikon Benny’s experience with the voices. Annabelle is hopeful about the crows and their willingness to be her guardians, but Kenji’s death still occupies her thoughts. She also still resents him for using drugs. Annabelle does not know how to balance all that is going on in her life and the stress from the approaching presidential election: “How am I supposed to tidy completely, with love and compassion, when I have a broken ankle, a sick child, and a country that’s on the brink of disaster?” (411).

The success of Tidy Magic makes Aikon feel stressed: “She’d left corporate life to get away from this kind of pressure, but the stress had followed her here” (412). Nevertheless, she connects with the women who visit the temple, usually looking to escape corporate life and materialism. Though Aikon imagines her teacher being amused that such women are visiting the temple, Aikon is proud that she has made an impact on the temple and in their lives.

The Book tries to connect with Benny, but as Benny continues to block it out of his thoughts, the Book has no choice but to continue his story by itself.

Benny’s high school library teacher confronts him about poking thumbtack holes in the book. Benny is shocked that there are still words on the pages; he truly believed he was giving the words a chance to escape.

During a session with Dr. Melanie, Benny confesses that he hears the voice of the Book and believes it to be making bad things happen to him. When Dr. Melanie expresses her skepticism, Benny challenges her to try to imagine his perspective. He denies self-harming even though the thumbtack holes he poked into his arm are still healing. Benny no longer trusts books as he believes they invade people’s minds for a purpose he doesn’t understand.

Dr. Melanie attempts to meditate between sessions, but she is distracted by Benny’s challenge of considering his perspective. She wishes she had more time to write about Benny’s case and explore what he might need. For now, she resolves to try to believe him.

In an email to Aikon, Annabelle describes how Dr. Melanie is suggesting that Benny be readmitted to the hospital. The fact that she cannot provide Benny with the care he needs upsets her. Also, she has been finding dead crows on her property without any apparent reason for their sudden deaths.