The Woman in the Dunes

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Inbunden, 239 sidor

På English

Publicerades 1 januari 1964 av Alfred A. Knopf.

OCLC-nummer:
325734
Goodreads:
135516650
(1 recension)

In this famous postwar Japanese novel, the first of Abe's to be translated into English, Niki Jumpei, an amateur entomologist in pursuit of a rare specimen of beetle, wanders into a strange seaside village, whose residents all live in sandpits. He is taken prisoner, and, along with a widow cast out by the community, he is forced to move into her sandpit and continually shovel away the sand that threatens to take over the village. In Niki's struggles to escape his prison and his developing relationship with the woman, he gradually comes to understand the existential nature of life

13 utgåvor

recenserade The woman in the dunes av Abe Kobo (UNESCO collection of representative works)

None

In the words of Bob Dylan: "Fuck fuck fuck, dig dig dig." I'm not sure if Abe's excavation of life, freedom and relationships actually goes anywhere, but that may be the point - just one person, captured in a trap and gradually adapting to it, while the world is immutably mutating. Doesn't quite work as a thriller - possibly due to the translation, it's obviously hard to tell how much of the detached, academic tone is Abe's doing and how much is the translator's - but as a post-Kafka thing, it's sometimes absolutely beautiful in its terribleness.

Still think I prefer the film version, though.

Ämnen

  • Fictional Work
  • Japanese Fiction