Scan barcode
sammyantha's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
2.5
I was really intrigued by the first couple of chapters but it didn’t last long. I found it hard to follow, the sentences didn’t flow for me. I hoped it would’ve been more like the metamorphosis
wojoy's review against another edition
3.0
I don’t know what to say on this book. All I read here, are they the states of mind before death? All the fears, delusions, desires came together like a dream before the life ends?
The book is indeed surreal but very fluent. Even in the chaos of the symbols in the book as in dreams, one can sense the common aspects of humanity. Loneliness, attraction, sadness, our vulnerability and incapacity to govern well-being of our own bodies...
It’s also good to sense the freedom this book gives about that one can write in any way and about anything she/he wants. Nevertheless sometimes it was very hard for me to tolerate the nauseated scenes such as the idea of growing sprouts on the skin.
The book is indeed surreal but very fluent. Even in the chaos of the symbols in the book as in dreams, one can sense the common aspects of humanity. Loneliness, attraction, sadness, our vulnerability and incapacity to govern well-being of our own bodies...
It’s also good to sense the freedom this book gives about that one can write in any way and about anything she/he wants. Nevertheless sometimes it was very hard for me to tolerate the nauseated scenes such as the idea of growing sprouts on the skin.
angelsoul17's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
neko_cam's review
2.0
Perhaps it was the cultural divide or something, but I simply did NOT get 'Kangaroo Notebook' at all. It started off alright, quirky in a 'Japanese literature' kind of way, and got progressively more surreal and confusing as it went.
Though I can't explain exactly why, it felt as if the plot held very little weight. Perhaps it was an inability to sympathize with the protagonist very well, or an (unintended?) result of the dream-like nature of the narrative itself. Either way, I didn't feel very invested in the protagonist or his plight.
I must admit, however, that the surreality was absolutely perfect. The nonchalance with which the protagonist dealt with the crazy stuff going on around him was very much like how one just goes along with even the craziest of dreams, and the goings on sat so perfectly between the plausible and the implausible as to avoid seeming completely random while maintaining a sense of mystery and uncertainty. I now believe that it is possible to recreate dream-logic in a narrative successfully, thanks to Abe.
Though I can't explain exactly why, it felt as if the plot held very little weight. Perhaps it was an inability to sympathize with the protagonist very well, or an (unintended?) result of the dream-like nature of the narrative itself. Either way, I didn't feel very invested in the protagonist or his plight.
I must admit, however, that the surreality was absolutely perfect. The nonchalance with which the protagonist dealt with the crazy stuff going on around him was very much like how one just goes along with even the craziest of dreams, and the goings on sat so perfectly between the plausible and the implausible as to avoid seeming completely random while maintaining a sense of mystery and uncertainty. I now believe that it is possible to recreate dream-logic in a narrative successfully, thanks to Abe.
melaninny's review
2.0
This was a tough one for me. It's not nearly as nuanced as Kobo Abe's other work, and it was bizarre to the point of absurdity without really committing to a reason for the eccentricity. Peppered in with the insanity (which included the story starting with radish sprouts growing from the main character's legs, traveling by a hospital bed to a hot spring where he encountered child demons, and then encouraging someone to kill a suffering man in a hospital) was the occasional hint of pedophilia. It was an exceedingly short and quick read that I managed to drag out for weeks because I was enjoying it so little.
Immediately after reading I gave the book 3 stars, a generous 3, but I've just knocked it down to 2 because in hindsight, I can't really remember much that I even liked about the book. It was interesting, and certainly an experience, but not anything I'd ever recommend to anyone.
Immediately after reading I gave the book 3 stars, a generous 3, but I've just knocked it down to 2 because in hindsight, I can't really remember much that I even liked about the book. It was interesting, and certainly an experience, but not anything I'd ever recommend to anyone.
loldesh's review against another edition
4.0
Kobo Abe, üçüncü seferinde okuru yine sudan çıkmış balığa çeviriyor.
Karakterin bilinçaltı + halüsinasyonları ile gerçek hayat ve bu geçiş paralelleri, of benim açımdan inanılmaz zorlu ve yorucu bir okuma oldu.
Tam anlamıyla tripofobi'den muzdarip biri değilim ama bu konuya hassasiyet sergileyebiliyorum, sırf bu yüzden bile defalarca soğuk ter döktüm. Allah biliyor ya, arkadaş desteği olmasa ilk bölümde bırakmıştım slfkslflsl ama iyiki devam etmişim çünkü o son. O SON!
Spoiler olmaması için belirtmeyeceğim ama diğer kitaplarına atıflar, bağlantılar, bi' parallellikler var, tekrarlıyorum özellikle sonu... Müthiş ben elendim orada.
Naçizane tavsiyem bu kitabı tbr listenizde sonlara koyun, yazarın diğer eserlerinden sonra okursanız tüm göndermelere vakıf daha akıcı ve keyifli bir okuma olur. #şükür
Karakterin bilinçaltı + halüsinasyonları ile gerçek hayat ve bu geçiş paralelleri, of benim açımdan inanılmaz zorlu ve yorucu bir okuma oldu.
Tam anlamıyla tripofobi'den muzdarip biri değilim ama bu konuya hassasiyet sergileyebiliyorum, sırf bu yüzden bile defalarca soğuk ter döktüm. Allah biliyor ya, arkadaş desteği olmasa ilk bölümde bırakmıştım slfkslflsl ama iyiki devam etmişim çünkü o son. O SON!
Spoiler olmaması için belirtmeyeceğim ama diğer kitaplarına atıflar, bağlantılar, bi' parallellikler var, tekrarlıyorum özellikle sonu... Müthiş ben elendim orada.
Naçizane tavsiyem bu kitabı tbr listenizde sonlara koyun, yazarın diğer eserlerinden sonra okursanız tüm göndermelere vakıf daha akıcı ve keyifli bir okuma olur. #şükür
yesteres's review
2.0
Nope, that just plain did not work for me. My Japanese isn't good enough to have read it in the original language without some serious dictionary time, but I get the feeling I would have enjoyed it more. I appreciate the absurd, sure, but this felt incoherent. It is entirely possible that I missed something, but I'm not feeling particularly willing to go back and look for it.
thirdcoast's review
4.0
It's difficult to know where to start in talking about Kangaroo Notebook by Kōbō Abe. If I were to condense my impression into some blurbesque phrases, I'd say, a surreal journey, a dark interpretation on the border between life and death, imaginative, unlike anything I've read. If I were to stray away from cute phrases, then I might describe the novel in this way.
Kangaroo Notebook starts in a bland setting that many readers can identify.
The scratchy area turns out to be "cleft-leaf radish sprouts" growing out of the narrator's legs. From here the narrative departs from reality and enters a surreal landscape. Along the way, the narrator meets a recurring character he calls Damselfly. She seems to appear when he's in need of help, and knows more than he does about what is happening.
After being treated at a dermatology clinic, the narrator leaves by a hospital bed he controls with his thoughts. Or, does the bed have a mind of its own? As the novel continues, the bed, much like Damselfly, returns when the narrator needs help. Oddities that follow include being towed to mine, following an underground tunnel, which leads to a boat, fending off the collision of two squids (one of which is attached to the narrators beck like medical tubing) from exploding, drifting to the Riverbank of Sai (limbo) where the Help Me! squad of demon-children sing and collect money, meeting his dead mother, staying briefly with Damselfly and her American friend Mr. Killer, who performs an intense massage move that sends the narrator back to the hospital, conspiring with patients to kill a man who is sick and annoying them, escaping the hospital and meeting up with a younger version of Damselfly or her lost sister at an abandoned train platform.
The novel ends with this on the last page.
Some questions I have is whether or not this is the narrator, Kōbō Abe's inspiration for the story, or something in the paper that caught the narrator's eye? Is the novel all in the narrator's head while he's having coffee and reading the paper? If you've read the novel, what do you think? How do you interpret the ending of Kangaroo Notebook? Personally, I like the idea that this article inspired the novel.
Kangaroo Notebook starts in a bland setting that many readers can identify.
"It should have turned out like any other morning.
I was munching on a crisp slice of toast, thickly coated with liver-and-celery pâté. I had one elbow pressed to the corner of an open newspaper; my upper body tilted slightly to the right. My eyes skipped here and there among the headlines as I sipped some strong coffee. I popped three tiny tomatoes into my mouth and squelched them together, for good health.
A tickling sensation ran up my shins. I rolled up on pajama leg and scratched. What felt like a thin layer of skin peeled off. Is it grime? I held it up to the light. It isn't grime or skin. It's scratchy, like dry beard bristle. Is it leg hair? Leg hair grazed by a flame would probably look like this, but scorched hair would give off a foul odor. I rolled up both pants legs and placed my feet on another chair, with my knees drawn up. There was no longer a single hair on my legs; if it weren't for the dotlike pores, the skin would have been smooth as a boy's. I had never had much hair, so I wasn't too concerned. Besides, with my pants on, the area didn't show."
The scratchy area turns out to be "cleft-leaf radish sprouts" growing out of the narrator's legs. From here the narrative departs from reality and enters a surreal landscape. Along the way, the narrator meets a recurring character he calls Damselfly. She seems to appear when he's in need of help, and knows more than he does about what is happening.
After being treated at a dermatology clinic, the narrator leaves by a hospital bed he controls with his thoughts. Or, does the bed have a mind of its own? As the novel continues, the bed, much like Damselfly, returns when the narrator needs help. Oddities that follow include being towed to mine, following an underground tunnel, which leads to a boat, fending off the collision of two squids (one of which is attached to the narrators beck like medical tubing) from exploding, drifting to the Riverbank of Sai (limbo) where the Help Me! squad of demon-children sing and collect money, meeting his dead mother, staying briefly with Damselfly and her American friend Mr. Killer, who performs an intense massage move that sends the narrator back to the hospital, conspiring with patients to kill a man who is sick and annoying them, escaping the hospital and meeting up with a younger version of Damselfly or her lost sister at an abandoned train platform.
The novel ends with this on the last page.
"Excerpt from a newspaper article:
A corpse was found on the premises of a train station no longer in service. On the man's shins were several slash marks that appeared to have been made by a razor. The wounds, evidently made with some hesitation, seemed to have been self-inflicted. It is unlikely that these were the cause of death. The incident is being investigated both as an accident and as a criminal case. Despite intensive efforts, the victim's identity has not yet been established."
Some questions I have is whether or not this is the narrator, Kōbō Abe's inspiration for the story, or something in the paper that caught the narrator's eye? Is the novel all in the narrator's head while he's having coffee and reading the paper? If you've read the novel, what do you think? How do you interpret the ending of Kangaroo Notebook? Personally, I like the idea that this article inspired the novel.