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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
this is the companion piece to the film by teshigahara, which i strongly prefer. there is a lot of internal obsession that slows the pace and keeps the narrative from achieving that other-worldly, dreamlike quality of the film. enjoyed reading it, but it didn't knock me out the way the film does.
On the surface, this is a tale of a man who is tricked into living in a hole in the dunes with a widowed woman and his attempts to flee the situation. But his predicament, how he copes with it and the final outcome can be a commentary on life - the struggle between the old and the new, inner needs and external pressures or the individual versus society.
mysterious
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Overall, this was a compelling and mysterious read. Mysterious not as much due to an actual solvable mystery of the plot, but more in the air of the writing and the character’s thoughts and musings. I saw another review described it as claustrophobic — that feels exactly right.
The beginning was slightly slow, but it picks up quickly and is not a long book overall anyway. The ending was sad but not unexpected. It reads almost like a fable or perhaps a cautionary tale.
I give it 3.5 stars because it held my attention and had me on the edge of my seat at times. I wouldn’t say it’s 4 stars throughout though. More like some parts were 5 star worthy and others were only 2.5 star worthy, so it sort of averaged out.
Semi-side note: I don’t understand why so many authors find r*pe so appealing to add to their stories, though. This book, House of Spirits, etc. It’s like they think there’s something poetic or edgy about it, but I can’t help but think there are other ways of getting your meaning across. Maybe that’s what the character would do — it’s not like these characters are portrayed as good people necessarily — but the description of them feels icky anyway, maybe because it doesn’t feel negative enough. I won’t pretend it’s my place to tell people what to write, especially not writers who have been dead for decades like Kobo Abe, but if you don’t like reading about that kind of thing, avoid this book!
The beginning was slightly slow, but it picks up quickly and is not a long book overall anyway. The ending was sad but not unexpected. It reads almost like a fable or perhaps a cautionary tale.
I give it 3.5 stars because it held my attention and had me on the edge of my seat at times. I wouldn’t say it’s 4 stars throughout though. More like some parts were 5 star worthy and others were only 2.5 star worthy, so it sort of averaged out.
Semi-side note: I don’t understand why so many authors find r*pe so appealing to add to their stories, though. This book, House of Spirits, etc. It’s like they think there’s something poetic or edgy about it, but I can’t help but think there are other ways of getting your meaning across. Maybe that’s what the character would do — it’s not like these characters are portrayed as good people necessarily — but the description of them feels icky anyway, maybe because it doesn’t feel negative enough. I won’t pretend it’s my place to tell people what to write, especially not writers who have been dead for decades like Kobo Abe, but if you don’t like reading about that kind of thing, avoid this book!
I wish I could give this book 3.5 stars. It is an incredibly well written book with vivid imagery and a thought provoking surreal narrative. Clearly an allegory, you could spend a great deal of time analyzing the book for broader meaning as I think multiple interpretations are possible. All that being said, I would not call it an enjoyable read. It is frustrating and claustrophobic and the constant descriptions of the sand made my skin crawl.
Por esses dias está fazendo 60 anos de lançamento do filme A Mulher da Areia do Teshigahara em Cannes, que vem a ser um dos meus filmes favoritos de todo cinema japonês.
Em honra disso finalmente resolvi ler a origem literária dele escrita pelo Kobo Abe, A Mulher das Dunas, sendo o segundo livro que leio dele (o primeiro foi A Face de um Outro, também adaptado para o cinema em forma de obra-prima pelo Teshigahara).
A experiência de ver o filme me fez repassar as várias leituras epistemológicas possíveis e a sua leitura só reitera a riqueza do simbolismo do filme, sobretudo na questão de imaginar Sísifo feliz do absurdismo de Camus. Aliás, poderíamos até imaginar que o próprio Camus teria escrito um livro assim.
Em honra disso finalmente resolvi ler a origem literária dele escrita pelo Kobo Abe, A Mulher das Dunas, sendo o segundo livro que leio dele (o primeiro foi A Face de um Outro, também adaptado para o cinema em forma de obra-prima pelo Teshigahara).
A experiência de ver o filme me fez repassar as várias leituras epistemológicas possíveis e a sua leitura só reitera a riqueza do simbolismo do filme, sobretudo na questão de imaginar Sísifo feliz do absurdismo de Camus. Aliás, poderíamos até imaginar que o próprio Camus teria escrito um livro assim.
A strange story that feels like an allegory or a dream, but also feels extremnely concrete. Some of the translation makes me wish I could read it in the original Japanese, because I'm sure I'm missing things, but the story itself is fascinating and existential.
The Woman in the Dunes is a marvelously constructed novel about man and our existence. It is a simple story with the basic element of sand yet Abe draws the reader in to the lives and predicaments of characters that seem so familiar to our own. Junpei is an amateur entomologist who loses his way in search of a new species of beetle. He comes across a village but one that is sunk into pits within dunes of sand. As night falls, he asks his way only to be placed within a pit in the home of a widow. The woman lives alone and digs sand to be sent to a factory for concrete. After a few days, it appears that Junpei is hostage to the hot conditions, permeating grains of sand, and company of the woman. There is no way out but by the ladder over which the village elders have control. He is doomed to work against a mountain of sand made of the smallest of grains, so literally moving an infinite number of tiny pieces. It calls into question the meaning of existence from the smallest grain to the largest dune. An excellent read!
The sand gets in everywhere.
I got this book because I chanced upon the absolutely splendid movie version. I'm not sure which I'd recommend going through first because seeing the movie spoiled some of the suspense but still helped me envision the absolutely bizarre setting.
A man, out bug collecting, is taken captive by a village collective and a woman living in an inescapable sand-pit. A village itself besieged by traditionalist thinking that overpowers their own compassion. Don't be mistaken, he does try to escape. But like life, our passions and desires are outwitted by harsh reality.
We learn the man's name about halfway through the novel see it exactly once more after that. I don't think it's mentioned at all in the movie. He is the only character that gets a name.
It might be noted that the Japanese name of the novel, 砂の女, Suna no Onna (literally Sand-Woman or Woman of [the] Sand), is cognate with 雪の女, Yuki no Onna, the legendary Snow-Woman of Japanese myth that entraps unwitting men. And a bit clearer in the movie, the bug-collecting hobby reflects certain insects who use similar traps to get their dinners.
Finally, this is, like [b:1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348990566s/5470.jpg|153313], a book with a monumentally striking final line:
I got this book because I chanced upon the absolutely splendid movie version. I'm not sure which I'd recommend going through first because seeing the movie spoiled some of the suspense but still helped me envision the absolutely bizarre setting.
A man, out bug collecting, is taken captive by a village collective and a woman living in an inescapable sand-pit. A village itself besieged by traditionalist thinking that overpowers their own compassion. Don't be mistaken, he does try to escape. But like life, our passions and desires are outwitted by harsh reality.
We learn the man's name about halfway through the novel see it exactly once more after that. I don't think it's mentioned at all in the movie. He is the only character that gets a name.
It might be noted that the Japanese name of the novel, 砂の女, Suna no Onna (literally Sand-Woman or Woman of [the] Sand), is cognate with 雪の女, Yuki no Onna, the legendary Snow-Woman of Japanese myth that entraps unwitting men. And a bit clearer in the movie, the bug-collecting hobby reflects certain insects who use similar traps to get their dinners.
Finally, this is, like [b:1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348990566s/5470.jpg|153313], a book with a monumentally striking final line:
Spoiler
He might as well put off his escape until sometime after that.