Reviews - Kvinnan i sanden

1.02k reviews for:

Kvinnan i sanden

Kōbō Abe

3.69 AVERAGE

jakefrostick's review against another edition

4.25

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

dt_seg's review against another edition

3.25

dark reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

tamtam01's review against another edition

4.0

dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

tkdonovan's review against another edition

1.0

mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

y_lek's review against another edition

4.5

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The definition of an artist, Kobo Abe explored many avenues of expression including music, photography, and literature. This creativity permeates through his imaginative yet grounded writing style and characters. The metaphors in the book are abundant and for the most part they are reliant on the reader's interpretation of characters and events. Starting with the subject of the title itself, the woman that Niki meets is remarkably consistent despite his abuse, cruetly and selfishness. Her steadfast demeanor stems from the combination of the hardships and discrimination that she has endured with her strong sense of place and contentment in society. Although, I ordinarily advocate for growth and to push one's boundaries, the woman in the book exposes the strength in awareness of self and purpose.
Moving on, I believe Abe uses sand to explore nihilism, almost acting as a character in itself as it suggests passage of time and how that might relate to the working-class. Pervasise and intrusive, sand also decays everything it touches and is present in every aspect of our characters' lives, meanwhile time is also the shifting and ever-present constant in the human experience.
As Abe's characters in the book work tirelessly to fight against the sand, we realize the futility of our efforts to find meaning and legacy against the flow of time.
There's so much to chew on in this book, but when these deep concepts are stripped away, the characters once again become very human, dealing with situations out of their control, trying their best to make meaing out of the ordinary all in an attempt to find the purpose in life.

Content Warnings