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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Eerie, Claustrophobic, and Atmospheric!
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
This book is deeply uncomfortable to read despite containing no subject matter that is outright transgressive. A man stumbles upon a poor strange hamlet in the middle of impossible windswept sand dunes and is imprisoned with one of the resident women at the bottom of a hole. He's told his job is to keep the shifting sand from overwhelming the house (and thus the larger hamlet). What follows is a Kafka-esque nightmarish short book in which our protagonist rages against his forced captivity, the servile, diffident nature of his female companion, musing about his freedom, his escape plans and his past life - though barely lived - while the ground is literally shifting beneath his feet.
There are some unnamed captors involved but the chief antagonist as well as the setting is the sand itself, and here the author is able to invest such incredible detail and metaphor into the nature of this tiny inorganic composite rock - that nonetheless, seen as a wider system is teeming with movement, strange behaviour, indifference or maleficence to the plight of humans, and a lot of surprising complexity in which the reader and protagonist can't help but allegorize to their own affairs. Besides entertaining a bubbling, somewhat deviant, barely repressed sexual desire, which complements and heightens the protagonist's own utter lack of consent of being held in this dune, there is nothing in the book that might traditionally invoke horror - and yet the stomach undeniably tightens as you read further on; correctly guessing how it might end does nothing to alleviate the emotion of reading it happen. Predictably, though, the actually woman in this book is treated without much depth at all, subjected to an exclusively male view making her meek, sexualized, stupid and without a hint of the psychological depth that is invested in the main character. This book is lean, and yet there are tons of symbolism to unearth and more to uncover upon successive rereads if one can stomach and appreciate the unsettling atmosphere.
There are some unnamed captors involved but the chief antagonist as well as the setting is the sand itself, and here the author is able to invest such incredible detail and metaphor into the nature of this tiny inorganic composite rock - that nonetheless, seen as a wider system is teeming with movement, strange behaviour, indifference or maleficence to the plight of humans, and a lot of surprising complexity in which the reader and protagonist can't help but allegorize to their own affairs. Besides entertaining a bubbling, somewhat deviant, barely repressed sexual desire, which complements and heightens the protagonist's own utter lack of consent of being held in this dune, there is nothing in the book that might traditionally invoke horror - and yet the stomach undeniably tightens as you read further on; correctly guessing how it might end does nothing to alleviate the emotion of reading it happen. Predictably, though, the actually woman in this book is treated without much depth at all, subjected to an exclusively male view making her meek, sexualized, stupid and without a hint of the psychological depth that is invested in the main character. This book is lean, and yet there are tons of symbolism to unearth and more to uncover upon successive rereads if one can stomach and appreciate the unsettling atmosphere.
2.9
I was never really one for captured/ trapped/ kidnapped kind of stories. And this one also quickly got tedious for me- the repeating waves of exhaustion, anger, denial, rebellion, acceptance, bargaining etc. Now that I put it like that, maybe it's about the relentless suffering of living? I suppose this gives credence to the whole ambiguous and unsettling ending the book has.
However, I was intrigued by how in true fashion of Japanese literature, this book ruminated, went on long asides on mundanities and the details of spaces, materials and philosophies. It felt like the entomologist was trapped in a terrarium of his own. Also, I would have never imagined that there was this much to say about sand but apparently there was. The author did so, building these musings that bordered on illogical, upon a pretty solid scientific and factual base. I also felt like going crazy of course, questioning the motives and the taunts of the other villagers the whole time.
Also the ending made me go on some existential tangent about the futility and mundanity of everyday life, of work and how shoveling sand from a place you would be eternally trapped in-as Sisyphian and tortuous as it would seem- is also the a sense of purpose a soul could have without which it could come untethered. Idk. To quote the book itself,
"One could not do without repetition in life, like the beating of the heart, but it was also true that the beating of the heart was not all there was to life."
One thing that made me quite annoyed was the whole purpose/ characterisation of the titular woman herself. I was pretty confused as to what she was supposed to represent since she seemed to have a personality that was as malleable and everchanging as the sand itself and seemed to shape itself in his grip but had control over him all the same. Holy shit, I feel like I'm realizing so many things even as I'm writing this review.
All that being said however, I'm frankly tired and uncomfortable of when women are written this way by male authors- the weird non consensual sex (rape even), sexuality burgeoning with feelings of anger, resentment, desperation, the way the women are not written to be people at all but vague indecipherable metaphors.
Can't decide if I liked it or not.
I was never really one for captured/ trapped/ kidnapped kind of stories. And this one also quickly got tedious for me- the repeating waves of exhaustion, anger, denial, rebellion, acceptance, bargaining etc. Now that I put it like that, maybe it's about the relentless suffering of living? I suppose this gives credence to the whole ambiguous and unsettling ending the book has.
However, I was intrigued by how in true fashion of Japanese literature, this book ruminated, went on long asides on mundanities and the details of spaces, materials and philosophies. It felt like the entomologist was trapped in a terrarium of his own. Also, I would have never imagined that there was this much to say about sand but apparently there was. The author did so, building these musings that bordered on illogical, upon a pretty solid scientific and factual base. I also felt like going crazy of course, questioning the motives and the taunts of the other villagers the whole time.
Also the ending made me go on some existential tangent about the futility and mundanity of everyday life, of work and how shoveling sand from a place you would be eternally trapped in-as Sisyphian and tortuous as it would seem- is also the a sense of purpose a soul could have without which it could come untethered. Idk. To quote the book itself,
"One could not do without repetition in life, like the beating of the heart, but it was also true that the beating of the heart was not all there was to life."
One thing that made me quite annoyed was the whole purpose/ characterisation of the titular woman herself. I was pretty confused as to what she was supposed to represent since she seemed to have a personality that was as malleable and everchanging as the sand itself and seemed to shape itself in his grip but had control over him all the same. Holy shit, I feel like I'm realizing so many things even as I'm writing this review.
All that being said however, I'm frankly tired and uncomfortable of when women are written this way by male authors- the weird non consensual sex (rape even), sexuality burgeoning with feelings of anger, resentment, desperation, the way the women are not written to be people at all but vague indecipherable metaphors.
Can't decide if I liked it or not.
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
fast-paced