A review by cantordustbunnies
The Face of Another by Kōbō Abe

4.0

A creepily neurotic book exploring themes such as physical appearance, personal identity, and social alienation. The narrator is disfigured both physically and psychologically and obsesses over the various masks people wear as he creates one for himself. It truly feels that you are reading something written by a dangerously mentally ill but extremely intelligent person. The author even forces the reader themselves to wear a mask. Something to me was a bit off though, maybe the plot wasn't tight enough or the translation didn't quite do it justice but there are moments of great literary beauty rivaling anything else I've read - the passage about Noh masks was especially memorable.