A review by uliseslima
The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe

mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Kind of an odd read. A fun idea (you get lured to the bottom of a hole to dig sand forever), but a lot of his interactions with the woman and particularly the ruminations on and justifications of sex were a bit of a slog.

You do still root for him for a while, but by the end of the book I didn’t really care what happened to any of them. 

Also is their poo hauled out of the hole by the men with the buckets or is there a smaller hole filled with fossilised desert tods round the back of the house? They do a lot of pissing but this is never adequately explained.
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