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A review by _myliteraryobsession
The Face of Another by Kōbō Abe
3.0
This is one of those books that I read in high hopes of becoming enlightened and educated in the process of flicking though each page. The Face of Another details the life of a mad scientist left horribly disfigured after an experiment gone wrong. With his face wrapped tight in bandages, he comes to the harsh realisation that since his accident both his career and marriage are failing.
He seeks out a man specialising in realistic and prosthetic masks, utilising this 'new face' to re-shape his identity and in the process fool his wife into having an affair with him, (hoping all the while that she won't discover his true identity).
Throughout this novel you can't help feeling sympathetic towards this man, however you also feel for his wife, the real victim here, pulled into a complex case of identity crisis.
It's a novel that makes you think, constantly exploring the concept of identity. Kobe Abe is a Japanese writer that reminds me a lot of Jean Paul Sartre in both style and approach. I enjoyed this novel but I was thankful that it was only a short read. The plot does tend to drag at times.
He seeks out a man specialising in realistic and prosthetic masks, utilising this 'new face' to re-shape his identity and in the process fool his wife into having an affair with him, (hoping all the while that she won't discover his true identity).
Throughout this novel you can't help feeling sympathetic towards this man, however you also feel for his wife, the real victim here, pulled into a complex case of identity crisis.
It's a novel that makes you think, constantly exploring the concept of identity. Kobe Abe is a Japanese writer that reminds me a lot of Jean Paul Sartre in both style and approach. I enjoyed this novel but I was thankful that it was only a short read. The plot does tend to drag at times.