nickhaskell 's review for:

The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe

4.0

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A fairly short and entertaining read, but up until the very end, whenever I read this book I became physically parched. The Woman in the Dunes is an existential novel that caused me to reflect on my work / life balance and my career aspirations in a the-grass-is-always-greener sort of way. When the plot slowed, the dystopian, surrealist world-building of the house in the sandpit, the town and it's sand-exporting slaver residents kept me interested. If you don't take anything away from this book, you will at least have a better understanding of the physical properties of sand.