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

4.0

From what I understand, existentialism is to consider humanity, what our purpose is, and how to make decisions in an absurd or irrational universe. As I read about the woman and the entire town shoveling sand I wondered how she thought life was worth living, everyday she existed just to shovel and survive and I think the main character thought that too. But that logic can be applied to anything, including his motivation/interest in life which was collecting and discovering new insects.  Something that I thought was interesting was the he was declared dead from modern society but we know that he continued to live and established a place for himself in the village with a wife/lover and family. I wondered what that ending meant, does it imply that he no longer exists because he isn't living in a city working as a teacher and interacting with his colleagues? The novel makes you think about what the point is in living which makes it existential. It definitely made me feel a bit sad about life because of the pandemic as I spend most of my days inside interacting only with my partner and my cat going through the motions spending 14 hours in front of a screen. The lack of real human interaction parallels the experiences of the main character and I'm desperate for this to end, but I also winder if going to school/work in person will really be as rewarding as I think and that once I get the opportunity like the main character did I won't take full advantage of it. There will always be something holding me back, for the main character it was his water collecting machine and perhaps his newborn child and lover. Sorry if this is oversharing by the way, but I did enjoy this novel and the way it made me think/consider humanity and our existence!