smokingchagga's review
3.0
This has been such a strange ride. Most of the stuff that went down definitely went over my head but I think that may have been the point. I'm just shook.
h1914's review
3.0
"A sensual, burning wind is blowing around us. I do not know precisely when it began. In the force of the wind and in the heat I seem to have lost my sense of time. But in any case I realize too that the direction of the wind will probably change. Suddenly it will turn into a cool westerly wind. And then this hot wind will be stripped away from my skin like a mirage, and I shall not even be able to recollect it[...] The important thing is not the end. The thing to consider is the reality of your feeling the fiery wind on your skin. The denouement is not the problem. Now the fiery wind itself is important. In this fiery wind words and sensations that have been asleep give out a blue light as if they possess high-voltage electricity[...] In the pain of this fiery wind a physical transformation that will not disappear until I die is effected on me."
usaidyousaf's review
2.0
Honestly had no idea what was going on 40% of the time but still enjoyed the ride
friendlylobotomy's review
dark
funny
mysterious
5.0
Do you know that episode of SpongeBob SquarePants where he and his friend Patrick find an old cardboard box and sit inside the box using their IMAGINATION to create fun adventures? There's nothing in the box but with the power of their minds they're able to build these wonderful fantasy worlds.
If you take that episode and explore some of the darker, more troubling elements of living inside of a box, like losing track of reality, contemplating -- sort of horrifically, sort of beautifully -- the ideas of voyeurism and shame and loneliness and death, then essentially you'll have a pretty good idea of what this book is all about.
If you take that episode and explore some of the darker, more troubling elements of living inside of a box, like losing track of reality, contemplating -- sort of horrifically, sort of beautifully -- the ideas of voyeurism and shame and loneliness and death, then essentially you'll have a pretty good idea of what this book is all about.
bubble0nex's review against another edition
dark
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
3.75
wtf
nickfourtimes's review
3.0
1) ''This is the record of a box man.
I am beginning this account in a box. A cardboard box that reaches just to my hips when I put it on over my head.
That is to say, at this juncture the box man is me. A box man, in his box, is recording the chronicle of a box man.''
2) ''The clothes she had removed lay in lumps at her feet. On the nurse's white uniform the tiny black undies stretched out like a dead spider.''
3) ''The reason men somehow go on living, enduring the gaze of others, is that they bargain on the hallucinations and the inexactitude of human eyes. By putting on clothes that as much as possible are identical and by having similar hairdos they manage to make it difficult to distinguish between one another. If I don't give a straight look, then the other person won't either; and one ends up leading a life of lowered glances. Thus long ago the punishment known as the pillory used to be used, but it was said to be too cruel and was discontinued in enlightened societies. That the act of spying on someone else is generally looked upon with scorn is because, I suppose, one does not want to be on the side of being seen.''
I am beginning this account in a box. A cardboard box that reaches just to my hips when I put it on over my head.
That is to say, at this juncture the box man is me. A box man, in his box, is recording the chronicle of a box man.''
2) ''The clothes she had removed lay in lumps at her feet. On the nurse's white uniform the tiny black undies stretched out like a dead spider.''
3) ''The reason men somehow go on living, enduring the gaze of others, is that they bargain on the hallucinations and the inexactitude of human eyes. By putting on clothes that as much as possible are identical and by having similar hairdos they manage to make it difficult to distinguish between one another. If I don't give a straight look, then the other person won't either; and one ends up leading a life of lowered glances. Thus long ago the punishment known as the pillory used to be used, but it was said to be too cruel and was discontinued in enlightened societies. That the act of spying on someone else is generally looked upon with scorn is because, I suppose, one does not want to be on the side of being seen.''
roll_n_read's review
A good strange book, more philosophical and metaphorical than I anticipated, and less narratively driven than I think I ultimately wanted. Tons of voyeurism and themes of nudity and vulnerability. Definitely asks the question Am I the box man, or is he? over and over in a way that makes you consider the metaphor of all of us living in our own heads with our own narratives that we scribble on our skullwalls, our own holes we peer out of and boxes that we live in.
I love the idea of a box-man and the sort of contagion that takes place early on in the story where one man sees a box man and decides that’s the life for him too. I liked the box man taking copious notes on the inside of his box. I may have liked following a different box man than the one we got for this story.. I wonder if all box men are necessarily so confused and obsessive about a woman?
“I personally feel that a box, far from being a dead end, is an entrance to another world.”
“He painted his lips green with one of the poster colors. After that he traced, in gradually expanding circles, the seven colors of the rainbow.”
I love the idea of a box-man and the sort of contagion that takes place early on in the story where one man sees a box man and decides that’s the life for him too. I liked the box man taking copious notes on the inside of his box. I may have liked following a different box man than the one we got for this story.. I wonder if all box men are necessarily so confused and obsessive about a woman?
“I personally feel that a box, far from being a dead end, is an entrance to another world.”
“He painted his lips green with one of the poster colors. After that he traced, in gradually expanding circles, the seven colors of the rainbow.”
jnikolova's review
1.0
I firmly believe that of all the authors from around the world that I've read, the Japanese ones are by far the weirdest. And as much as I love Murakami's kooky-ness, I don't seem to appreciate Abe's. The Woman in the Dunes was better than this, but both were very uneventful, relying only on the paradoxical insanity of the story to attract readers. Murakami put pure genius in his, you only need but to read 1Q84 to realize how brilliant he is, and I'm giving that example because it's the lenghtiest and thus the biggest example of what I'm saying. It seems to me that Kobo Abe, on the other hand, does not have a clear idea of what's he doing himself, and that can be pure genius, but it can also turn into a big pile of boring crap: The Box Man.