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

3.5

Book Review | THE WOMAN IN THE DUNES by KŌBŌ ABE

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3.5/5 ⭐’s | PUB DATE:  8 June 1962

This is a classic of Japanese literature, written by one of Japan's most well-known authors. The story follows a man who goes out to do some amateur entomology, looking for insects to catalogue in the sand dunes along the coast. When he spends a little too much time there, and misses the last bus of the day, he encounters a small village and asks if he can stay the night. In the dark, a villager leads him to a rope ladder and tells him to climb down to stay with one of the women of the village for the night. The man realizes in the morning that he is now trapped in the dunes, at the bottom of a sand pit and at the mercy of the villagers above. The story then follows the man's anger, despair, and attempts at rebellion while he psychologically devolves to a calamitous ending.

The most obvious parallel to modern, American culture I can see is the existential dread of toiling away at a meaningless task, day after day, just to earn the basic essentials of life. The sand blows back in every day and the villagers must engage in back-breaking work to shovel it out to prevent their homes from being completely covered, day in and day out, with no respite. If they don't complete their work, the leaders of the town withhold their water ration. The MC desperately tries to escape, and goes through many stages of anger and grief about his situation, until he eventually resigns himself to it. 

The writing in this novel has a dreamlike quality that is evocative and claustrophobic, with Abe making you feel the desperation and thirst of the two main characters. I really enjoyed the writing style and the smart critique of social issues in this book. Readers who enjoy work by Albert Camus or Franz Kafka, or more modern dystopian fiction, would probably find this book engrossing. However, avoid picking this up if you are not in the mood for darker themes.

CW:  Confinement, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Child death, Pregnancy, Violence