A review by chazaiya
The Box Man by Kōbō Abe

dark funny informative tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

very oblique. very tense. one of those stories where it makes me want to search up "THE BOX MAN ENDING EXPLAINED" immediately after finishing it even though i fucking hate doing that. i would like to read more about this at some point but it doesn't seem like there's a lot that exists? given it's not one of his popular works. it's a book that, especially the more you go on, is difficult to form any kind of understanding but it's so unique and surreal and interesting that you end up reading the whole thing anyway. i mean how are you supposed to come up with something like this and then how do you figure to explore this idea in this way? i imagine the woman in the dunes is a better book and the face of another is a funnier book but this was still a great read. don't imagine there's much like it outside of abe's bibliography.