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A review by mobyskine
The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe
3.0
I think it all started when the guy said-- "I will expect to show my appreciation… I am particularly fond of staying in village houses."-- to the old man of the village for helping him finding a stay for the night (as the last bus already gone) that he suddenly been held captive and can't return home.
Honestly the narration seems a bit claustrophobic to me. It was all about sand and sand and sand; that small particles surrounding the house in the dunes trapping the guy physically and emotionally. Descriptive stories of his survival and plan to escape, observations on the work the villagers need to do to survive, all the hardship of changing environment and way of his living. The woman in the house was kind of mysterious too (I wonder how she could stay in the dunes all by herself).
Can't help to feel a bit mundane with classic japanese storytelling but this book still fairly gripping and intriguing to me. Unusually surreal that it left me hanging and wondering about life.
"There are all kinds of life, and sometimes the other side of the hill looks greener. What's hardest for me is not knowing what living like this will ever come to. But obviously you can never know, no matter what sort of life you live."
Honestly the narration seems a bit claustrophobic to me. It was all about sand and sand and sand; that small particles surrounding the house in the dunes trapping the guy physically and emotionally. Descriptive stories of his survival and plan to escape, observations on the work the villagers need to do to survive, all the hardship of changing environment and way of his living. The woman in the house was kind of mysterious too (I wonder how she could stay in the dunes all by herself).
Can't help to feel a bit mundane with classic japanese storytelling but this book still fairly gripping and intriguing to me. Unusually surreal that it left me hanging and wondering about life.
"There are all kinds of life, and sometimes the other side of the hill looks greener. What's hardest for me is not knowing what living like this will ever come to. But obviously you can never know, no matter what sort of life you live."