Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Vintage (1972), Paperback, 239 pages
Description
The Woman in the Dunes, by celebrated writer and thinker Kobo Abe, combines the essence of myth, suspense and the existential novel. nbsp; After missing the last bus home following a day trip to the seashore, an amateur entomologist is offered lodging for the night at the bottom of a vast sand pit. But when he attempts to leave the next morning, he quickly discovers that the locals have other plans. Held captive with seemingly no chance of escape, he is tasked with shoveling back the ever-advancing sand dunes that threaten to destroy the village. His only companion is an odd young woman. Together their fates become intertwined as they work side by side at this Sisyphean task.
User reviews
LibraryThing member deebee1
Profound, bizarre, nightmarish, exquisite, beautiful, a powerful existential allegory of the human condition.
Considered one of the finest Japanese novels of the post-war period, this is a short and spare novel about a man who is an amateur entomologist in search of a rare beetle which lives in the
He makes several attempts at escape, always failing. The villagers make a point by depriving them of water. He gets the message. Months pass and he and the woman evolve a working arrangement, but while appearing to be accepting of his fate, he is surreptitiously planning the next escape. The novel ends with the woman having an ectopic pregnancy and had to be taken by the villagers to the hospital. Alone, he finds the rope for climbing out left hanging -- he was free to go. In the end, he refuses.
I read this book very slowly, because its powerful imagery is both dizzying and claustrophobic at the same time. The sand is the focal point, everything converges toward it. Their existence is defined by this eternally shifting 1/8 millimeter in diameter particle. The dunes are inanimate but it is what confines them. Sand gets in the food, in the clothes, in the throat, in everything. They sleep lulled by the never-ending soft sound of falling sand. They wake up with the sand powdering their bodies. The sand does not preserve, but rots everything it touches.
This is an immensely layered book, filled with symbolism. Like the couple, we are also down there in the burning sandpit, shoveling mind-numbingly eternal buckets of sand for the barest of things, not even freedom to do what we wish.
An intense read, incredibly sensuous, the book evokes themes of alienation, conformity, futility, tenacity, a meditation on the permanence and impermanence of life like the omnipresent but ever-shifting sands.
Considered one of the finest Japanese novels of the post-war period, this is a short and spare novel about a man who is an amateur entomologist in search of a rare beetle which lives in the
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dunes. His excursion takes him to an isolated desert region beside the sea. Having missed the bus back to town, the villagers offer to put him up for the night -- in a sandpit where a young widow lives alone in a hovel. He soon realizes he is a prisoner, and like the widow, he is forced to shovel the entire night, every night, the omnipresent sand that threatens to bury her home which serves as a bulwark against the advancing sands, and the entire village. In exchange for the sand that they cart away, the villagers supply her with necessities. But she is forever trapped in the pit, with no way of getting out. She herself has no wish of getting out. He makes several attempts at escape, always failing. The villagers make a point by depriving them of water. He gets the message. Months pass and he and the woman evolve a working arrangement, but while appearing to be accepting of his fate, he is surreptitiously planning the next escape. The novel ends with the woman having an ectopic pregnancy and had to be taken by the villagers to the hospital. Alone, he finds the rope for climbing out left hanging -- he was free to go. In the end, he refuses.
I read this book very slowly, because its powerful imagery is both dizzying and claustrophobic at the same time. The sand is the focal point, everything converges toward it. Their existence is defined by this eternally shifting 1/8 millimeter in diameter particle. The dunes are inanimate but it is what confines them. Sand gets in the food, in the clothes, in the throat, in everything. They sleep lulled by the never-ending soft sound of falling sand. They wake up with the sand powdering their bodies. The sand does not preserve, but rots everything it touches.
This is an immensely layered book, filled with symbolism. Like the couple, we are also down there in the burning sandpit, shoveling mind-numbingly eternal buckets of sand for the barest of things, not even freedom to do what we wish.
An intense read, incredibly sensuous, the book evokes themes of alienation, conformity, futility, tenacity, a meditation on the permanence and impermanence of life like the omnipresent but ever-shifting sands.
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LibraryThing member Jargoneer
The reason I brought up the example of sand was because in the final analysis I rather think the world is like sand. The fundamental nature of sand is very difficult to grasp when you think of it in its stationary state. Sand not only flows, but this very flow is the sand.
Until recently, The Woman
This very fact asks an interesting question – what makes a novel Japanese or English or Croatian? For some a Japanese novel should have Japanese signifiers in the same way that a genre novel has signifiers relating to its genre, ie, SF=spaceship, lasers, etc. But doesn't that make us guilty of a form of literary tourism, not unlike ethno-tourists who demand that cultures eschew progress, dress in traditional manner and dance for their supper.
Niki Jumpei (which translates as ordinary) is a clerk who collects insects. On the basis of a mysterious postcard he calculates that he may find a new variety of beetle in a sandy environment. (This helpful homage to Kafka gives the reader an idea of what expect next). Once at his destination he misses the last bus home and some local villagers convince him to stay. At their insistence he descends a rope ladder into a hole at the bottom of which is a small house occupied by an unnamed woman in her 30s. The following day he finds that the rope ladder has been withdrawn and he is now the trapped insect.
He is informed by the woman that they have to dig the sand everyday to stop his collapsing on them and creating a knock-on effect that will destroy the village. The man ignores the woman and instead spends his time thinking about escape. He threatens the villagers with action from the authorities, he cajoles them, tries to bribe them, all to no avail. He tries to dig his way out but ends up buried and is rescued by the woman; eventually he devises a plan that gets him out of the hole but pursued by the villagers he stumbles into quicksand and is returned to the woman. At this point the villagers say they will let him out for some periods if they can watch him having sex with the woman, when she says no he attempts to rape her but is overpowered and beaten to the delight of the onlookers. Defeated he decides to help the woman more and make their situation more bearable: he digs the sand and develops a more efficient method of capturing water. When the woman has to taken to a hospital the villagers accidentally leave the rope ladder down – Jumpei climbs up, looks around and decides to stay.
All this is presented in an analytical and methodical prose style that presents everything, the everyday, the protagonist's thoughts and the ridiculous with equal consideration. This allows Abe to present the most fantastical events, such as changing the properties of sand (it rots rather than preserves, for example) in a manner that the reader just accepts them. Sand is everywhere in the novel – the characters cover their face with a wet towel to protect them from the sand that accumulates on them while they sleep; they wash with it in lieu of water; it permeates all their areas of their lives. If you go to the beach and pathologically hate that sand in your sandwich this is not the novel for you.
Equally, we accept Jumpei's thoughts which usually take the form of an internal philosophising -
As if all of human life could be expressed in those two things alone. Radios and mirrors do have a point in common: both can connect one person with another. Maybe they reflect cravings that touch the core of our existence.
or
What was the use of individuality when one was on the point of death? He wanted to go on living under any circumstances, even if his life had no more individuality than a pea in a pod.
In a realist novel this would just come off as arch and precious but because of the internal consistency of the novel it is completely believable. This is very much the novel as a whole entity; the novel as an argument that leads to a philosophical truth.
The Woman in the Dunes is a classic existential novel: the protagonist eventually finding more fulfilment in his new life with its restrictions and endless work than he ever experienced in his previous 'free' life. (The scenario echoes Camus' version of the myth of Sisyphus but crucially the man and woman in the sand need to work to prevent disaster unlike Sisyphus whose rolling the stone up the hill is pointless). Some will undoubtedly find this novel bleak, some may find it pointless or the conclusion incomprehensible but those who accept its absurdities will be rewarded by an excellent novel.
Until recently, The Woman
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in the Dunes was probably the best-known Japanese novel in the West but as Hisaaki Yamaouchi has pointed out, Abé “is probably the first Japanese writer whose works, having no distinctly Japanese qualities, are of interest to the Western audience because of their universal relevance.”This very fact asks an interesting question – what makes a novel Japanese or English or Croatian? For some a Japanese novel should have Japanese signifiers in the same way that a genre novel has signifiers relating to its genre, ie, SF=spaceship, lasers, etc. But doesn't that make us guilty of a form of literary tourism, not unlike ethno-tourists who demand that cultures eschew progress, dress in traditional manner and dance for their supper.
Niki Jumpei (which translates as ordinary) is a clerk who collects insects. On the basis of a mysterious postcard he calculates that he may find a new variety of beetle in a sandy environment. (This helpful homage to Kafka gives the reader an idea of what expect next). Once at his destination he misses the last bus home and some local villagers convince him to stay. At their insistence he descends a rope ladder into a hole at the bottom of which is a small house occupied by an unnamed woman in her 30s. The following day he finds that the rope ladder has been withdrawn and he is now the trapped insect.
He is informed by the woman that they have to dig the sand everyday to stop his collapsing on them and creating a knock-on effect that will destroy the village. The man ignores the woman and instead spends his time thinking about escape. He threatens the villagers with action from the authorities, he cajoles them, tries to bribe them, all to no avail. He tries to dig his way out but ends up buried and is rescued by the woman; eventually he devises a plan that gets him out of the hole but pursued by the villagers he stumbles into quicksand and is returned to the woman. At this point the villagers say they will let him out for some periods if they can watch him having sex with the woman, when she says no he attempts to rape her but is overpowered and beaten to the delight of the onlookers. Defeated he decides to help the woman more and make their situation more bearable: he digs the sand and develops a more efficient method of capturing water. When the woman has to taken to a hospital the villagers accidentally leave the rope ladder down – Jumpei climbs up, looks around and decides to stay.
All this is presented in an analytical and methodical prose style that presents everything, the everyday, the protagonist's thoughts and the ridiculous with equal consideration. This allows Abe to present the most fantastical events, such as changing the properties of sand (it rots rather than preserves, for example) in a manner that the reader just accepts them. Sand is everywhere in the novel – the characters cover their face with a wet towel to protect them from the sand that accumulates on them while they sleep; they wash with it in lieu of water; it permeates all their areas of their lives. If you go to the beach and pathologically hate that sand in your sandwich this is not the novel for you.
Equally, we accept Jumpei's thoughts which usually take the form of an internal philosophising -
As if all of human life could be expressed in those two things alone. Radios and mirrors do have a point in common: both can connect one person with another. Maybe they reflect cravings that touch the core of our existence.
or
What was the use of individuality when one was on the point of death? He wanted to go on living under any circumstances, even if his life had no more individuality than a pea in a pod.
In a realist novel this would just come off as arch and precious but because of the internal consistency of the novel it is completely believable. This is very much the novel as a whole entity; the novel as an argument that leads to a philosophical truth.
The Woman in the Dunes is a classic existential novel: the protagonist eventually finding more fulfilment in his new life with its restrictions and endless work than he ever experienced in his previous 'free' life. (The scenario echoes Camus' version of the myth of Sisyphus but crucially the man and woman in the sand need to work to prevent disaster unlike Sisyphus whose rolling the stone up the hill is pointless). Some will undoubtedly find this novel bleak, some may find it pointless or the conclusion incomprehensible but those who accept its absurdities will be rewarded by an excellent novel.
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LibraryThing member John
Kobo Abe: The Woman in the Dunes
Kobo Abe (1924-1993) counted among his favourite authors, Dostoyevsky, Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Kafka, Nietzsche and Edgar Allan Poe. It is easy to see influences of all of these writers in this absurdist novel that deals with the structures of life and society and
Niki Jumpei (he is almost always referred to simply as "he" throughout the novel) has a boring office job in a boring life. He only real interest is amateur etymology and this takes him to a remote area of Japan, by the sea, to search for insects particular to living in sand. In the dunes, he finds a very small, lost village that doesn't even register on the map. Seeking a place to spend the night, he is taken to the home of a woman who has an extra bed. The odd feature is that the house is at the bottom of a deep pit in the sand. Niki thinks this strange but he is intrigued by the adventure that he will be able to recount, and he has a strong interest in the properties of sand. He is even more astonished to see that the woman (who remains nameless throughout the novel), must shovel buckets of sand every night to keep the hole from filling in and crushing the already rotted house. The buckets are pulled up by a group of workers using a rope system to take the sand away. He is even more surprised to see that the rope ladder by which he descended into the hole has disappeared and, finally, to realize that he is now a prisoner, expected to help the woman. He cajoles and threatens to no avail. He plans and almost succeeds to escape but is returned to the pit with the awareness that this is his life.
Abe sets out early a question that will frame much of the novel: "Certainly sand was not suitable for life. Yet, was a stationary condition absolutely indispensable for existence? Didn't unpleasant competition arise precisely because one tried to cling to a fixed position? If one were to give up a fixed position and abandon oneself to the movement of the sands, competition would soon stop." Sand that moves and shifts and shapes itself with the winds has a "shapeless, destructive power". Abe notes that this, "...very fact that it had no form was doubtless the highest manifestation of its strength...". The parallel is to the formless but powerful forces that shape our lives: fear, love, hatred, ambition, loss, success, failure, etc, etc...all the elements that shape our identity and often come to dominate it.
Those forces give structure to our lives but when the externalities are removed, the individual must fall back onto other anchors to retain a sense of self. And without the usual anchors of convention and society, there is a danger of unleashed, primitive forces. LIfe is a complex of people and relationships so filled with unknowns that one cannot even know where to start in looking for coherence or meaning. These are questions that Abe teases out through the unfolding story of the man and the woman imprisoned in the relentlessly moving, threatening sand and needing a way to not just live, but exist together.
Abe refers several times to a Mobius circle in the context of persons and situations. Such a circle allows travelling along both sides of a strip without crossing a boundary. A fitting metaphor for the long traverses and complexities of life within the boundaries of birth and death.
Kobo Abe (1924-1993) counted among his favourite authors, Dostoyevsky, Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Kafka, Nietzsche and Edgar Allan Poe. It is easy to see influences of all of these writers in this absurdist novel that deals with the structures of life and society and
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the meaning of life and relationships, all tied up in the constructs of identity. Niki Jumpei (he is almost always referred to simply as "he" throughout the novel) has a boring office job in a boring life. He only real interest is amateur etymology and this takes him to a remote area of Japan, by the sea, to search for insects particular to living in sand. In the dunes, he finds a very small, lost village that doesn't even register on the map. Seeking a place to spend the night, he is taken to the home of a woman who has an extra bed. The odd feature is that the house is at the bottom of a deep pit in the sand. Niki thinks this strange but he is intrigued by the adventure that he will be able to recount, and he has a strong interest in the properties of sand. He is even more astonished to see that the woman (who remains nameless throughout the novel), must shovel buckets of sand every night to keep the hole from filling in and crushing the already rotted house. The buckets are pulled up by a group of workers using a rope system to take the sand away. He is even more surprised to see that the rope ladder by which he descended into the hole has disappeared and, finally, to realize that he is now a prisoner, expected to help the woman. He cajoles and threatens to no avail. He plans and almost succeeds to escape but is returned to the pit with the awareness that this is his life.
Abe sets out early a question that will frame much of the novel: "Certainly sand was not suitable for life. Yet, was a stationary condition absolutely indispensable for existence? Didn't unpleasant competition arise precisely because one tried to cling to a fixed position? If one were to give up a fixed position and abandon oneself to the movement of the sands, competition would soon stop." Sand that moves and shifts and shapes itself with the winds has a "shapeless, destructive power". Abe notes that this, "...very fact that it had no form was doubtless the highest manifestation of its strength...". The parallel is to the formless but powerful forces that shape our lives: fear, love, hatred, ambition, loss, success, failure, etc, etc...all the elements that shape our identity and often come to dominate it.
Those forces give structure to our lives but when the externalities are removed, the individual must fall back onto other anchors to retain a sense of self. And without the usual anchors of convention and society, there is a danger of unleashed, primitive forces. LIfe is a complex of people and relationships so filled with unknowns that one cannot even know where to start in looking for coherence or meaning. These are questions that Abe teases out through the unfolding story of the man and the woman imprisoned in the relentlessly moving, threatening sand and needing a way to not just live, but exist together.
Abe refers several times to a Mobius circle in the context of persons and situations. Such a circle allows travelling along both sides of a strip without crossing a boundary. A fitting metaphor for the long traverses and complexities of life within the boundaries of birth and death.
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LibraryThing member PhoenixTerran
The Woman in the Dunes, originally published in Japan in 1962, is probably the most well-known work by Kōbō Abe available in English. One of the reasons for this is the film by the same name released in 1964, directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara with a screenplay that was also written by Abe. The
One August, Jumpei Niki, schoolteacher and amateur entomologist, disappears. None of his colleagues know exactly where he went to collect his beetles, but he was expected to return. Jumpei's desire as an insect collector was to discover a new species or variant, a goal that brought him to a secluded village nestled among the sand dunes along the coast. The village and its people seem a little strange, but he doesn't realize the trouble he's in until it's too late. He asks to stay the night and is brought to a widow's household that is nearly swallowed by the sand. Jumpei readily climbs down into the pit, grateful for the villages courtesy, only to find that the ladder has been removed when he tries to leave in the morning. He has three choices: join the widow and dig sand for the rest of his life to survive, try to escape, which no one has been able to do, or die.
It would be fairly easy if not obvious to read The Woman in the Dunes symbolically or as a metaphor. However, since I wasn't feeling particularly clever while reading The Woman in the Dunes, I approached the novel more literally. Even doing so, I still found the story to be quite compelling. Admittedly, it is also very strange. But it is fascinating to watch Jumpei deal with the odd situation he finds himself in and slowly change because of it. While some of his circumstances are hardly believable, the setting that Abe has created is presented very realistically. Life in the village, while not completely explained to either the reader or Jumpei, seems to have been thoroughly thought through. In some ways, I found The Woman in the Dunes to be vaguely reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" as both works are about societies with deeply entrenched and somewhat menacing traditions.
What left the biggest impression on me from The Woman in the Dunes was the sand itself. Abe's portrayal and description of it is extremely evocative; the sand could almost be considered its own character. It is beautiful, powerful, uncaring, and dangerous. Frankly, after reading The Woman in the Dunes, I'm somewhat terrified of sand. Jumpei's relationship with it begins with admiration, crosses through fear and hatred, eventually evolving into something akin to dependency. It wears him down not only physically, but mentally as well. The sand becomes central to his though processes and is the most important thing in his life. The results of this are chilling and is what made The Woman in the Dunes such an effective novel for me.
Experiments in Manga
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first English translation of the novel The Woman in the Dunes, which included line illustrations by the artist Machi Abe (who also happens to be Kōbō Abe's wife), was published in 1964 by Knopf. The paperback published by Vintage International (an imprint of Knopf), the edition currently in print, was first released in 1991. E. Dale Saunders has served as the translator for several of Abe's works, including The Woman in the Dunes. Although I was aware of both the film and the novel, I hadn't watched or read either of them until the novel was selected for the June 2011 Japanese Literature Book Group. In fact, I hadn't previously read any of Abe's works, so was happy to have an excuse to change that.One August, Jumpei Niki, schoolteacher and amateur entomologist, disappears. None of his colleagues know exactly where he went to collect his beetles, but he was expected to return. Jumpei's desire as an insect collector was to discover a new species or variant, a goal that brought him to a secluded village nestled among the sand dunes along the coast. The village and its people seem a little strange, but he doesn't realize the trouble he's in until it's too late. He asks to stay the night and is brought to a widow's household that is nearly swallowed by the sand. Jumpei readily climbs down into the pit, grateful for the villages courtesy, only to find that the ladder has been removed when he tries to leave in the morning. He has three choices: join the widow and dig sand for the rest of his life to survive, try to escape, which no one has been able to do, or die.
It would be fairly easy if not obvious to read The Woman in the Dunes symbolically or as a metaphor. However, since I wasn't feeling particularly clever while reading The Woman in the Dunes, I approached the novel more literally. Even doing so, I still found the story to be quite compelling. Admittedly, it is also very strange. But it is fascinating to watch Jumpei deal with the odd situation he finds himself in and slowly change because of it. While some of his circumstances are hardly believable, the setting that Abe has created is presented very realistically. Life in the village, while not completely explained to either the reader or Jumpei, seems to have been thoroughly thought through. In some ways, I found The Woman in the Dunes to be vaguely reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" as both works are about societies with deeply entrenched and somewhat menacing traditions.
What left the biggest impression on me from The Woman in the Dunes was the sand itself. Abe's portrayal and description of it is extremely evocative; the sand could almost be considered its own character. It is beautiful, powerful, uncaring, and dangerous. Frankly, after reading The Woman in the Dunes, I'm somewhat terrified of sand. Jumpei's relationship with it begins with admiration, crosses through fear and hatred, eventually evolving into something akin to dependency. It wears him down not only physically, but mentally as well. The sand becomes central to his though processes and is the most important thing in his life. The results of this are chilling and is what made The Woman in the Dunes such an effective novel for me.
Experiments in Manga
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LibraryThing member PghDragonMan
Reading like a lyrical dream, this is like nothing else I've read, although in many ways, it is similar to some of Kafka's short stories. On the surface, the story centers around a Japanese entomologist walking along the beach when he falls in with a woman living in a pit in the sand dunes. While
Avoid this book if you want action filled pages and a story clearly laid out for you. If you are a fantasy fan, read this as an Earthbound fantasy and you will enjoy it. This is also a good introduction to oriental fiction for the occidental reader as the images used are fairly universal. If you are a fan of existential literature, this is sure to please.
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the plot sounds trite, there are many rich images here to keep you reading. If you read this at another level, there are allegorical stories waiting to be mined. The book is entertaining on all levels.Avoid this book if you want action filled pages and a story clearly laid out for you. If you are a fantasy fan, read this as an Earthbound fantasy and you will enjoy it. This is also a good introduction to oriental fiction for the occidental reader as the images used are fairly universal. If you are a fan of existential literature, this is sure to please.
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LibraryThing member freddlerabbit
I originally picked up this book expecting a rather standard magical-realism novel, with complex characters and meditations on the environment. What I found was something entirely different - and something I enjoyed despite myself.
This book is presented as either a recount of what happened to Niki
The woman's life is occupied in shoveling sand to prevent it from crushing her home and herself - the rest of the scattered village shares this focus. It's not clear why Junpei was captured, but the woman at time intimates, and he at times infers, that it's because she is lonely or that the villagers wanted her to have male company. He makes multiple attempts to resist and escape, but is sucked back in not only by the physical sand itself and the villagers' frightening insistence that he stay, but also by his own fascination with the sand and its properties. At first, he cannot believe what the woman says about the sand is true - but then, he comes to do so, and to deepen his understanding of the sand's weird nature.
The Vintage 1991 edition of this book is scattered throughout with simple, wavy line drawings that remind one a bit of sketches of insects - appropriately enough - and heighten some of the unreality of the situation being described.
The following review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.
The characters are not deep - this is a story about the fantastical structure, a metaphor for struggles and self-deception and self-imposed boundaries. (At the end, Junpei could have made an escape - and decides to turn back). Junpei's thoughts are recursive, obsessive, dwelling on the sand, the woman, and his situation - they are real in their structure, and somewhat artificial in their content. I personally am not a huge fan, generally, of structure-stories - but this one held my attention, and I was pleased to come through it to the end.
If you like absurdity or strangeness, or if you like to read books that cause you to re-examine human heuristics and mental quirks, this book should treat you well. It's not necessarily a great book for those who love books for the characters, or even for those who love complex plots - the outlines of this book are simple, it is the way Abe deals with the situation and torments his characters that make the book compelling, rather than intricate details.
This book is presented as either a recount of what happened to Niki
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Junpei following his disappearance - or an imagination that uses that disappearance as a springboard. From the context of the story, I am not sure which it is meant to be. Junpei, a schoolteacher whose hobby is the study of bugs, takes a trip to a rather lonely and poor beach in the hopes of finding a new species he might name after himself. Then, in a move reminiscent of Kafka, Italo Calvino or even potentially Haruki Murakami, he finds himself captive in a decrepit shack at the bottom of a sucking pit of sand, in the company of a lonely and strange woman.The woman's life is occupied in shoveling sand to prevent it from crushing her home and herself - the rest of the scattered village shares this focus. It's not clear why Junpei was captured, but the woman at time intimates, and he at times infers, that it's because she is lonely or that the villagers wanted her to have male company. He makes multiple attempts to resist and escape, but is sucked back in not only by the physical sand itself and the villagers' frightening insistence that he stay, but also by his own fascination with the sand and its properties. At first, he cannot believe what the woman says about the sand is true - but then, he comes to do so, and to deepen his understanding of the sand's weird nature.
The Vintage 1991 edition of this book is scattered throughout with simple, wavy line drawings that remind one a bit of sketches of insects - appropriately enough - and heighten some of the unreality of the situation being described.
The following review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.
The characters are not deep - this is a story about the fantastical structure, a metaphor for struggles and self-deception and self-imposed boundaries. (At the end, Junpei could have made an escape - and decides to turn back). Junpei's thoughts are recursive, obsessive, dwelling on the sand, the woman, and his situation - they are real in their structure, and somewhat artificial in their content. I personally am not a huge fan, generally, of structure-stories - but this one held my attention, and I was pleased to come through it to the end.
If you like absurdity or strangeness, or if you like to read books that cause you to re-examine human heuristics and mental quirks, this book should treat you well. It's not necessarily a great book for those who love books for the characters, or even for those who love complex plots - the outlines of this book are simple, it is the way Abe deals with the situation and torments his characters that make the book compelling, rather than intricate details.
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LibraryThing member thiagop
This book tell the story of an enthomologist that, in his search for a specific beetle, ends up trapped by local villagers in a huge sand hole with a woman, where he is forced to work gathering sand. As time pass by, his emotions and sanity begin to get twisted. In his struggle to scape both human
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and nature obstacles, he tries different strategies, and we are caught cheering for his success, but kind of knowing that his chances are minimal, which is a good "distressing" experience. Show Less
LibraryThing member mr._sammy
I really enjoyed reading this. Take a hostage, houses inside of holes of sand, a little love, some insight, mix them together in a pot of surrealism and you have this story. A fun, thoughtful read.
LibraryThing member technodiabla
I loved this book! This is truly timeless, global, layered story that everyone should read. A man is trapped in a sand pit by villagers while he is out hunting for insects in the dunes. He is forced to shovel sand out day after day, as he plots to escape and forms an odd relationship with the woman
The real appeal of this novel is in the existentialist allegory. It's life, as perceived by most humans at the various stages of maturity. Anger, selfishness, rebellion. Then, reason, planning, strategic alliances. Lastly, acceptance, contentment, humanity. At the end, as he is close to achieving his purported goal, he chooses to delay. To delay death perhaps? Is the message here that life is the journey and not the destination? Is freedom all we imagine, or do we all harbor a hidden need to be enslaved?
I would love to spend some time with this book again-- perhaps with a class-- and study it closely. There is much to appreciate-- from the sand and insect imagery, to the enigmatic woman, to the man's psychological states. I can't take it all in with one read.
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who shares the pit. The role of the woman is intriguing. She is a sex object, his rational conscience, an imagined foe, an eventual partner/friend-- and at the same time, very one dimensional. The sand, the insects even, are more developed as characters than the woman is. The real appeal of this novel is in the existentialist allegory. It's life, as perceived by most humans at the various stages of maturity. Anger, selfishness, rebellion. Then, reason, planning, strategic alliances. Lastly, acceptance, contentment, humanity. At the end, as he is close to achieving his purported goal, he chooses to delay. To delay death perhaps? Is the message here that life is the journey and not the destination? Is freedom all we imagine, or do we all harbor a hidden need to be enslaved?
I would love to spend some time with this book again-- perhaps with a class-- and study it closely. There is much to appreciate-- from the sand and insect imagery, to the enigmatic woman, to the man's psychological states. I can't take it all in with one read.
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LibraryThing member redkit
The Woman in the Dunes is a gorgeous work by Kobo Abe with vivid description, entrancing story and utterly real characters that one can not help but be intrigued by. It follows the Sisyphus-like struggle of a man trapped against his will and forced to clear the sand day after day from a village
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about to be overcome by the fine particles between stones and clay. The image of the dunes is portrayed with stunning mastery, and it envelops the mind of the reader to such an extent that he can almost feel the sand on his own tongue. Show Less
LibraryThing member ZenMoon
Oh my goodness, anyone who's ever cursed the way sand gets in everything after a day at the beach will appreciate how grotty you'd feel if made to live amidst sand 24/7, as the protagonist of this novel is forced to do. This book totally got under my skin.
I was keen to read this after finding out
The tale that follows is not much more complicated than that but I found it an oddly compulsive read. What Abe achieves is a searing evocation of the claustrophobia of entrapment, a commentary on the repetitious monotony of existence. One is reminded again and again, via a multitude of visceral descriptions, of the relentless encroachment of sand and the effects of this upon the main characters' lives. There is little water to wash in, even less to drink; the environment is dry and barren, and boy do you get a strong sense of this as you travel through the pages. It's a fascinating but often unsettling read. I particularly liked Abe's use of a realist narrative style with which to tell the story; it takes on an interesting effect when used to express a world of fantastical fabrication. In this sense, the book reminds me of Haruki Murakami's work, and even Margaret Atwood's, 'The Handmaid's Tale', in its creation of a realistic locale that is also simultaneously surreal. Sand will never seem the same again :)
I was keen to read this after finding out
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its stature as a Japanese classic; it was published in 1962 to critical acclaim. On the face of it, it's a simple plot - a man ('an insect enthusiast')searching the desert for a rare beetle, stumbles upon a strange and eerie village, populated amidst vast sand dunes, a village whose entire economy and social structures centres around sand. Taking shelter for the night, he proceeds to become imprisoned and forced into servitude along with the woman in the title.The tale that follows is not much more complicated than that but I found it an oddly compulsive read. What Abe achieves is a searing evocation of the claustrophobia of entrapment, a commentary on the repetitious monotony of existence. One is reminded again and again, via a multitude of visceral descriptions, of the relentless encroachment of sand and the effects of this upon the main characters' lives. There is little water to wash in, even less to drink; the environment is dry and barren, and boy do you get a strong sense of this as you travel through the pages. It's a fascinating but often unsettling read. I particularly liked Abe's use of a realist narrative style with which to tell the story; it takes on an interesting effect when used to express a world of fantastical fabrication. In this sense, the book reminds me of Haruki Murakami's work, and even Margaret Atwood's, 'The Handmaid's Tale', in its creation of a realistic locale that is also simultaneously surreal. Sand will never seem the same again :)
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LibraryThing member Praj05
While reading this book my thoughts were constantly racing towards Camus’s ‘The Myth of Sisyphus” "From the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all."
Premises of hope, alienation and irrationality reeking from every printed word induced me into inferring
Junpei an entomologist on a mission to find rarest sand beetles finds himself deceivingly trapped by the villagers in a sand dune to dig up loads of sand in order to sell it to the cities. The sandpit encloses a widow’s house who manipulates Junpei to help her clear the sand or her house may collapse with its graveness.
Influenced on the lines of Sartre’s ‘No Exit’; conveys existence of a “hell hole” that life somehow seems to open when stagnated survival justifies adaptation. It’s only through the darkness of hell does the irony of hope and absurdity thrive the strongest. The sand filled dwelling of enslaved Junpei is a metaphor of the daily anguish of a modern lives depleted in a bedlam and uncertainty of optimism and ludicrousness. Abe speaks about adapting without being adamant on a fixed position to survive the competition.
"Didn't unpleasant competition arise precisely because one tried to cling to a fixed position? If one were to give up a fixed position and abandon oneself to the movement of the sands, competition would soon stop."
The ubiquitous sand emerges to be a disposition in its own transforming from a soundless spectator to a sadistic tormentor with harrowing depths of obscurity and ordeal. Sand with its mass of minute grains is a nasty piece of work corroding every speck of trust propelling it into an abyss of sardonic paranoia.
Primarily Junpei appeared to be a pathetic and more interested ogling at the naked widow rather than trying hard to free himself. But as the novel proceeded one could find him to be a victim of impractical circumstances drowned in confusion and horror. Until he could make sense of the happenings, time had elapsed and made him sympathetic towards the woman and accustomed to infertile survival. Junpei’s return to the sand dune after having a successful escape and garnered sympathy towards the widow and villagers, exhibit signs of the Stockholm syndrome.
Is it then that the barren sand resembles the utilitarian perils that we as individuals strive against everyday and at times when the going gets tough, we resort to detrimental actions or are compassionate to the soulless endurance?
Premises of hope, alienation and irrationality reeking from every printed word induced me into inferring
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Kobo Abe being the Japanese Camus. The protagonist Junpei Niki illustrates traits of Sisyphean persona; pursuing meaningless task of digging buckets of sand from the pit only to see it fill up again.Junpei an entomologist on a mission to find rarest sand beetles finds himself deceivingly trapped by the villagers in a sand dune to dig up loads of sand in order to sell it to the cities. The sandpit encloses a widow’s house who manipulates Junpei to help her clear the sand or her house may collapse with its graveness.
Influenced on the lines of Sartre’s ‘No Exit’; conveys existence of a “hell hole” that life somehow seems to open when stagnated survival justifies adaptation. It’s only through the darkness of hell does the irony of hope and absurdity thrive the strongest. The sand filled dwelling of enslaved Junpei is a metaphor of the daily anguish of a modern lives depleted in a bedlam and uncertainty of optimism and ludicrousness. Abe speaks about adapting without being adamant on a fixed position to survive the competition.
"Didn't unpleasant competition arise precisely because one tried to cling to a fixed position? If one were to give up a fixed position and abandon oneself to the movement of the sands, competition would soon stop."
The ubiquitous sand emerges to be a disposition in its own transforming from a soundless spectator to a sadistic tormentor with harrowing depths of obscurity and ordeal. Sand with its mass of minute grains is a nasty piece of work corroding every speck of trust propelling it into an abyss of sardonic paranoia.
Primarily Junpei appeared to be a pathetic and more interested ogling at the naked widow rather than trying hard to free himself. But as the novel proceeded one could find him to be a victim of impractical circumstances drowned in confusion and horror. Until he could make sense of the happenings, time had elapsed and made him sympathetic towards the woman and accustomed to infertile survival. Junpei’s return to the sand dune after having a successful escape and garnered sympathy towards the widow and villagers, exhibit signs of the Stockholm syndrome.
Is it then that the barren sand resembles the utilitarian perils that we as individuals strive against everyday and at times when the going gets tough, we resort to detrimental actions or are compassionate to the soulless endurance?
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LibraryThing member jms001
"The woman, who had been like a patient dog, began begging with the abruptness of an umbrella turned inside out by a sudden gust of wind."
I don't think I've ever heard of anything being compared to an umbrella being turned inside out by a sudden gust of wind. Or have I?
I began reading this book
"The parts that one usually covered were completely bare, while the face, which anybody would show, was concealed under a towel." The title of the book lends itself to this quote, which is when Niki Jumpei, the main character, sees the woman sleeping within the house of sand. Sand itself plays an important role in the story; it practically acts as a character as well. It symbolizes the passage of time (obviously!) like sand within an hourglass. It continually flows until it reaches the end, only to be flipped over and start the process all over again. And so the presence of the sand only serves to foreshadow what may well have been happening since the beginning, and will continue to the end, for this village. Additionally, the sand could also symbolize the erosion of all values and ethics and even common sense. By the end of the story, the sand seems to have done just that to the character, and maybe even to the reader.
Since the sand plays such an important role in the story, its purpose is entirely up to the reader to figure out. There can be a completely scientific explanation for some of the weird properties of the sand, as given by Niki, if we choose to believe. Or there may be even more behind it than meets the eye. And its this freedom to choose what you want to believe and argue (with sufficient evidence, of course)that makes me like the story so much.
Besides the sand, the only other real character in the book was Niki himself. He seemed rather one dimensional most of the time, mainly because he had only one motivation during the course of the story, and that was to escape from this hole...literally. Of course, Kōbō Abe probably did that on purpose for some existentialist reason, but like I said, I ain't no expert. As for the woman in the dunes herself, I can't really call her a character.
"But this means you exist only for the purpose of clearing away the sand, doesn't it?"
And that, there, sums up this unnamed person. No explanation needed.
And with that, I'll leave with some other quotes I like. (I'd like to also give props to my Kindle, which has allowed me to take notes or highlights anywhere I'd like without needing a pen/pencil, and finding it again easily)
Memorable quote:
"The craving for decorations, medals, tattoos, came only when one dreamed unbelievable dreams."
"Loneliness was an unsatisfied thirst for illusion."
I don't think I've ever heard of anything being compared to an umbrella being turned inside out by a sudden gust of wind. Or have I?
I began reading this book
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with no expectations, other than the fact that a friend of mine had given me this book and said he was sure I would like it. And, in fact, I did. I don't really want to go into the existentialist nature of the material, mainly because I don't know enough of the philosophy or ideas to say anything worthwhile on the topic. So I'll just go ahead and stick to characters and plot and the usual."The parts that one usually covered were completely bare, while the face, which anybody would show, was concealed under a towel." The title of the book lends itself to this quote, which is when Niki Jumpei, the main character, sees the woman sleeping within the house of sand. Sand itself plays an important role in the story; it practically acts as a character as well. It symbolizes the passage of time (obviously!) like sand within an hourglass. It continually flows until it reaches the end, only to be flipped over and start the process all over again. And so the presence of the sand only serves to foreshadow what may well have been happening since the beginning, and will continue to the end, for this village. Additionally, the sand could also symbolize the erosion of all values and ethics and even common sense. By the end of the story, the sand seems to have done just that to the character, and maybe even to the reader.
Since the sand plays such an important role in the story, its purpose is entirely up to the reader to figure out. There can be a completely scientific explanation for some of the weird properties of the sand, as given by Niki, if we choose to believe. Or there may be even more behind it than meets the eye. And its this freedom to choose what you want to believe and argue (with sufficient evidence, of course)that makes me like the story so much.
Besides the sand, the only other real character in the book was Niki himself. He seemed rather one dimensional most of the time, mainly because he had only one motivation during the course of the story, and that was to escape from this hole...literally. Of course, Kōbō Abe probably did that on purpose for some existentialist reason, but like I said, I ain't no expert. As for the woman in the dunes herself, I can't really call her a character.
"But this means you exist only for the purpose of clearing away the sand, doesn't it?"
And that, there, sums up this unnamed person. No explanation needed.
And with that, I'll leave with some other quotes I like. (I'd like to also give props to my Kindle, which has allowed me to take notes or highlights anywhere I'd like without needing a pen/pencil, and finding it again easily)
Memorable quote:
"The craving for decorations, medals, tattoos, came only when one dreamed unbelievable dreams."
"Loneliness was an unsatisfied thirst for illusion."
Show Less
LibraryThing member lilywren
A simple yet surreal story which emits a claustrophic and ominous atmosphere with an overwhelming sense of helplessness and disempowerment pervading throughout. How can it be that a man trapped in a house in a hole in some sand dunes could hold ones attention for 239 pages? How can it feel so
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dreamlike yet realistic at the same time? Abe has a talent of making what could be the mundane and drab into something chilling and emotive. He immediately drew me in. I wasn't always sure about what the protagonist was saying and there are some sentences that had me scratching my head. However, I just let those wash over me and all became clearer. This was my first foray into the world of Kobo Abe but it certainly won't be the last. Show Less
LibraryThing member vernefan
fabulous and very unique story
LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
A shifting, blinding book that wears you down. It finds a away to get in your joints and make you ache. I'd continue with the sand metaphors, but that's really the best way to describe it.
LibraryThing member hemlokgang
For me, this novel is a mix of the "Myth of Sisyphus" and "Waiting For Godot". An entomologist becomes ensnared in a Japanese village in sand dunes. A life of pointless repetitions drive him nearly mad as he plots many escapes. I found myself rooting for him and then wishing he would just accept
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his fate. This is a well-written, profoundly thought provoking existential tale. Not a light, summer beach read by any stretch of the imagination. Show Less
LibraryThing member clfisha
I don't usually like heavily symbolic books but I was too intrigued not to try this existential Japanese classic. The plot is simple: An entomologist travels alone to a remote seaside village and never returns. His is tricked and imprisoned in a house deep in a sand pit and forced endlessly dig
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sand. It is an interesting book, deceptively easy to read so you are entranced from the start and the plot is great fuel for discussion (just read the many reviews!) The atmosphere just exudes from the page, the sand almost becoming the main character, ubiquitous in every scene, framing the story. However there few tiny areas I had trouble with, that jarred me out of the story and bored me (i.e. the discussion of desire, "spiritual rape"). It gets 3 stars as I am not sure yet if I would read it again. Show Less
LibraryThing member missizicks
This is a strange book. The protagonist isn't a pleasant character - dismissive of others, cold, aloof - and yet I found myself on his side. The book is quite dreamlike, with things happening off to the side of where you think you are. A simple trip to look for beetles turns into a living
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nightmare, full of frustration and anger. I didn't like it, but I couldn't stop reading it. It put me in mind of the Terry Gilliam film, Brazil, in its surreal gentle horror. Show Less
LibraryThing member ablueidol
The Kobo Abe novel "Woman in the Dunes is a Japanese novel written in the 1960s and was made into a film in the same period. It traces, in a small book of less then 300 pages, the implications of being alienated and the contradictions of conformity freedom if that conformity has a purpose.
Niki
Junpei is interested in sand bugs so goes to area of sand dunes. When he misses the last bus back, a group of locals suggest he stays the night in their village. They send him down a rope-ladder to a house at the bottom of a sandpit, where a young widow lives alone. She has been tasked along with a handful of other households by the village with preventing the sands from destroying the house (if their houses succumbs to the dunes then the other houses in the village will be threatened).
When Junpei tries to leave the next morning he finds the ladder removed. The villagers inform him that he must help the widow in her endless task of digging sand. Junpei initially tries to escape, upon failing he takes the widow captive, but is forced to release her when the house almost collapses after several days of sand build up outside. At one point he does escape only to be captured and gradually
Junpei eventually becomes the widow's lover but still continues to plot his escape. Through his persistent effort on trapping a crow for messenger, he discovers a way to draw water from the damp sand at night. He thus is able to choose his when he can escape.
At the end of the book Junpei gets his chance to escape, as he discovers what the sand is being used for and that assumption of who bad-good guys are is less clear. He refuses to take it as he now has the power to leave when he chooses and a purposeful if bleak life with a community that depends on him. We at the end of the novel know what the meaning of his official declaration of death that is reported at the beginning of the novel.
The book raised powerful questions on what is our purpose and what we sacrifice if that life is to have any meaning. Its central “character “is the ever changing sand dunes described and struggled with in writing that is evocative, mythical and deeply psychological… the silences, gestures and actions all revealing more in the spaces between. But, and this is important it also suspenseful! Highly recommended.
Niki
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Junpei a teacher trapped in a empty teaching job, a failed relationship and a life mapped up to retirement and death goes a secret 3 day trip- done to wind up his work colleagues. He is an amateur entomologist (bug collector!) which in Japan of the period is an equally conforming hobby. (The imagery of trapping, collecting, recording and pinning is an important an important motif. Junpei is interested in sand bugs so goes to area of sand dunes. When he misses the last bus back, a group of locals suggest he stays the night in their village. They send him down a rope-ladder to a house at the bottom of a sandpit, where a young widow lives alone. She has been tasked along with a handful of other households by the village with preventing the sands from destroying the house (if their houses succumbs to the dunes then the other houses in the village will be threatened).
When Junpei tries to leave the next morning he finds the ladder removed. The villagers inform him that he must help the widow in her endless task of digging sand. Junpei initially tries to escape, upon failing he takes the widow captive, but is forced to release her when the house almost collapses after several days of sand build up outside. At one point he does escape only to be captured and gradually
Junpei eventually becomes the widow's lover but still continues to plot his escape. Through his persistent effort on trapping a crow for messenger, he discovers a way to draw water from the damp sand at night. He thus is able to choose his when he can escape.
At the end of the book Junpei gets his chance to escape, as he discovers what the sand is being used for and that assumption of who bad-good guys are is less clear. He refuses to take it as he now has the power to leave when he chooses and a purposeful if bleak life with a community that depends on him. We at the end of the novel know what the meaning of his official declaration of death that is reported at the beginning of the novel.
The book raised powerful questions on what is our purpose and what we sacrifice if that life is to have any meaning. Its central “character “is the ever changing sand dunes described and struggled with in writing that is evocative, mythical and deeply psychological… the silences, gestures and actions all revealing more in the spaces between. But, and this is important it also suspenseful! Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member anneearney
The Woman in the Dunes seems like the kind of novel better read in a class or with a group than alone. I kept thinking, "if I had time to study this, I could probably find a million parallels, metaphors for life, and miscellaneous meanings. The main character, whom I found unlikable, goes through
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some amazing changes, changes I could relate to, in the face of what is essentially a horrifying imprisonment. I read most of the book in one day. Had I not done so (despite my wish to study it), I may never have finished. The overall tone is bleak and depressing. At its heart, I'd have to say that this is a dystopian novel, making it the second one I've run across this year. My impulse while reading about this world was to turn away, to not learn anymore about it. And this should come as no surprise, but that is not my favorite reaction to have to a book. Show Less
LibraryThing member Zmrzlina
You know from the outset what the ending will be, but the read is still suspenseful. Hoping against all common sense the hapless soul who stumbles into a nightmare will get away.
LibraryThing member emmatamar
A desolate tale of a man who becomes trapped in a sand pit by a desert community.
However, there was no reason to think of the life in the holes and the beauty of the landscape as being opposed to each other. Beautiful scenery need not be sympathetic to man. His own viewpoint in considering the
p 183.
However, there was no reason to think of the life in the holes and the beauty of the landscape as being opposed to each other. Beautiful scenery need not be sympathetic to man. His own viewpoint in considering the
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sand to be a rejection of the stationary state was not madness... a 1/8mm flow... a world where existence was a series of states. The beauty of sand, in other words, belonged to death. p 183.
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LibraryThing member yooperprof
A weird and unsettling updating of the myth of sisyphus, about the sand traps we all find ourselves in. Japanese existentialism with a dash of surrealism thrown in for good measure. Just a little bit tedious - but maybe that's the point.
LibraryThing member RavenousReaders
Junpei, an amateur entomologist, needs some time off. Looking forward to adding some new species to his beetle collection he sets out for a weekend at the seaside. The idyllic weekend he envisions for himself soon turns into a nightmare from which it appears that there is no escape. You’ll never
Reviewed by: Sherrie
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think of sand the same way again!Reviewed by: Sherrie
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Subjects
Awards
Meilleur livre étranger (1967)
Yomiuri Prize for Literature (1962)
Language
Original publication date
1962 (original Japanese)
1964 (English translation)
Physical description
239 p.; 7.2 inches
ISBN
0394718143 / 9780394718149
Local notes
OCLC = 1280