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Jumpei Nik visits a village to collect insects. He finds himself trapped at the bottom of a sand dune along with a woman & a small house. Jumpei has to clean the house at night due to the heat. The local villagers send down the bare essentials to keep them alive, but refuse to help them escape. Abe's novel is often interpreted as an existential story & Abe has frequently been labeled Japan's Kafka.
#ClassicSummer2024 Book 7

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really liked this book about a man who gets enslaved in a sand pit with a woman who we had a lot of thoughts and ideas about at book club. Was the woman another slave or was she in on the scheme to enslave the man? A very thought provoking book and made me think a lot about social tiers and the drudgery of life that we are beaten into accepting until we think there‘s nothing more to life. I recommend this one.

Loving this book, can't put it down. If you like Kobo Abe it's an absolute must read. If you haven't read one of his books i would recommend this one as a good place to get introduced to the very unique author.

The plot is very linear and simple to follow. It‘s filled with as many metaphors as there are references to sand... just kidding that‘s impossible. Sand is everywhere, as are metaphors, maybe metaphors within metaphors, I don‘t know 🤷🏻‍♂️ They seep in like sand seeps under the eaves, which seeps into the room, under the umbrella, onto the food, into the mouth, down to the belly and suddenly you‘re sprawling on the floor in a pool of sand vomit.

Today‘s spotlight is on Kōbō Abe, pen name of Kimifusa Abe! He‘s often been compared to Franz Kafka and Alberto Moravia for his surreal and nightmarish takes on contemporary society. He was born in Tokyo in 1924 and died there in 1993 at 68. His childhood was spent in Manchuria. He was deeply into the arts, and married an artist & fellow playwright. He was expelled from the Japanese Communist Party. #AuthorPotpourri #TheMoreYouKnow

"One day in August a man disappeared"

#firstlinefridays
@ShyBookOwl

This “existential fable” is a disturbing avant-garde exploration of freedom and captivity. It‘s loaded with symbolism, yet the writing is spare and precise. Dreamlike, sometimes nightmarish, and yet compelling because it‘s somehow believable too. Plus, I wanted to know if the insect collector would escape the pit of sand. The characters are mostly unnamed—shades of #Genji and Milkman. Illustrations are by the author‘s wife, Machi Abe. #translation

In many ways—music references, for example—this novel reminds me of Murakami‘s writing. More Kafkaesque than Kafka on the Shore, actually.

His fatigue spread out into a sluggish circle, like India ink dropped in water—it was a jellyfish, a scent bag, a diagram of an atomic nucleus. Some night bird had found a field mouse & was calling to its mate with a weird cry. An uneasy dog bayed deeply. High in the night sky there was a continuous, discordant sound of wind blowing at a different velocity. And on the ground the wind was a knife continually shaving off thin layers of sand.

Sexual desire, with a history of some hundred million years from the amoeba on up, is fortunately not easily worn out.

In the old days you used to find a beauty spot and then have your postcards made. But now, it‘s common sense to have the cards made first… and afterwards think up a beautiful place. I have brought along two or three samples, if you‘d care to look them over.

Sex, of its nature, was not defined by a single, individual body but by the species. An individual, finished with his squalid act, must return at once to his former self. Only the happy ones return to contentment. Those who were sad return to despair. Those who were dying return to their deathbeds. How could he possibly be convinced that such trickery was passionate love?

It goes on, terrifyingly repetitive. One could not do without repetition in life, like the beating of the heart, but it was also true that the beating of the heart was not all there was to life.

You can‘t really judge a mosaic if you don‘t look at it from a distance. If you really get close to it you get lost in detail. You get away from one detail only to get caught in another. Perhaps what he had been seeing up until now was not the sand but grains of sand.

She blames me for being too argumentative. But I‘m not the one who‘s argumentative. It‘s just the truth.

…when you courted a girl, you always began, it seemed, with lectures on nutrition and taste… that is, before you got around to sex.

(Photo: donuts for White Day—March 14—in Japan; which is related to Valentines Day. Men buy gifts for women on White Day; it‘s the reverse on Valentines Day.)

If there was no scenery to look at, of course it was only natural to want to see pictures of scenery at least. He had read in various books how landscape painting had developed in naturally spare country and how newspapers had come out of industrial areas where human relations were anonymous.

Excellent novel about the trappings of life. I saw the film first, then pursued the novel. Kōbō Abe is brillIant.

#tbr what I own already. Tbh I have way more tbr than what's on my list and is rather on my shelves. I've a habit of squirreling away books for the future. #usedbookaddiction

#sundaysurvey @alisonrose

1. The Woman in the Dunes (only one that came to mind)
2. Both; depends on the book
3. Rooster
4. Yay!!!

Have not read it, but this seems a strange novel, about a man imprisoned in a pit of sand, after he accepted the villagers‘ hospitality to stay overnight in their village. The book was adapted for a Cannes festival award-winning film in 1964.
#getmovin #sandstorm

Congrats @Cathythoughts on the 30k milestone - I've definitely benefited from your Litfluence (without which, The Idiot would likely still be on my shelf, unread).
As for #onewordonebook , I'll go with 'dry' (in more ways than one 😴 🏜️).

Started out intriguing and I was prepared for a strange, dreamy, surreal story. It was all of those things but I didn't find the world portrayed very interesting once the main character is trapped (most of the novel). I was bored, and the implied absurdist message about society seemed labored. I've also never seen so many similes per page, flung carelessly like a child's scattered toys, like coins dropped from a purse...(you get the idea 😋).

Haunting, weird, and wonderful. Loved this story about a man taken hostage by a woman living in an underground home made out of sand. Eerie magical realism element that‘s impossible to hate. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Very excited to sign up for my first non-photo reading challenge courtesy of @GatheringBooks for 2018, taking a Literary Voyage Around the World as a Literary Hitchhiker (25-40 countries). This challenge is exactly what I need- really want to broaden my reading horizons, but it's one that can be adapted for a slower reader like myself. Already started on my list- looking forward to the trip! 📖 🌍🛩 #LitWorld2018GB

A man is trapped among sand dunes in a nightmarish situation. So much symbolism, it completely overpowered the (rather repugnant) plot. Not my cup of tea.

Image: still from the film of the book.

This was too nightmarish for me, with the protagonist trapped in a woman's house at the bottom of a sand dune. There is a Kafkan injustice in the sense that the whole village has conspired to keep him prisoner. It is interesting & poetic, with descriptions of thirst & being trapped by sand all too vivid. I admired it but could not enjoy!

A man is held captive in a woman's house to help dig out the sand dunes that the house is buried in. I'm not enjoying the nightmarish quality of this and the amount of sand (in his food, hair, clothes). But the writing is very good...

The windy impossibility of reading The Woman in the Dunes at the beach...

Decided to start the year with a book that I've been trying to read the year before but then the exam session kicked in so I had to drop it. It's terrifying so far, claustrophobic. I'm in love with the illustrations scattered through it though.

A disquieting tale of an amateur entomologist who journeys to a remote seaside village to search for insects. He disappears, without a trace and seven years later is declared legally dead. But he is alive and has been taken prisoner by the desperate villagers, who need him to help save their small village.

selection of #diversereads from my shelf. #booktober day 8