Rating: 
Summary: Dunes and Dont's!
Review: This book was good because of the existentialism. What is life? Where are we? What are we doing? KewlGurl asked herself these qestions many times while reading this. But I didn't like the stuff about the sand. It made me itchy.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating Book
Review: This book will remind you of every useless task you've ever done. It is quintessentially existential. It mirrors the patterns of everyday life that people become trapped in. A must read for high school students, although the subject material is perhaps more appropriate for juniors and seniors rather than freshmen. Jumpei is easily accessible as a character and the book itself is extrordinarily modern. The moral of the story? There are several. The primary one, however, is that you give your life meaning even when it has none, whether it be by collecting insects, or by shoveling sand. Niether one has meaning in and of itself. I was reminded of Kafka's writing on beaurocracy. The true purpose of the task has been so buried, that the workers concentrate on the meaningless details, giving them meaning. All in all a slightly depressing book, but one that gets under your skin like the sand so artfully described.
Rating:
Summary: 1/8 millimeter
Review: This had to be one of the most bizarre pieces of literature I have ever read -- but that's a good thing, really. It's a very claustrophobic work -- the setting is ultimately very very small and limited. I think this was a really cool effect -- it made us feel more "at home" with where the characters were. To think that, according to Abe, sand -- only 1/8 mm in diameter -- can so oppress us... Maybe, he is saying, life is sometimes beyond our control. The themes of living amidst even the worst circumstances are quite apparent, I think, and the sand pit being representative of the mind-numbing simplicity of every day life is a nice pessimistic vision for us all. This book is the story of a man who wants to escape from this mundane existence which he is forced into against his own will, like we all have no choice but, whether we earn an education or not, to work, every day, with little consolation or reward. This is a story of a man who lives out a pure human existence, though in captivity. He works, he eats, he sleeps. Abe's point must be that there is no more to life than this. We should never expect too much from our lives. Like Jumpei does in this novel, we simply have to come to terms with our existence and find something worth devoting our time to -- like his little discovery in the end, which spurs him on in his work. A note: in this translation, we are lead to believe that Niki Jumpei is single and living with a woman. This isn't true. In the Japanese version, Jumpei is married to Niki Shino. The author uses a Japanese pronoun to mean "woman" which is most commonly used by married Japanese men to refer to their wife. This novel is written in a very traditional Japanese manner, believe it or not, so the translator had to take a few liberties, I would assume. Since the story is told in third person, the use of this particular pronoun would confuse any transltor, really. Also, in the "missing person notice" at the end, the claimant is Jumpei's WIFE, not his mother. That final passage is translated word-for-word -- except for some reason the translator felt the need to put the word "mother" in parentheses as an attempt to clarify Niki's family life. I think this might help the reader, because reading the Japanese version, one gets the impression early on that Jumpei left on his little trip partly as a result of a marital conflict.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Abe
Review: This is a masterpiece of existentialist literature. Abe Kobo draws on his most consistent theme : that of a wall, restricting and oppressing the individual consciousness from the infinite realm of alternate possibilities. Although this piece loses a lot of the irony and insight into the anti-hero's feelings in the translation (as any Japanese work must), it still succedes in portraying the difficulties that the modern Japanese, and indeed, the modern man has in coming to terms with his place in the scheme of things. It is an intellectual work, dealing with the transformation of a man's psyche, in Kafkaesque fashion, but it is also a hugely entertaining one, about `an ordinary teacher' forced to come to terms with a reality he would never have chosen for himself. Abe Kobo is one of the best post-war novelists in Japan, with over 100 pieces published and it is a tragedy that more of his works aren't translated into English.
Rating:
Summary: Next time you're walking in the dunes....
Review: This is one of those extraordinary, kafkaesque novels which gets right beneath your skin. On the surface, the story sounds faintly ridiculous. An insect collector goes off to the dunes in search of, well, insects, but ends up caught in a hole in the sand with no way of escape. To add an uncomfortable eroticism to the story he is stuck together with a woman who spends her days moving sand just in order to stop her home in the dunes becoming engulfed by sand. A pointless existence or symbolic of our routinized unthinking lifestyles? What follows shows incredible insight into human psychology. The man's will power, his wish to escape, battles with the temptation to resign himself to his fate and the woman. Whatever I write here I will not be able to give any idea of the agonizing psychological torture of this novel. It will leave you exhausted but amazed. For the brave only! And if you want more of the same, watch the film based on this novel. It is absolutely remarkable, and is one of the classics of Japanese cinema. I have never felt so shattered at the end of a film.
Rating:
Summary: Nasu, nasu, nasu, nasu
Review: This was the first Kobo Abe book that I have read, but it will not be the last. This book is about a school teacher named Jumpei Niki who enjoys collecting insects to escape his mundane life. Junpei is not the most likeable of characters He is cruel, abusive, and seems to think that he is superior to those around him. On a short vacation, he decides to go to the coast to find a certain type of bug in the dunes. He does not find it, however. He is also too late to catch the last bus home, so he stays the night with a woman who lives down in a sand hole. The next morning the rope is gone, and Junpei is stuck with the woman who spends every night shoveling sand. Junpei of course puts up quite a fuss, who wouldn't, but his demands to be released fall on death ears. Junpei does manage to escape once, but is caught and put back into the hole. This nearly crushes his spirit. This is a very interesting book very sparse like the works of Kawabata and it is centered around the one man Junpei, Thw woman is never given a name. The woman, however, is the most interesting character in the book she is a very hard worker, who is very complacent, doing almost whatever Junpei says. However, when Junpei goes against the ways of the dune she mildly speaks her mind, and when he pushes her too far she pummels him. A very nice read. Check it out.
Rating: 
Summary: Hmm...Interesting bit
Review: Though this is not my kind of genre to read, my Japanese high school teacher, Mr. Eastwood suggested that I should read it and write a reflection paper on what I thought. That was nearly two years ago. If my mind serves me correctly, it's about a city man trapped with a woman who lives in the sand dunes. This is certainly unusual, the environment of the story, the characters, the whole lot. Though I find the ending very disturbing, I actually enjoyed the book. Simplicity in Kobe's part was very endearing yet the book is filled with questioning symbolism. I loved it and recommend it most definitely to high school seniors and college students.
Rating:
Summary: Man's fate
Review: When an amateur entomologist is taken by the inhabitants of a small fishermen village for a governemental controller, he is dropped in a dune pit where a widow lives.
Her house is continuously threatened by infiltrating sand and his life is now limited to shovelling sand dust.
More, he is now also confronted directly with a member of the other gender and his sexual instinct. He tries to escape by all means, but ultimately questions his fate: is shovelling sand more absurd than his former life between 'normal' people in 'normal' circumstances? A compelling and penetrating exploration about the meaning of life. A real thriller about an essential existential problem, mingled with the battle of the sexes. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely satisfying to the psyche
Review: When I saw the movie based on this book in 1984, I felt it was the most beautiful movie I'd ever seen. Now, some fifteen years later, I get to read this book and it has become my favorite novel. The characters and their crude reality, treated with such tender detachment, so effectively draws out our affirming empathy. I've not read other Abe's works but this must be his highest masterpiece. (My version of the novel is translated by E. Dale Saunders).
Rating:
Summary: Contemporary existential myth
Review: While the back cover blurb refers the reader to Beckett or Kafka, I find myself thinking more of Sisyphus. The "work" of existence in this novel is digging sand - generally digging sand at the same rate nature blows it in. It is this role of "nature" which leads me to a more mythic view of the book than I would have, for example, for Kafka's work. The strength of the story comes from the tracing the change of values, the psychological evolution in the single, teacher/amateur insect collector - both the changes in himself and the changes in his understanding of the villagers with whom/by whom he is trapped. Only once in the novel did I feel for a page or two that the author was telling us of the psychological changes rather than showing us. For a book of this complexity where the mind-set of the characters is crucial to the novel plot, this is an amazing feat. Well written, thought-provoking, an enjoyable read - what more would I ask for?
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