The Woman in the Dunes

by Kobo Abe | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0679733787 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingAzukiwing of Miami, Florida USA on 3/9/2023
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingAzukiwing from Miami, Florida USA on Thursday, March 9, 2023
In 1955, Jumpei Niki, a schoolteacher from Tokyo, visits a fishing village to collect insects. After missing the last bus, he is led by the villagers, in an act of apparent hospitality, to a house in the dunes that can be reached only by rope ladder. The next morning the ladder is gone and he finds he is condemned to a life of shoveling back the ever-encroaching dunes that threaten to bury the town, along with a woman living in the house.

The novel is intended as a commentary on the claustrophobic and limiting nature of existence, as well as a critique of certain aspects of Japanese social behavior.
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Ok, I know this is an award-winning classic, and it is meant to be rich in metaphor and larger meanings of life and human existence, but I simply could not get myself to like it - the plot, the characters, the writing... I find it boring rather than compelling, tedious rather than intense, and would have DNF'ed it except that it was such a thin book.

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