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The Woman in the Dunes (Vintage International) by [Kobo Abe]

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The Woman in the Dunes (Vintage International) Kindle Edition

by Kobo Abe (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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The Woman in the Dunes, by celebrated writer and thinker Kobo Abe, combines the essence of myth, suspense and the existential novel.

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.

Print length

224 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

Dec 14 2011
File size

3873 KB
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Product description

From Amazon

This beautiful novel by one of Japan's most important writers is also one of the most strangely terrifying and memorable books you'll ever read. The Woman in the Dunes is the story of an amateur entomologist who wanders alone into a remote seaside village in pursuit of a rare beetle he wants to add to his collection. But the townspeople take him prisoner. They lower him into the sand-pit home of a young widow, a pariah in the poor community, who the villagers have condemned to a life of shoveling back the ever-encroaching dunes that threaten to bury the town. An amazing book. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Inside Flap

One of the premier Japanese novels of the twentieth century, The Women in the Dunes combines the essence of myth, suspense, and the existential novel. In a remote seaside village, Niki Jumpei, a teacher and amateur entomologist, is held captive with a young woman at the bottom of a vast sand pit where, Sisyphus-like, they are pressed into shoveling off the ever-advancing sand dunes that threaten the village. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Back Cover

"Abe follows with meticulous precision his hero's constantly shifting physical, emotional and psychological states. He also presents...everyday existence in a sand pit with such compelling realism that these passages serve both to heighten the credibility of the bizarre plot and subtly increase the interior tensions of the novel."

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Some of Kobo Abe's readers will recall Kafka's manipulation of a nightmarish tyranny of the unknown, others Beckett's selection of sites like the sand pit...as a symbol of the undignified human predicament." -- Saturday Review --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

“Devious, addictive. . . . Never less than compulsive. . . . Abe is an accomplished stylist.”
—David Mitchell

“Abe follows with meticulous precision his hero's constantly shifting physical, emotional and psychological states.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“As is true of Poe and Kafka . . . Abe creates on the page an unexpected impulsion. One continues reading, on and on.”
—The New Yorker --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

Kobo Abe was born in Tokyo in 1924 and grew up in Mukden, Manchuria, during World War II. In 1948 he received a medical degree from Tokyo Imperial University, but he never practiced medicine. Considered one of Japan’s foremost novelists, his most famous works include The Face of Another (1964), The Box Man (1973), Secret Rendezvous (1977), and The Ark Sakura (1984). All of Abe’s books have been bestsellers in Japan and he was the recipient of numerous literary awards and prizes, including the Yomiuri Prize for The Woman in the Dunes in 1962. He collaborated with director Hiroshi Teshigahara on film adaptations of four of his novels—including The Woman in the Dunes—and was also widely known as a dramatist. He died in 1993. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B006ATJXIA
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reissue edition (Dec 14 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3873 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 224 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #334,365 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2,960 in Psychological Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #9,597 in Literary Fiction eBooks
- #25,609 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
285 ratings

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5 star		71%
4 star		18%
3 star		7%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from Canada

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Amazon Customer

Odd...but thought provoking.

Reviewed in Canada on December 10, 2020

Verified Purchase

This novel seemed tedious and repetitive and then I realized that was the authors intent.
This is not the best novel you will ever read, but you will probably find that you think about it for days.

Helpful

raine

sand

Reviewed in Canada on January 18, 2020

Verified Purchase

You will remember the size of sand for the rest of your life if you read this.

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glen cochrane

Woman in the Dunes

Reviewed in Canada on January 6, 2013

I came to this book with high expectations, as it had been recommended by several people. I wasn't disappointed, and even a bit surprised at the style and lasting impact it has already had. It is a very thoughtful, slow moving book. The premise is easy to explain, but the point, I think goes beyond a simply analogy of flowing sand an the enduring, never ending pointlessness of moving it around. If this were all to the book, I don't think would have such the reputation of impact as it does.

What Abe has found in this story is a balance between introducing an idea, an analogy or metaphor and the openness of what that metaphor can lead to, or what questions it brings up. There's quite a bit of mystery in the book, in the woman, the town, and especially the townspeople. The mystery works because this isn't a character sketch of them, but they represent bigger, generalized forces - they represent the working hands of object that we can never fully understand in our own lives (society, love, human will). As readers, we're taken along on the emotional, psychological ride of the main character as he reacts to these forces, all of which are in constant motion...like sand.

There are a lot of neat ideas in this book. There's a lot of description about sand, as well. There are a few parts that drag, and the sexuality, although a major part of the Abe's point I feel, seems ill-timed or out of place. I think there's a big picture perspective one has to take when taking in this book. Abe is suggesting something with his metaphors, not necessarily an idea I agree with, but nonetheless, he presents it in a way that raises questions and gives us a lot to think about. I think he's found that balance that suggests an idea about humanity and life, but also invites interpretation and debate...surrounding the reader with a perspective on life that warrants consideration, for anyone interested in such questions.

It's also quite an easy read, if approached as so, and a unique book.

One person found this helpful

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Joanna D.

Mysterious, atmospheric and haunting

Reviewed in Canada on April 3, 2004

The Kobo Abe novel "Woman in the Dunes" is a strangely evocative novel that sketches, with devastating accuracy, the feeling of being alienated from society.
Junpei is a typical salaryman in Tokyo, and typically as well, he has a hobby, collecting insects. Lest this sound esoteric, it's not--bug collecting is a hobby as popular as collecting baseball cards is here. In other words, Junpei is "everyman."
However, Junpei seems to be undergoing, subtly, some kind of personal dissolution. He heads for vacation on the coast to pick up more specimens and presumably clear his head so he can go back to work and act as he's expected to act. The reader is left to fill in much of Junpei's state of mind and even Americans, not tuned into Japanese culture, can imagine his struggle.
Somehow, Junpei finds himself trapped, physically trapped in a village that is constantly threatened by extinction under the shifting dunes. Each night, the entire village shovels sand to reclaim their tiny foothold. The village headman lodges Junpei with a widow and he is expected to take up the shovel with the other villagers.
Not to participate is not an option; Junpei at first struggles with his captivity. He goes on strike. Soon, however, like the bugs he once anaesthetized in a jar, he ceases to flutter and becomes a part of the village life--though constantly mindful he is an prisoner.
As in Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" from which Abe clearly is drawing, Junpei becomes more and more distanced from his previous life in Tokyo. Shamefully, secretly, he becomes sexual entangled with the young widow, in a way that seems almost as if he is unaware of the impact this will have on their lives. He is finding a home and a purpose and he's needed. And wanted. Is he still a prisoner, if he needs the village in return?
The metaphor for Japanese society, where utter conformity is the ultimate value, and for the inevitable alienation individuals must feel, is magnificent. Even our own society, which allows for magnitudes more individuality and freedom, is reflected strangely in this masterpiece of a novel.
This book never gets old to me, and seems as timeless as the sands that Abe uses to stand for life's inhuman struggles and how we meet them together. A must-read.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Sam Simmonds

Grains of sand as a metaphor for life

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 29, 2013

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A disturbing allegory by a highly talented author. The text reads like a nightmare but the plot is skilfully arranged to keep the reader riveted to the plight of the protagonist. The constant - and ultimately futile - effort needed to clear the perpetually encroaching sand from the central character's environment is convincingly portrayed as a lifelong struggle against the inevitable. Not an easy read, but one very well worthwhile.

Kate

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2016

Verified Purchase

strange and took a while for me to get into it... interesting and memorable.

C. Jones

A masterpiece

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 25, 2012

Verified Purchase

I saw the opinions on this site about the book and bought it. I remember I watched the film once but it was just a memory.I loved this book, a true beautiful nightmare.

Amazon Customer

Comparables

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 28, 2013

Verified Purchase

I can't get enough of Kobo Abe, following reading the boxman I decided to give this a go. Coincidentaly I watched 'The Cloud Atlas', recently which has many similarities, although this is a much starker version. A book that questions why we do what we do in a kafkaesque manner, 'The Castle', with beautiful similies along the lines of Omar Khayyam.

Some guy

Over priced; Poor quality

Reviewed in India on July 5, 2019

Verified Purchase

I paid Rs 907 for this when the MRP tag at the rear of the book says Rs 799. Returned the product. 🤘 Waste of time and money.
Plus the quality is not good. The print is quite cheap and the cover is coarse paper, the kind you expect from a Rs 50 book.

3 people found this helpful

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The Woman in the Dunes (Vintage International) Kindle Edition

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