The Woman in the Dunes

"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

Amazon.com Review
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.

---

All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Scary, but somehow comforting., 2008-08-01
The sand pit in Kobo Abe's The Woman In The Dunes is a completely artificial construct, but it never feels that way. In reality, sand doesn't behave the way described in the book. When the director Hiroshi Teshigahara made the film adaptation ("Woman In The Dunes," recently reissued by Criterion, and worth seeing), he had a hard time even creating the sets. But, the film makes the setting seem real through visual trickery, and the book does something similar. To make the reader believe in the setting, Abe describes countless minute details and qualities of sand. For all I know, he could have made them up just like he made up the sand pit, but his pedantic, academic tone makes it sound like he carefully researched the issue. Unless you're an expert on sand, it probably won't occur to you to question his setting.

Even aside from the discourse on sand, Abe goes to great lengths to make the story seem lifelike. He extensively describes the texture of sand, dirt, water and wood, and he goes into full physiological detail when describing Jumpei's thirst and exhaustion. Even Teshigahara's faithful visual recreation doesn't quite convey the immense tactile detail of the book.

Because of this, The Woman In The Dunes occupies a peculiar place in literature. It is a photo-realistic account of fundamentally unreal events, a philosophical novel that distrusts philosophy and emphasizes routine and physiology. You can read it as some kind of modernist allegory, critics like to compare it to the Sisyphus myth. But it's that rare modernist allegory that actually clarifies the underlying issues, instead of obfuscating them. The sand pit might be artificial, but the heart of the story is real, and leads to profound conclusions.

Jumpei's life with the woman is the essence of marriage: co-existence. There is nothing in their relationship other than the habit that comes from living together. Certainly there is no romantic subtext at all. They have no "common interests" (whatever that would mean in that setting) and cannot hold a conversation. Even the physical aspect of their relationship is like a routine, there's not even much lust in it: "the woman laughed reluctantly, but it was probably just to be agreeable...[she] was surely thinking that his actions were sexual advances" (235).

The most striking aspect of the dialogue is the way the woman ignores Jumpei or changes the subject every time he makes one of his intellectual speeches. She's a unique character in Abe's work, in that she doesn't speak in monologues. Jumpei is given to long speeches occasionally, but the woman's reaction is always uncomprehending. It's a perfect dramatic counterpoint, but even more importantly, it completely pulls the rug out from underneath the philosophical digressions. Abe's later work isn't like that at all, he usually has all of his characters make speeches. But here, the woman's reaction suggests that these speeches are meaningless.

Crucially, the book doesn't invite the reader to criticize or look down upon this kind of relationship. On the contrary, Abe's greatest achievement is to show how it can somehow become comforting and appealing, even in such a squalid and nightmarish situation. Jumpei's introspective philosophizing feels like dead weight that is slowly cleared away over the course of the book. In comparison, his relationship with the woman is the epitome of honesty. She needs him just because he's there; somehow, that carries more certainty than if she loved him.

The Woman In The Dunes is maybe the only "existential" novel that contends that dull anonymous routine, instead of stifling the individual, is actually the most reliable source of contentment. This simple conclusion emerges naturally and very convincingly from the story. In flashbacks, it is revealed that Jumpei had a more conventional relationship with "the other woman" before he came to the sand pit. But in the sand pit, when he recalls his old conversations with that woman, they sound tedious and pointless. And, when the woman in the dunes wishes for a radio, although it really is pointless, it kind of makes sense -- better to have a way to rest and pass the time than to engage in endless self-important debates about the meaning of existence. The ending is terrifying, but also kind of oddly comforting. The words "thought-provoking" are overused in describing books, but here one can't help but wonder.

Once you read The Woman In The Dunes, you'll probably become curious about Abe's other books. Unfortunately, he never wrote anything this good again. His best novel aside from this one is The Ruined Map. Not coincidentally, it's similar to The Woman In The Dunes in some ways, and has a similarly sympathetic female lead. The other novels are superfluous and very similar to one another. Perhaps a man can only write something like this once. After that, what else would there be left to say?


2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Existential Angst Etched in Sand......, 2008-05-23


Niki Jumpei Leaves the city for an adventure and to pursue his hobby of collecting rare insects near the ocean sand dunes.
He never returns.
Jumpei is engulfed in a captive nightmare from which he plots his escape from a place where no-one has ever yet escaped.

The setting is Japan where conformity is perhaps the ultimate value in Japanese society and the individual is expected to work toward the good of the group.

Although suffocatingly bizarre, the writing is amazingly lucid and communicates the despair, frustration, angst and finally the ultimate defeat (or acceptance?) amid the "sands" of the life of the male protagonist, Niki Jumpi and the unamed female.

A dark and depressing existential tale of alienation sprinkled with a little humor; at times with a mean spirited cruelty toward the woman. The woman does not complain or fight against fate. She works hard to conform to what is expected of her and keeps her moral compass in the depths of despair.
I am still trying to make sense of the message in this novel...... The Metaphor is encased in so much grit and darkness. As far as being a highly enjoyable read, I struggled through much of this book. The first part was good, then the middle droned on and was difficult to keep reading. The twists at the end were complex and unsettling.

Darkly disturbing; it reduced the man to a caged animal in his actions with little or no regard for others.
The man treats the woman roughly and she never attains the basic respect of having a given name. She was the only character I could feel any sympathy for as she displayed virtuous characteristics and worked without complaint.

Swirling sticky sands of survival that get under the skin and irritate.... without applying the needed balm.



0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Grains of Sand Bash my Brain, 2008-02-17
Why did I read this? Yeah Yeah Yeah Grains of Sand. Bla Bla Bla. I gave it three stars only to be fair, because as a person who finds Kafka tiresome, I shouldn't have attempted a bad imitation. I guess I am just not deep enough for this sort of thing. If you are NOT a person who revels in existentialism don't torture yourself like I did. I had to struggle not to skim. I only kept reading because I wanted to like it. I mean, look at all the intelligent praising reviews. If I didn't find meaning in this book wouldn't I be a dullard? Half-way through I didn't care. So I am a shallow reader of Iris Murdoch and Saul Bellow. They aren't so bad. I read this novel in preparation for the movie. Now I think I won't watch the movie. I am grateful that, at least the novel was short and screeched to a predictable halt. To the reviewers who loved the book: You are wonderful writers. I enjoyed your reviews much more than the book.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Images cascaded in my mind, 2008-01-19
The Kobo Abe novel "Woman in the Dunes is a Japanese novel written in the 1960s and made in the same person. 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 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!


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

The World Takes a Psychological Shape, 2007-12-16
Many of Abe's novels are narratively disorienting and confusing to read. I often find elements in his other works (The Box Man, The Ruined Map) that grab me, but otherwise I'm often left somewhat dissapointed. Not so for The Woman in The Dunes. In my opinion this is Abe's best novel.

In terms of its narrative structure, the novel is inescapable. It's difficult to put down, and the ambiguous, hazy, and indefinite suspense that characterizes his other works takes a very clear and satisfying shape here. The story is tangible, richly described, and beautifully written. What I love about this book is that it acheives that perfect balance point where the world and events of the story have profound symbolic value, and yet are not in any way a slave to that symbolic value. Symbolism can be cliche or cheesy when it's telegraphed by the narrative, but Abe is way ahead of that in his playfulness. One thing Abe is not is cliche; he's a master, and he follows the gut impulse of the story.

Abe has been compared to Kafka by many critics and fans. This is probably right. But remember Abe is Japanese, and he brings a Japanese sensibility to his work. The elegant combination of minimal description, the use of natural elements as material and metaphor, and the mix of tragedy with absurdity and humour, all situate Abe within a rich Japanese literary and artistic tradition.

This is a great book. You should read it.

Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.