On a recent trip to Japan, I picked up Kobo Abe's 1962 classic "The Woman in the Dunes" (I like buying books in countries I visit). I've been looking to get into more Japanese literature beyond just whatever I've read from Haruki Murakami, and this book came highly recommended.
It's a pretty short and quick read, but it's one that's stayed on my mind since I finished it. The premise is simple yet compelling – a Japanese entomologist travels to a fishing village on the coast to do some research. Something is off about this place – huge sand dunes have pretty much taken over the entire village. He misses his last bus back into town, and is forced to accept lodging in a small house at the bottom of a huge sand pit, where the titular woman of the story also lives. The next morning, he wakes up to find the ladder he took into the pit to be gone – and the villagers won't let him out.
What follows is a uniquely claustrophobic and stressful narrative that left me feeling pretty damn uncomfortable. I've been mulling over in my head as to the ultimate meaning of this story. To me it seems that it's supposed to symbolize the ways in which events or society or life or whatever else can knock you down into impossible situations from which you feel like there's no escape.
The man and woman seemed to represent two different kinds of people. The woman is the kind of person that accepts their fate and their station in life, and adapts to whatever shitty environment or situation they've been forced to be in, creating narratives in their head to cope with the situation and tell themselves that everything's ok. Whereas the man represents those who fight back and rebel, no matter how futile the gesture may be.
Thematic meaning aside, it's really enjoyable from a purely technical standpoint as well. The way the sand is described to be so incredibly invasive, how it pervades pretty much every single aspect of the physical lives of the man and woman, truly makes you feel unconformable. There never seems to be a moment of peace at first, no instance when the man feels clean or free. I suppose the sand is a metaphor for the mental impact and trauma that feeling hopeless in a situation out of your control can have?
It ends in a truly bleak and downbeat manner, as the man's one attempt at escape is foiled, and he eventually just resigns himself to accept his situation. It made me think about events in my own life that have come to pass, where I've felt hopeless at my inability to control or solve the problem, and eventually just let myself accept it. It hurts at first but overtime you learn to live with it.
Nevertheless, this was a powerful and contemplative story. It's not "fun" by any stretch but still a very worthwhile read.
For those who have read it, how did you feel? What were your interpretations of the story?
by keepfighting90