The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe--Review

The back cover of the Vintage edition of Kobo Abe's The Woman in the Dunes calls it "one of the premier Japanese novels of the twentieth century." This may well be true--if an exemplar of mid-20th century literature is, by definition, high postmodern. This is a high postmodern novel; it does that shtick well, and it is limited by that shtick's limitations.

The story concerns a man (whose name is Junpei, but that scarcely matters), who goes on vacation to the seaside and ends up imprisoned in a remote village half-buried by sand dunes, where the residents must spend every night shoveling sand to prevent the destruction of their houses.

There is also a woman (nameless), the owner of the house where he's imprisoned. However, be forewarned that the book's title smacks of marketing ploy. The book is not, in fact, about this "woman in the dunes," neither as subject nor as primary object. The book is about the relationship between the man and the sand (and the various existential questions the sand represents), and the woman is really just one aspect, albeit a significant one, of life amid the sand.

( No particular spoilers )

Banana Fish Gushing

I've been revisiting Banana Fish after having reviewed it for The Geek Girl Project.

sixish and I are currently about halfway through the Japanese stage play of Banana Fish (sadly difficult to obtain outside Japan). It is very good! It differs from the manga a lot in tone, being much broader and spun toward comedy, though it still has its many angsty and tragic moments. But it works! Eiji is a bit of miss for me, but everyone else is quite good. The guy who plays Yut-Lung is one of the best cross dressers I've seen a long time. Sixish and I both initially thought the character was played by a woman.

They really need to make an anime or a good-quality live action movie out of this series. I don't know why they haven't (at least an anime). It has broad appeal to diverse audiences. Surely it could capitalize on '80s nostalgia?