Published: 1962 (submitted to Yomiuri Prize)
Setting: An unnamed coastal fishing village
Summary: This Yomiuri Prize winning novel begins and ends in a dream like sandscape, a place where sand accumulates like time and swallows the visitor whole. Jumpei, an entomologist looking for the next new insect to classify, stumbles upon a desolate village with a dark secret. Some of the village's inhabitants carry on a Sisyphean task of shoveling sand by night in order to keep the sand from swallowing the town whole. The catch is that those who shovel sand live half-buried under the sand in dilapidated huts. Jumpei is tricked into servitude by an alluring and mysterious woman, and her handlers, who repel Jumpei into the pit along with the woman. While in the pit he descends into existential madness, at once rejecting and accepting his fate. The sexual tension between Jumpei and the woman is less carnal, and more escapist, as Jumpei realizes that the woman is both the key, and the answer to his existential questions. Jumpei must choose whether accepting the sands of time, as opposed to digging out of them, is the best path forward. Initially, Jumpei executes an escape plan, only to be corralled back into the pit due to exhaustion. By the end of the novel, the woman leaves the pit to receive medical attention, and their captors leave a rope down for Jumpei. Instead of escaping unencumbered through the front door, Jumpei decides he will wait for the woman and live out his metaphorical life sentence in the pit.
Quotes of the book: "And so everybody, knowing the meaninglessness of existence, sets the center of his compass at his own home" (94).
This quote encapsulates Abe's place in the lineage of authors such as Camus and Kafka.
Favorite Character: The woman, while Jumpei is not someone I can relate to so easily, the woman's steadfast demeanor and work ethic show that she doesn't have to be headstrong to have a strong sense of self and where one lies in the universe.
Favorite Setting: The village, Abe's vivid descriptions of a desolate landscape make one want to visit, but not for too long.
Favorite reference: This post-war novel most likely sparked, or at least added to, discussions of Japanese daily life amid the influence of the American Occupation.
Please stay for: The woman, existentialism
Please Question: The confused sexual urges of Jumpei which were under explored, leaving readers feeling uneasy about the relationship between him and the woman. The woman consents to having sex, but Jumpei goes on a diatribe about "spiritual rape" which was seemingly thought-provoking, but ultimately muddled.
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