Abé, Kōbō (Vol. 8) - Abe, Kōbō 1924–
Abe, Kōbō 1924–
Abe is currently the Japanese novelist most frequently translated into English. Attention was drawn to his work when it became widely known that the classic film Woman in the Dunes was based on an Abe novel. Since then Abe has written a number of provocative novels and short stories which bear the influence of trends in Western literature and philosophy, particularly existentialism. Abe also has a growing reputation in this country as a science fiction writer. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 65-68.)
With Suna no Onna (The Woman in the Dunes) Abe has written a novel of exceptional force. It is the story of a man obliged by strange circumstances to live with a young woman in a pit of sand. They live in a house at the bottom of the pit, and shovel the sand every day so they will not be buried by it. The atmosphere is intense and nightmarish: the sand falls constantly and everywhere. The two are obliged to...
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