Abe's literary work and style are frequently likened to that of Franz Kafka, an author born in Prague in 1883. Kafka is well-known for his works, such as The Metamorphosis (1915; English translation 1937), where a young man wakes up one morning transformed into a giant insect. This book, like much of Kafka's writings, explores themes of inadequacy and isolation faced by individuals in contemporary society. Another notable work, The Trial (1925; English translation 1937), tells the story of a young man who is accused of a crime he neither committed nor comprehends. Although he is eventually released, he must continually return to court to prove his innocence. Both novels delve into the psychological fears that many people endure in modern life.

Abe is also compared to Alain Robbe-Grillet, an author born in Brest, Brittany, in 1922. Robbe-Grillet's characters, like those in Abe's plays, often lack detailed backgrounds and traditional names. His most renowned novel, Les Gommes (1953; translated as The Erasers, 1964), is a murder mystery that unfolds over a supposed twenty-four-hour timeline, beginning with a gunshot and ending with the bullet killing its target.

Among Abe's well-known plays are Fake Fish (1973), which depicts fish dreaming of being men and vice versa; Friends (1965), where an anonymous, smiling family intrudes into a man's life, driving him to suicide—a critique of traditional Japanese communal values; and Green Stockings (1974), a story about a man who, in an effort to escape his mundane life, steals stockings, panties, and bras from neighbors' clotheslines.

Abe's most acclaimed work of fiction is The Woman in the Dunes (1964). The narrative follows a schoolteacher and amateur entomologist on a quest to find a rare insect. During his search in vast, unnamed sand dunes, he encounters a primitive community tasked with removing sand from their sunken homes. The teacher becomes trapped and held captive there. When he eventually manages to escape, he no longer wishes to return to his previous life.

Jacob Golomb's In Search of Authenticity: Existentialism from Kierkegaard to Camus (Problems of Modern European Thought) (1995) examines the works of existential philosophers and novelists like Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus. These thinkers explored humanity's responsibility in deciding what is right and wrong, a theme that Abe frequently addressed in his writings.