The Woman in the Dunes, by celebrated writer and thinker Kobo Abe, combines the essence of myth, suspense and the existential novel. Throughout time, elements of the legend are repeated - relived. There is a recurring theme of warring brothers, wronged women, children fathered by an absent parent and various complex love interests.

And.. let me just say how much I want to go to Scotland now! The metaphors and visualization in this novel is amazing! The author provides many touches of realism with nightmarish details of the sand invading their bodies, their clothes, their food, their water. The roof and walls of the primitive house can’t keep it out. The description of this book captivated me. My alter ego in college enjoyed archaeological digs, so I’m up for anything with an excavation, multiple timelines, and history. a b Ebert, Roger (February 1, 1998). "Woman in the Dunes (1964)". Chicago Sun Times . Retrieved 19 October 2020.

While the pacing of the story slowly connects the three timelines, it is seamless and easy to follow, and so full of drama, angst, and tension it was hard to put the book aside for any length of time. The vivid Scottish scenery helps to create the rich atmosphere of the novel, combining historical details in with present day analogies.

As dark and brooding as Kafka, but pure, simple, yet beguilingly complex, this novel rewards those who seek to dwell in the liminal spaces between reality and dream. The burden of understanding ourselves is an illustration of perpetual motion. Humanity's protean heart is contained in us all, vaguely buried beneath layers of propriety, comfort and self-denial. If all the world were sand, if it was all we knew, how would our minds conform to the contours of our flat horizon? Would the solitary figures of other minds, blasted smooth and coppery, sink into our anima?a b c Havill, Adrian. "Hadden Clark". Turner Entertainment Networks. Archived from the original on February 2, 2003 . Retrieved April 9, 2014. But, curiously enough, the areas where houses stood were not the slightest bit higher. The road alone rose, while the hamlet itself continued to remain level. No, it was not only the road; the areas between the buildings were rising at the same rate. In a sense, then, the whole village seemed to have become a rising slope with only the buildings left on their original level. This impression became more striking as he went along. At length, all the houses seemed to be sunk into hollows scooped in the sand. The surface of the sand stood higher than the rooftops. The successive rows of houses sank deeper and deeper into the depressions." I think what stood out to me was the romantic angle. Ellen’s portions were clearly a love story, but Libby and Rodri’s were less obvious. Throughout the book, the chemistry and growing attraction between Libby and Rodri are hardly mentioned but the reader will easily see the subtle changes as the story goes on.

a b c d Lopata, James (14 November 2014). "Whitey Bulger, gays, and the Lady Of The Dunes murder mystery". Masslive . Retrieved 12 February 2015. An involving story that spans across time, I really enjoyed this and the way the stories connected. The setting is very atmospheric and characters are well portrayed. Legends, secrets, buried treasure and artefacts, family, romance, murder and betrayals are all part of this story. An amazing amount of research must have been done in the writing of this book and yet it all flows seamlessly without feeling there are information dumps. Anyone who enjoys a historical story with interesting characters and setting should enjoy this one.Teshigahara and Abe, a 2007 documentary examining the collaboration between Teshigahara and novelist Kobo Abe, featuring interviews with film scholars Donald Richie and Tadao Sato, film programmer Richard Peña, set designer Arata Isozaki, producer Noriko Nomura, and screenwriter John Nathan It’s considered a modern existential novel, published in Japanese in 1962 and translated into English in 1964. Kafka’s Metamorphosis comes to mind – will he turn into a sand beetle? The woman who lives there seems to have accepted her fate. When Libby joined the team for the excavation, she had to decide if she would tell what her grandmother had told her and what her great grandmother had kept from the estate. The film was released in the United States by Pathe Contemporary Films with English subtitles on September 17, 1964. [1] The film ran at 127 minutes. [1] The film was also featured in the New York Film Festival on September 16, 1964.