The Woman in the Dunes

from ZenMoon

Oh my goodness, anyone who's ever cursed the way sand gets in everything after a day at the beach will appreciate how grotty you'd feel if made to live amidst sand 24/7, as the protagonist of this novel is forced to do. This book totally got under my skin.I was keen to read this after finding out...

from hemlokgang

For me, this novel is a mix of the "Myth of Sisyphus" and "Waiting For Godot". An entomologist becomes ensnared in a Japanese village in sand dunes. A life of pointless repetitions drive him nearly mad as he plots many escapes. I found myself rooting for him and then wishing he would just accept ...

from

I first read this title in 1971, when I was an undergraduate (I first viewed Teshigahara's film about the same time). I remembered large portions of the book pretty clearly -- the entomology, that village in the dunes, the ever present sand, his anger at being held captive, his attempts at escape...

from technodiabla

I loved this book! This is truly timeless, global, layered story that everyone should read. A man is trapped in a sand pit by villagers while he is out hunting for insects in the dunes. He is forced to shovel sand out day after day, as he plots to escape and forms an odd relationship with the wom...

from deebee1

Profound, bizarre, nightmarish, exquisite, beautiful, a powerful existential allegory of the human condition. Considered one of the finest Japanese novels of the post-war period, this is a short and spare novel about a man who is an amateur entomologist in search of a rare beetle which lives in t...