![]() Its missing person setup, detective protagonist, obsession with mundane detail, and off-kilter world populated by unsettling and sometimes dangerous characters has an intense Lynchian feel to it. So much of what makes this novel surreal applies to David Lynch’s masterpiece.Īnd so, I’ll say this right now: any fan of Twin Peaks would likely adore this novel. The obsessive and overly detailed descriptions of ordinary, unrelated things is loudly reminiscent of Twin Peaks. The story and mystery remain ever intact but the riddle-talking characters, the feeling of running on the spot. The real meat of the story comes from its execution and how Abe, still in his early writing years, is beginning to play with surrealism as a narrative and world-building mechanic.Īs mentioned before, the surrealism is drip-fed through the writing style of the novel. Though that window dressing does make for a far more accessible novel for first-time readers of Kobo Abe’s works. While The Ruined Map does come across as a pulp detective story, this is all just window dressing. Neither are particularly helpful, and it’s from here that our protagonist must descend into more dangerous territory in his search for the missing man. ![]() Her brother is more clear-cut as a character but also more manipulative and playful with the truth. She is unhelpful, offering the detective clues which don’t seem like clues at all. The wife, by our detectives own deductions, is a borderline alcoholic who comes across jumpy, unsure of herself, and pathetically meek. ![]() When asked why, she blames her brother who urged her to be patient. One day, he up and vanished, with his wife waiting six months to hire a PI to track him down. The man was in his thirties and working a desperately dull job (very similar to the protagonist of Secret Rendezvous). Secret Rendezvous is arguably the smartest and strongest of the three, balancing absurdism with genuinely smart Kafkaesque themes it only makes sense that this was the result of Kobo Abe honing his skills as a writer and literary philosopher.Īs for the story, we follow our detective protagonist as he attempts to find this missing husband. Of these three novels, The Ruined Map was the first to be published, followed by The Box Man, which is surrealism unfettered and gloves off. This reserved approach to surrealism perhaps demonstrates how Abe’s writing evolved over time. It’s surrealism but in a subtle, almost invisible kind of way. Namely, the fact that he spends an ungodly amount of time on minor, insignificant descriptions, while character interactions come off as circular and like they are treading water. Though, if this isn’t your first Kobo Abe book, you’ll already be aware of some of his trappings here. The Ruined Mapbegins in a straightforward manner, with a detective – our protagonist – arriving at the home of a woman who has hired him to help her find her missing husband. Dale Saunders’ translation prowess that they were able to translate both The Box Man and The Ruined Map (two novels so distinct from one another in terms of narrative and structure) so wonderfully. Of the three Kobo Abe novels discussed here, The Ruined Mapis the longest, clearest, and most accessible.ĭisguised as a straightforward piece of genre fiction - specifically, a pulp noir detective novel - it steadily allows Kobo Abe’s signature surrealism to seep in through the cracks bit by bit, but never truly overwhelm the reader in the way that The Box Man does.Īt a little over 200 pages long, The Ruined Map is only slightly longer than The Secret Rendezvous, but it probably takes less time to read due to its clearer, more traditional, less absurdist approach to writing. So, if you’re looking to explore the world and writings of the surrealist and Kafkaesque Kobo Abe, these three books offer the perfect place to start. Reading them in publication order is illuminating, and reading them out of order is chaotic in both a fun and a frustrating manner. ![]() However, despite this not being Abe’s complete body of work, they do beautifully represent a clear progression in style and theme for their author. Though all of Abe’s novels take a raw approach to sex, that one is by far the most problematic. His most famous novel – The Woman in the Dunes – is missing from this list, in part because it has a problematic and upsetting approach to writing women and sex. All are surrealist novels, though they differ wildly in the absurdism (with The Ruined Map being the most lucid and The Box Man the most abstract).įair warning: these three novels do not represent all of Abe’s works. What we have here are three Kobo Abe novels, published in succession over ten years (from 1967 to 1977): The Ruined Map, The Box Man, and Secret Rendezvous.Īll are relatively short novels and each one has elements of the Kafkaesque in its DNA.
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