(Translated by E. Dale Saunders )
I started on this book, mainly due to the high praise it received from a Sri Lankan author, when I happened to converse with him, regarding his own work, and also literature as a whole. He wondered out aloud, "I wonder what authors are we, when compared to abilities like this ?" - no mean comment, even if a fair portion was taken off for our man's attractive, unassuming nature ( for he is a first rate writer himself). And hence, from happening to converse, the next logical turn was to read this book. And, what about the book you ask ?
“The only way to go beyond work is through work. It is not that work itself is valuable; we surmount work by work. The real value of work lies in the strength of self-denial.”
“Work seemed something fundamental for man, something which enabled him to endure the aimless flight of time.”
Work as a means of surviving, and work, meaningless work at that, like the removal of sand from an endless supply everyday, being blown in, like we see in this novel, suggests a close comparison to Kafka's characters, who find themselves in crowded bureaucracies and all around him engrossed in paperwork, the start and end of which, they have lost track of. Abe has been called Japan's response to Kafka. It is easy to see the influence of Camus, in this endless toil of spading up the sand, and sending it up in buckets every night. The Sisyphean similarities are unmistakable. Given that this book was written in 1962, the influence of Kafka and Camus' Absurdism is quite logical too. To his credit, Abe has added enough substance and plot to his work, for it to stand by itself too. Abe brings in to his narration , the suggestion that accepting a woman as one's partner, is tantamount to admission of one's willingness to forego a degree of freedom - and hence take on mundane daily toil - for the chance of being intimate with her - a valid enough inferred view at the time that this work was written, and still prevalent in many parts of the world. Abe brings this point across with subtlety, and there stands his literary finesse - it brings on an element of "value-addition" (if am to use a contemporary parlance) , and even a sliver of originality, to the otherwise much traversed paths of existentialist fiction.
There is a reference to the song, "one way ticket (to the blues)". I was only aware of Eruption's version of 1979, but upon searching, sure enough the original was by Neil Sedaka, in 1959 - more proof, that Abe kept hi eyes and ears open for influence.
Am thankful for our Sri Lankan author for recommending this book, and giving me another bite at existential fiction. If you're a fan of Kafka, or Camus, don't hesitate to pick up this work!
Rating: ****1/2
First published in Japanese in 1962
First published in English in 1964
It sounds You enjoyed the novel. To me, the sand permeates as the third dominant character of the novel. One rarely reads a novel with lifeless characters and at last the sand motivates the man to have sex with the woman .
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