Throwback Thursday (13)

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books.

It’s the nature of book blogging to focus mainly on new releases, but there are thousands of great books out there that haven’t seen the “New Releases” shelf in years. We hope to be able to bring attention to some older titles that may not be at the top of the current bestseller list, but still deserve a spot in your To-Be-Read pile.

You don’t have to be a book blogger to participate! You can put up a Throwback Thursday post on your non-bookish blog; or if you don’t have a blog at all, just use the comments to tell us about a book you remember fondly.

Here’s how it works:
1. Pick any book released more than 5 years ago. Adult, YA, Children’s; doesn’t matter. Any great book will do.
2. Write up a short summary of the book (include the title, author, and cover art) and an explanation of why you love it. Make sure to link back to The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books in your post.
3. Link up your post at The Housework Can Wait or Never Too Fond of Books.
4. Visit as many blogs as you can, reminisce about books you loved, and discover some “new” books for your TBR list!

Title: The Woman in the Dunes

Author: Kobo Abe

Original Publication Date: April 16, 1991

Available at: Amazon – Kindle – Barnes and Noble

From Goodreads:

One of the premier Japanese novels of the twentieth century, The Women in the Dunes combines the essence of myth, suspense, and the existential novel. In a remote seaside village, Niki Jumpei, a teacher and amateur entomologist, is held captive with a young woman at the bottom of a vast sand pit where, Sisyphus-like, they are pressed into shoveling off the ever-advancing sand dunes that threaten the village.

The Woman in the Dunes is an evocative novel about Niki Jumpei who gets trapped in a sand pit with a young woman. They have an endless job of shoveling sand to survive. Jumpei has several plans to escape the sand dunes but they never come to fruition. The sand wears down his soul and in the end it wears down his plans to escape.

This novel had a huge impact on how I thought about change and resolve in the face of adversity. Just how much could I stand in the face of an extreme challenge such as what Jumpei faced? We all face challenges in our way. How do we face them?

Kobo Abe did a masterful job of addressing these questions although he did so in a rather dark fashion. This will always be one of my favorite books and will also always be on my reread list.

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