Customer Reviews

The face of another

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Everyone knows that in Japanese society there's hardly anything worse than losing face. Kobo Abe starts with this cultural taboo and amplifies it to its logically nightmarish extreme as he explores the existential horror experienced by a scientist who literally loses his face in a laboratory accident. Hideously disfigured and shunned even by his former friends and colleagues, the narrator of *The Face of Another* describes in harrowing detail the totality of his isolation from human contact--especially from his conventional, well-meaning wife--and his desperate plan to create for himself a life-like mask that will reopen the `doorway' between him and the community of others.

The novel itself is written as an extended address to the aforementioned wife and meant to be read after he carries out his intention of seducing her as the `stranger' the mask allows him to become. Between the elaborate preparation of the mask and the ill-fated seduction, Abe's narrator travels a zig-zag path between cynicism and self-loathing, psychological breakdown and philosophical speculation as he confronts the elusive nature of human relations and personal identity. His mask gives him a passport to cross the border forbidden the faceless and to re-enter society. Even more, it grants him the radical freedom to be someone else, to be anyone else...to be everyone else. But at what price? If he must wear a mask has he really accomplished anything? Is he really being seen by others or is his `true' self as invisible as before--and just who is he, anyway? How does he choose his mask? Does a mask ultimately reveal or conceal? Which mask will his estranged wife be seduced by? And if she is seduced, has she been unfaithful? Has she betrayed him with himself? As he contemplates these labyrinthine questions, Abe's narrator comes to understand how even people with undamaged faces are also wearing a mask when they're with others. Is the face itself nothing but a mask made of flesh?

This eerie, thought-provoking novel operates on several different levels. But what makes it more than just another Jeckyll & Hyde tale of evil doubles, shadow-selves, and dual identities is the profound philosophical dialectic that Abe engages in throughout. A mystery, thriller, horror novel all in one, *The Face of Another* is a sophisticated meditation on that most enigmatic question of all: who exactly are we?

At times Abe's story drags, at other times his musings are difficult to follow, almost as if some vital connection between his observations had been lost in translation, and, therefore minus one-star, but, the last fifty pages or so are as powerful as anything you're likely to read. For the most part, *The Face of Another* is a riveting and disturbing work that, like Abe's classic *The Woman in the Dunes,* I won't soon--if ever--forget. You probably won't either.

I initially found this novel hard to respect since the central theme of a man and his mask seemed trite and a cliche. However this setup does allow the novel's main character to seduce his wife, posing as a stranger; a strange social situation which was described with much empathy and insight by Abe.

Not one of the truly great novels, no doubt (and there are so few), but outstanding and amazing, nonetheless. Recommended, despite philosophical musings of a gratuitous density and complexity -- at times, quite beyond full comprehension.

It is not surprising that readers, even if they are devout fans of K'b' Abe, don't take to The Face of Another in the same manner as The Woman in the Dunes or some of his other novels. It may be because of the uncomfortable feeling a reader gets being stuck in the narrator's head for an entire novel (much like Camus' The Stranger). The story is built on the premise of a wife finding her husband's notebooks which are filled with solipsistic meanderings, repeated excursuses, counter-arguments directed at her, and endless musings about identity and self. But you can forgive the man ' after all, he's had his face horribly scarred and burned in a laboratory fire. He is isolated and alone, even from his wife. But he has a plan, a carefully schemed revenge, and it starts with getting a new face. Thus, Abe takes us into fascinating exploration of identity and self.

The scientist, who is as scarred psychologically as physically, has it in for his wife. The main charge being that she no longer is sexually attracted to him, in spite of her continued devotion. We find out his plans soon enough ' to construct a new face for himself out of life-like artificial skin. So much of his journal is absorbed in the beginning with this quest for a new face. Like Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein, we follow him step-by-step, the meticulous planning and experimenting until finally we have the entrance of The Mask. The novel then shifts into an identity tug-of-war, The Mask becoming a persona, a separate entity that wrestles with the narrator for control of the same body. And yet, and this is the genius of the book, in spite of the scientist's new found freedom (no longer being forced to go about in bandages like Claude Rains), he struggles to act. There is an impotence, not dissimilar to his inability to provide sexual pleasure to his wife, that afflicts the narrator. So rather than running amok in his new identity, he struggles to even begin his plan. As his wife later states, "All you could manage was to wander through the streets and write long, never-ending confessions, like a snake with its tail in its mouth." This leads to, I think, the frustration of some readers with the book. They often feel as if the novel loses its way during these chapters. But the point, perhaps, is that even with this new entity, The Mask, the narrator is still himself, still struggling inside his own skin. His identity can change, but it doesn't give him the freedom he craves.

The pace picks up in the final third of the book and rewards the steadfast readers who stuck with the story. When the Mask finally puts the scheme into action, things only get worse for the narrator. His struggle to regain himself, absurdly through the actions of the Mask, becomes a folly. In the end, the tables are turned on the scientist. Abe does this cleverly, even turning the narrator into a witness to his own defeat, watching the Mask carry out the scheme that leads to a less-than-desired result. The point Abe leaves us with is that while our faces are an important part of our identity, they are not all.

One note: if you're even intrigued by the story, do check out the excellent adaptation by Hiroshi Teshigahara with Tatsuya Nakadai doing a stellar job as the scientist.

This is a great book! I was amazed by the simple yet poweful language used. It is well worth the investment.

This book begins odd and gets creepy and ends, I believe, scary. At the outset you have a feeling of sympathy for the character, which grows into 1 of 2 things as the book progresses - detached fascination with Abe's character study, or revulsion. Possibly both.

The philosophical musings are there, but what hasn't been mentioned here is the flawed narrator. The musings themselves may be bs, but because our sympathy hasn't been completely destroyed when they begin, we give them the benefit of the doubt. That they become more and more absurd is to give an idea of the heightened sense of fear in the narrator about the impending action. At first we disagree with what he says (early on) but at the same time, due to our involvement, ask 'to what extent could that be true, or to what extent is it in fact true, if we look at it in a slightly different light?'

I personally prefer this to Kangaroo Notebook, which, while outrageous and a fun read, is effective not for its realism, but for its fantasy. This book, on the other hand, produces its effects more believably, because there's really nothing to prevent this exact person from existing.

I feel it is an interesting predecessor to Vanilla Sky based of course on the mask and also on the theme of isolation. It also reminds me of Palahniuk's 'Survivor' through the looking glass - a very opposite character, introverted, but also because of the ending - a very similar truncation that implies...

Engrossing read.

I loved this book and will be giving it for holiday gifts this year. The philosophical musings are incredibly powerful and thought provoking, while the prose is intense and suspenseful. After page 83, I found myself yelling outloud to the narrator whose journal we read as he attempts to deal with the aftermath of an accident that has stolen his face. I dare you to read this book and look at your self and others the same way you did before.

I'm posting this here for readers interested in comparing the film to the book...

Criterion (Collection DVD) has released THE FACE OF ANOTHER (TANIN NO KAO), director/artist Hiroshi Teshigahara's 1966 film version of Kobo Abe's eponymous novel. The film version is a fine complement to the book. Tatsuya Nakadai, perhaps best known to American filmgoer's as the "king" in RAN (1985; Akira Kurosawa's adaptation of Shakespeare's KING LEAR) is the lead, joined by Machiko Kyo as his wife. The film is in (often high-contrast) black & white, which adds to the overall eerieness. The 60s atmosphere is at times amusing yet not distracting enough to smother the serious philosophical and psychological themes. The memorable, sinister "waltz" from the film is available in a compilation CD from the Nonesuch label, "The Film Music of Toru Takemitsu." Film Music of Takemitsu

Criterion's Teshigahara box set features two more of the director's adaptations of Kobe Abe novels: WOMAN IN THE DUNES and PITFALL. Each film features an excellent video essay by James Quandt of Cinematheque Ontario. The 4th DVD in the set features a documentary on the collaboration of T. and Kobo Abe and a few short films by T.

Three Films By Hiroshi Teshigahara (Pitfall / Woman In The Dunes / The Face Of Another) (Criterion Collection)

The same three T./Abe films are also available in Region 2 DVD coding from Eureka/MoC (Masters of Cinema) and are sold on Amazon's British web site. The Eureka version of "FACE" has a full-length audio commentary by Tony Rayns. Region-Free DVD players are available here at Amazon, or you can search the web for instructions on reprogramming your player to "region-free" (i.e., "0" or "zero") status.

This may be the worst book I have ever read. It is awful, repetative, the plot is painfully slow. This book was awful.

I've loved most of the Abe that I've read, but this one was terrible. The "philosophical musings" mentioned by one reviewer are complete BS. The main character constantly reads deep philosophical meaning into things that are very straightforward. Don't waste your money on this--read The Woman in the Dunes or Kangaroo Notebook instead.