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The Ark Sakura

kōbō abe juliet winters carpenter

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Tells of a fat hermit whose fears of a nuclear disaster lead him to build a shelter inside a mountain and equip it with everything necessary for the survival of a small community

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1984

This edition

Format
352 pages, Paperback
Published
March 13, 1989 by Vintage
ISBN
9780679721611
ASIN
0679721614
Language
English

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About the author

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kōbō abe

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Kōbō Abe (安部 公房 Abe Kōbō), pseudonym of Kimifusa Abe, was a Japanese writer, playwright, photographer, and inventor.

He was the son of a doctor and studied medicine at Tokyo University. He never practised however, giving it up to join a literary group that aimed to apply surrealist techniques to Marxist ideology.

Abe has been often compared to Franz Kafka and Alberto Moravia for his surreal, often nightmarish explorations of individuals in contemporary society and his modernist sensibilities.

He was first published as a poet in 1947 with Mumei shishu ("Poems of an unknown poet") and as a novelist the following year with Owarishi michi no shirube ni ("The Road Sign at the End of the Street"), which established his reputation. Though he did much work as an avant-garde novelist and playwright, it was not until the publication of The Woman in the Dunes in 1962 that he won widespread international acclaim.

In the 1960s, he collaborated with Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara in the film adaptations of The Pitfall, Woman in the Dunes, The Face of Another and The Ruined Map. In 1973, he founded an acting studio in Tokyo, where he trained performers and directed plays. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1977.

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Rating(4 / 5.0, 99 votes)
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99 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
TheDeedsOfMen
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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شخصیت اول این کتاب مردی چاق و مردم‌گریز با لقب موش کوره. او حاصل تجاوز یک مرد به مادرشه و در نوجوانی با این پدر نااهل مشکلات زیادی داشته و آسیب‌های زیادی هم دیده.
او با نخبگی تمام یک معدن زیرزمینی را نقشه‌برداری کرده، تکنولوژی‌های زیادی در آن راه انداخته و به شکل کشتی در آورده و از این مکان با نام «جایی برای نجات از بمباران اتمی» یاد می‌کنه. حالا به دنبال ایجاد یک اجتماعه، پیدا کردن آدم‌هایی که در زمان بمباران ارزش نجات یافتن را داشته باشن... به دنبال پیدا کردن این اجتماع داستان شروع می‌شه و پیش می‌ره.

برخلاف نظراتی که در مورد این کتاب خوندم، فکر می‌کنم بسیار به قلم کوبوآبه شباهت داشت و دغدغه‌های او در زن در ریگ روان در این کتاب هم مشهود بود.
این کتاب در سال ۱۹۸۴ در دوران جنگ سرد که احتمال و دغدغهٔ جنگ اتمی بسیار بالا بود نوشته شده و ایدهٔ جالبی برای شروع کتابی با این مضمونه.
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OP-Naruto-Bleach
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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This book ended up being a solid, enjoyable, and surialist style ride. The protagonist is a social recluse who calls himself Mole. Mole has transformed an unused quarry into something he calls his ark, a complicated system of death traps and tunnels, we follow along his attempt to gather crew members as his ark gets infiltrated and his plans all go awry. We are led to a series of winding events that unfold and show the Moles true inability to captain this so called ship.

I found this book really interesting up until the last few chapters. I love the fact that Mole paints himself as a confident leader, someone who plans to recruit hundreds of people to his ark before a nuclear disaster strikes Japan. And yet, when faced with only three other people on his ark his power breaks down no matter how he builds himself up, his childhood issues with his father both created a socially awkward man lacking in power, and someone who views themselves as a leader and somewhat of a genius. Others start taking control until mole is stuck in one place (literally) pretending to have any effect on the things that go on which really solidifies the unreliable narrator style format.

I enjoyed the surrealism of this book, from the fake "eupcaccia" bugs to the elaborate deeply wound network of tunnels this ark contained. The writing style is as expected very good, but be warned the only female character is very much treated as a play object for a majority of her appearance. She establishes the power struggle that the ark inhabitants go through, but it doesn't make it any easier to read.

The ending felt solid, but the chapters before that (covering the missing schoolgirls and the broom brigade) made me hate finishing this book. It went on long rambles that didn't fit and felt so out of place even in the detached writing style. I think the plot was better without it all there and I wish it was never included, it felt more refined when only 5 or so characters where interacting, but the more that got added the more diluted the tension got.

Overall a super solid book, definitely a read that needed to happen especially as a fan of Murakami and kafka :) thanks for reading!!
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BasedMan123
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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My third Abe. In The Ark Sakura, he proves himself to be the vital forerunner to Murakami, and writes a novel starring a foul troglodyte with more than a few axes to grind. His dream is of a bunker beneath the earth where humans can survive the nuclear holocaust that noted cosmic corpsefucker Ronald Reagan seemed to be inviting in the mid-'80s. Weird and quixotic as it is, it's still his dream, and he tries to get over his shit and actually do it. You feel a bit bad for him, as incapable and gullible and Mittyish as he is.

I once called this concept the "ur-bro," and you feel bad for Mole in the same way you feel bad for Charlie in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He is the flipside of the male ego, the person that nearly all men fear becoming when the world rejects us, sexually, materially, emotionally, and intellectually.
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kalicious
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Reclusive guy scouts for people he considers worthy of joining his end-of-days facility, which happens to be an abandoned mine, characters included: reclusive guy's abusive dad, dude he meets, two uninvited persons, a friend/antagonist and a gang of senior citizens, typical Kobo Abe.
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leafjuily
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Imagine the weirdness of Murakami combined with the ambiguity of Beckett, but not quite as engaging as either. The story drags on a little and belabors certain themes (like toilets, waste, and general scatological grotesquery), but there are some notable concepts that stand out as more memorable than the surrounding story. Among them is the eupcaccia, or clockbug, a fictional insect that has no legs and subsists entirely on its own dung. It lives its entire life moving in a circle, rocking itself back and forth, so in time with the movement of the sun that it can be used to tell the time. One half of the circle is marked with its discharged waste, which it later consumes as it comes back around.

It's an idea that is strangely fascinating as it is disgusting; like the main character you just can't seem to stop thinking about it. It works well with the overall plot (which involves surviving in a bomb shelter) as well as an independent metaphor for modern life in general, in a vaguely Kafkaesque way. Certain ideas from SF stories seem to take on a life of their own (at least for me) in how interesting they are apart from their stories, whether those stories are good or bad. Ice-nine, grokking, etc.--I will remember these bits and pieces long after I've forgotten their context. I feel like the eupcaccia can be added to that list.

Abe also does some interesting work with the concept of space. Most of the story takes place in a vast, underground quarry converted into a fallout shelter. While meticulously described, it has bizarre features, like a gigantic toilet with suction so powerful it almost kills a man who falls into it. It reminded me a little of "the Hatch" from LOST; menacing in its mysteriousness.

In addition there is commentary on some social changes and upheaval specific to Japan, like hikikomori, a rapidly increasing elderly population, roving gangs of disaffected youth, etc. Abe is more subtle I think in his presentation of these issues, which is not a problem if you are familiar with them. If not, you may wonder what function or purpose some of the characters serve.

Overall I wish I could give some of these separate elements four stars, with the narrative itself being three. I know that sounds odd, but I really felt more drawn to the ideas themselves than to the story as it unfolded, which sometimes faltered in holding my attention. This is the first of Abe's books I've read, and I was excited to pick him up since I don't know of many Japanese SF writers. I look forward to reading some of his better known books, including "Woman in the Dunes" (which was made into a movie), and "Inter Ice Age 4."
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Faylicia
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Terrible book but I enjoyed the experience reading it. I recommended it to my book club and they all voted it for us to read
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starrzz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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So much to think about in this book. Isolation versus community, what is community, who gets to choose who is part a community, manipulation, con artists, confidence games, relationships between men and women and young girls and older men, nuclear war, survival after the apocalypse, waste disposal methods and their meanings, human needs (bodily functions, love, intimacy, food, water, friendship). this complex story is told with grace, humor and humility. It is very well translated too. This is not a recent book, but it stands the test of time. The themes are universal. One could read The Ark Sakura again and again and get something different out of it every time.
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apaulagize
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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This was the hardest book I ever had to read through. I forced myself to finish because I just HAD to find out the ending no matter how much I disliked it. The ending is the definition of anti-climactic and I want to bang my head against a brick wall for making myself suffer through that for the least satisfying ending known to man.

But hey, if you like books filled with people deceiving each other, constant sexual harassment toward a woman, the repetitive mentioning of a stupid bug, and a man getting his leg stuck in a damn toilet for 1/4 of a book, then you’ll be happy to know that this is the book for you.
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