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.

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!!

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.

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.

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."

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

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.

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.

3.5 ⭐️ I loved this bizarre and absurd story. Mole, a (paranoid) survivalist spends his live in an underground mine, certain that a nuclear disaster is near. All is well until he invites people to his underground ark. The plot is very engaging, the few characters are very interesting and eccentric. I was going from being terribly amused to contemplating isolation and abuse. The novel goes from very funny to grotesque very fast. It also gets quite claustrophobic. It’s weird, and I loved it. Not to mention that the main character is stuck in a massive toilet for a third of the book.

Easy to read - fictional - whimsical - apocalyptic vibes, but funny/ realistic

Mole is the self-appointed captain of the 'Ark', which is a subterranean dwelling he accidentally found and converted into a huge bomb shelter against the atomic bombing he is sure to happen soon. He tries to recruit 'crews' for the Ark but he can't find the type of people he'd like to be around after the certain apocalypse. He himself is not the most attractive human specimen and the accidental crew he is forced to accept is not much better, except the girl whom he instantly feels sharp longing for. They are all transparent people, borrowing the author's words. People don't recognize them as essential members of society and the Ark seems to be ultimate symbol of their redemption and hope. But to realize such hope, they surely have to ignore or overcome so many hindrances. Very sad novel about hopeless and lonely people.

This is a terrifically inventive novel, and an undeniably fun ride which can be finished easily in a day or two. It is immediately recognizable as an Abe work, not only through the narrative voice, but the types of characters and situations depicted as well. In these aspects, there are deep resonances between this and The Box Man, but it expands greatly on the idea of withdrawal from society, which was only peripheral to the central concern of identity in the earlier book.

The protagonist's obsession with impending nuclear apocalypse at first glimpse seems to be a mere reflection of prevailing global sentiment in the 80s (which is when the novel was written, 1984 to be exact), but one cannot forget Japan's own unique position as being the only country actually devastated by atomic warfare - a great deal of Japanese cultural output is still informed by this historical singularity. And one must not fail to see past this veneer and understand that Abe's characters - Mole and Box Man alike - have chosen to confront the alienation inherent to modern society through self-imposed exile, an attempt to retain some agency over their marginal social fate. They are self-judged to be ugly in countenance, stature and soul, and we meet them on the point of their attempted departure from social life, or rather its incompatibility with their particular personal philosophies - which themselves may simply be coping strategies that have grown to the point of monomania.

There's more to be said, but for now I will just note that while the novel is quite rich, it is damaged by a tendency to force-feed its thematics in a rather preachy style at times. While The Box Man accomplished this through the bizarre narrative shifts occurring a little after the first half of the novel, here Abe grinds his axe through Mole's thoughts and speech. Not quite as offensive as when Gombrowicz stops a novel to wax philosophical for a chapter or two, but still a little jarring that he seems to feel the need to spell out what the interplay of characters and situations in the novel seem to do a fairly competent job of articulating on their own.