Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book

Hot Search

The Box Man

kōbō abe

... Show More
Kobo Abe, the internationally acclaimed author of Woman in the Dunes, combines wildly imaginative fantasies and naturalistic prose to create narratives reminiscent of the work of Kafka and Beckett.

In this eerie and evocative masterpiece, the nameless protagonist gives up his identity and the trappings of a normal life to live in a large cardboard box he wears over his head. Wandering the streets of Tokyo and scribbling madly on the interior walls of his box, he describes the world outside as he sees or perhaps imagines it, a tenuous reality that seems to include a mysterious rifleman determined to shoot him, a seductive young nurse, and a doctor who wants to become a box man himself. The Box Man is a marvel of sheer originality and a bizarrely fascinating fable about the very nature of identity.

Translated from the Japanese by E. Dale Saunders.

178 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1973
Places
tokyo, 

This edition

Format
178 pages, Paperback
Published
January 1, 2001 by Vintage
ISBN
9780375726514
ASIN
0375726519
Language
English

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for kōbō abe

kōbō abe

... Show More
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.

Readers also enjoyed

Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
32(32%)
4 stars
29(29%)
3 stars
39(39%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Unruh
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
"Söz konusu olan bir kutu-adamın günlüğüdür: Kafamda taşıdığım, her iki yandan kalçalarıma kadar inen kartondan bir kutunun içindeyim. İşte o anda, kutu-adam benim."

"Eğer insanlar başkalarının bakışlarından kaçarak yaşamaya devam ederlerse, bunun nedeni insan gözünün yanlışlıklar ve sanrılar yarattığına emin olmalarıdır."

Nasıl açıklayacağımı bilemedim, Abe'nin çok farklı bir kafası var...

0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
AbyssalAwake
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
Seneler sonra tekrar düştüm yolum 'Kutu Adam'a. İlkinin çevirisi ne kadar korkunçmuş, şimdi bunu okuyunca anlıyor insan. Devrim Çetin Güven Hoca en güzel Japon edebiyatı çevirilerinden bir tanesine imza atmış. Nefes aldırdı.

Tabii metin nefes aldırmıyor, aksine nefessiz bırakıyor. Kutu Adam, hakkında isabetli yorum yapmanın ancak çok kere okuduktan, ya da kitap hakkında hayli uzun süre düşündükten sonra mümkün olduğu kitaplardan. Hakkında bir yazı yazacağım zaten önümüzdeki günlerde, o zamana kadar demlenmeye bırakıyorum.

'Kumların Kadını' ile başlamalı, sonra 'Başkasının Yüzü' ile devam etmeli bana kalırsa. 'Kutu Adam' bu ikisinin arkasına gelmeli. Henüz Abe'yi okumamış olanlar için bunu da buraya not düşeyim.

İyi okumalar.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
MurasakiNoTsuki
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
"The Box Man", tal como "The Woman in the Dunes", é um exemplo perfeito de convergência entre o surrealismo e o existencialismo. Conta o mistério de um (ou mais que um?) homem que decide morar dentro de uma caixa de cartão. Faz uso de uma fluência e fragmentação semelhantes a um relato de um sonho, mas esse sonho rapidamente transforma-se num pesadelo psicosexual onde a ideia inicial de "ver mas não ser visto" entra por caminhos do voyeurismo. O conceito, a escrita e a incertidão com que fiquei ao fechar o livro são deliciosamente perturbadores e a escrita do Kōbō Abe é possivelmente uma das mais bonitas que já li.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
ryuLzei
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
n  L'uomo-scatolan, va detto subito, è un libro singolare.
Il titolo non lascia spazio all'immaginazione ci dice che il protagonista appartiene a questa categoria. Non un reietto o un emarginato, ma un individuo che ha scelto con consapevolezza questa sua attuale condizione.
La scatola assume la connotazione di un "filtro", attraverso la quale mescolarsi tra la gente, senza essere notato, e vedere sotto una nuova ottica la realtà che lo circonda. Eppure, un giorno, l'esistenza del nostro uomo-scatola viene sconvolta dall'incontro con due "bizzarri" individui che metteranno in discussione ogni sua certezza, minando a quel fragile equilibrio che è diventato oramai la sua vita e facendo scaturire numerosi interrogativi.
Kōbō Abe con questa sua "nuova" fatica non mi ha pienamente convinta; sì straniante e surreale, ma un po' troppo evanescente... Cerca di seminare per tutto il romanzo una serie di spunti di riflessione sulla società, eppure ciò che ho provato leggendo è stata confusione, non è d'aiuto il fatto che la narrazione sia caratterizzata da vari flashback e ribaltamenti improvvisi nella trama. Nel complesso direi che parte bene, ma si sviluppa in maniera troppo contorta e involuta per risolversi poi in un non-epilogo.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
franzthewizard
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
Promising as its weirdness may have seemed to me, sadly I failed to connect. Having read and loved The Woman in the Dunes, I like to believe that there was a certain philosophical depth to The Box Man but it clearly evaded me. Other than a few spot-on existential gimmicks, it was mostly a drag for me, since I had lost interest rather early in the book, while the endless monologues following the narrator's non-linear thoughts didn't really help the situation. By no means trash. Just not what I expected.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
nekoXmuffins
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
My experience of Japanese literature is that it can be exceedingly bizarre. The story of the box man (men?) is so enigmatic that I feel it expects the reader to deal with an exceptional level of 'weird'. Who is talking to us? How do we tell the 'real' box man from the/a fake one? Why should anyone want to hide in a cardboard box and spend time scribbling on the inside of it? And if we decide on this way of life, why should anyone shoot at us? What does box-living tell us about looking out on to the world? Or being stared at by odd (and often naked) individuals? Who would construct a periscope to play the peeping Tom on a piano teacher when she is using the toilet? If you think these problems would be of interest to you (and Kafka appeals to you but is not strange enough), you should read this short novel!
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
feear_funP
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
This is my second book by Kobo Abe, so I knew going in it would be surreal and strange. The first book I read by him was The Woman in the Dunes. This one I believe is a bit stranger than that one and I admit it's not for everyone. But if you're willing to actually see what this book is about it can have great depths to it. The story really made me think about a lot of things and I like that.

At first glance it seems to be about homeless people. Not just any type of homeless but a unique kind that live inside these giant boxes. They cut little windows and use special materials to fix the box up. They then become like hermit crabs and feel naked without the box..and yes, it's about addiction too..and most likely agoraphobia as well. These people cannot live without the box.

About halfway through the story I had a revelation. I suddenly thought that people can live in a box without actually being IN a box. We do it all of the time. We distance ourselves from others. A lot of people prefer to be alone or stay single instead of getting married. We put up invisible walls around ourselves. We box ourselves in. That's living in a box too.

One character tried to give money to the box man. It made me think this: you can't cure homelessness by throwing money at the homeless person. They need more help than just funds. They need the proper papers, IDs, maybe they don't have a credit history, etc. But there's a lot more involved than just not having the money to rent a place.

The story included some very strange dream like scenes. The one with the fish was very bizarre.

And towards the end the whole story seemed to twist into something else. It was still about the box man but it really turned into something different and a lot darker. I never saw that coming! Wow! What a huge surprise! And the very end was even more bizarre. It did not disappoint though. As I said I was expecting surreal. I would say the end had some elements of horror.

Another theme i noticed in here was voyeurs and watching people. Plus the opposite too: how we tend to not see unpleasant things and sweep them under the rug. Well what's more unpleasant than a box man? The author clearly had this all thought out in great detail including what they ate and how they got food. It's just amazing how many ideas he worked into this book..
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
JonGall
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
این‌جا شهر آدم جعبه‌ای‌هاست.
شرط اصلی سکونت در آن ناشناس ‌بودن است و حق شهروندی فقط به کسانی داده می‌شود که کسی نباشند.
0 0 Reply
Leave a Review
You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.