Kōbō Abe
Paperback | Pages: 192 pages Rating: 3.51 | 1211 Users | 131 Reviews
Itemize Books Conducive To Kangaroo Notebook
| Original Title: | カンガルー・ノート [Kangarū nōto] |
| ISBN: | 0679746633 (ISBN13: 9780679746638) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Narration Supposing Books Kangaroo Notebook
In the last novel written before his death in 1993, one of Japan's most distinguished novelists proffered a surreal vision of Japanese society that manages to be simultaneously fearful and jarringly funny. The narrator of Kangaroo Notebook wakes on morning to discover that his legs are growing radish sprouts, an ailment that repulses his doctor but provides the patient with the unusual ability to snack on himself. In short order, Kobo Abe's unraveling protagonist finds himself hurtling in a hospital bed to the very shores of hell. Abe has assembled a cast of oddities into a coherent novel, one imbued with unexpected meaning. Translated from the Japanese by Maryellen Toman Mori.Describe Out Of Books Kangaroo Notebook
| Title | : | Kangaroo Notebook |
| Author | : | Kōbō Abe |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 192 pages |
| Published | : | April 29th 1997 by Vintage (first published 1991) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Cultural. Japan. Asian Literature. Japanese Literature. Fantasy |
Rating Out Of Books Kangaroo Notebook
Ratings: 3.51 From 1211 Users | 131 ReviewsCommentary Out Of Books Kangaroo Notebook
Like many books with inventive and funny openings, this one too fails to continue that momentum all the way through, even while being quite short. A man wakes up with radish sprouts growing from his legs. He tries to go to the doctor. The doctor puts him in a hospital bed, then rolls him out the door. The man realizes he can control the bed with his mind. He gets the bed stuck on a curb. Then, a construction worker rolls his bed into hell. The rest of the book can easily be divided into three orFull disclosure: I definitely didn't understand this book. As another reviewer said, maybe if I knew more about Japanese society, I would understand the social commentary the author was aiming for. I get the sense there are a lot of messages here about euthanasia, loneliness, depression, the health care system, anomie, aging, etc. But because I didn't really have that context (or maybe there really is no context to be had?) this seemed like a book about a man who woke up with radish sprouts all
This novel was more strange than surreal, yet somehow readable. I think I would have to take a hallucinogenic drug to come close to understanding it, though. The main character is a Japanese man who wakes up to find that radish plants are growing out of pores on both of his legs (fortunately the plants are tasty, so he is able to snack on them at times). He undertakes an increasingly bizarre journey to seek a cure for his malady, occasionally aided and accompanied by an attractive nurse who
It's difficult to know where to start in talking about Kangaroo Notebook by Kōbō Abe. If I were to condense my impression into some blurbesque phrases, I'd say, a surreal journey, a dark interpretation on the border between life and death, imaginative, unlike anything I've read. If I were to stray away from cute phrases, then I might describe the novel in this way.Kangaroo Notebook starts in a bland setting that many readers can identify."It should have turned out like any other morning. I was
This has been on my to-read list for years, since learning it was a chief inspiration for Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 2, which is a formative and definitional 21st century narrativethat it happens to be a videogame does not relegate it any lower than, say, Thomas Pynchon, in how it synthesizes the present (the first Metal Gear Solid was name-dropped in Pynchon's pre-9/11 text Bleeding Edge, it merits noting). It's my first time reading Abe, as well, and the influence of his dry absurdity and
I dont know what to say on this book. All I read here, are they the states of mind before death? All the fears, delusions, desires came together like a dream before the life ends? The book is indeed surreal but very fluent. Even in the chaos of the symbols in the book as in dreams, one can sense the common aspects of humanity. Loneliness, attraction, sadness, our vulnerability and incapacity to govern well-being of our own bodies... Its also good to sense the freedom this book gives about that
I feel like there is something I'm missing. Something that's inherently Japanese that I just am missing because of my Americanness. Still worth reading.
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