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The Face of Another

by Kōbō Abe, E. Dale Saunders (Translator)

3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 · rating details · 861 ratings · 55 reviews

Like an elegantly chilling postscript to The Metamorphosis, this classic of postwar Japanese literature describes a bizarre physical transformation that exposes the duplicities of an entire world. The narrator is a scientist hideously deformed in a laboratory accident–a man who has lost his face and, with it, his connection to other people. Even his wife is now repulsed by...more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published February 4th 2003 by Vintage (first published 1964)

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Feb 01, 2008 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: black-comedy, horror-disguised-as-literature, literature-disguised-as-science-fic

Face of Another is a kind of post-Kafka take on the experiment gone wrong stories of Wells and Stevenson. Abe sometimes sinks his narrative drive by fully realizing the artifice through which he is revealing his story, here it is the notebooks of the scientist who creates the titular object, written to his wife. This mirrors the structures of Secret Rendezvous and Box Man and in the final post-script of the wife echoes the finale of Tanizaki’s The Key. The notebooks contain anecdotal philosophiz...more

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May 05, 2013 Christopher Roberts rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, 20th-century

I think this book was brilliantly conceived, the ideas of the notebooks written to his wife, and the entire premise. The writing itself was atrocious though. Abe spends way too much time rambling, less time on the meat of the story and should have explored this story in different ways. This is my second book by Abe, and the first was compelling enough to make me pick up this one after not being completely won over by the first. This one is going to turn me off of reading him in the future though...more

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Feb 05, 2012 Ken rated it 4 of 5 stars

It is not surprising that readers, even if they are devout fans of Kōbō 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 dire...more It is not surprising that readers, even if they are devout fans of Kōbō 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 film adaptation by Hiroshi Teshigahara with Tatsuya Nakadai doing a stellar job as the scientist. (less)

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Jan 28, 2013 David Keffer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: kobo-abe

The Face of Another (1966) is both a psychological study and an existential allegory. The protagonist is a scientist, "the section head of a respectable laboratory," whose face has been disfigured in a chemical explosion. This disfigurement creates a rift between the scientist and everyone he encounters --particularly his wife. The source of this rift is due less to others' repulsion at his face than to the scientist's self-disgust,
both physically and mentally.

The destruction of his face trigger...more The Face of Another (1966) is both a psychological study and an existential allegory. The protagonist is a scientist, "the section head of a respectable laboratory," whose face has been disfigured in a chemical explosion. This disfigurement creates a rift between the scientist and everyone he encounters --particularly his wife. The source of this rift is due less to others' repulsion at his face than to the scientist's self-disgust,
both physically and mentally.

The destruction of his face triggers in the protagonist a debate of his essential worth. The logical steps linking the face and self-worth is as follows: the scientist acknowledges that he is being treated differently due to his face. As an intellectual he believes that his work, and not his exterior appearance, are of primary importance. However, since those around him base their reactions to him on his face, perhaps his works are of lesser importance than his appearance; perhaps his works are altogether worthless, perhaps he himself is worthless. This self-abnegation also widens the chasm growing between himself and his wife.

In creating a mask, so life-like that it could not be detected by an intent viewer, the scientist attempts to re-enter a meaningful life through the use of an external artifice. From an existential point of view, this attempt is obviously doomed to failure, since no external means could possibly overcome the inherent isolation of the individual. All the same, the mask is created, primarily to recapture the affection of his wife. The scientist writes to his wife, "Under any circumstances, I simply did not want to lose you. To lose you would be symbolic of losing the world." In his creation of the mask, he resorts to all the tools at his disposal. He provides an algebraic formula for the commitment to others based on age and "viscosity" of self. In selecting the specific visage for the mask, he consults psychological classifications which relate facial structure to personality. In determining which expressions the mask ought to make, he creates a list of 12 expressions, assigning each a percentage importance, i.e. abhorrence 6%, concern 3%, doubt 5%.... In presenting emotion in The Face of Another, it is not enough for the scientist to be lonely. On the contrary, he must admit to himself his loneliness, dissect it in order to ascertain its causes, and ultimately belittle himself for it. He writes, "Surely I have made to much of my loneliness. I thought my loneliness greater than all of mankind's combined."
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Feb 12, 2012 Liviu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011_release_read, mainstream, review_fbc, read_2012, top_25_2011_novels

This is a difficult novel to talk about; its main idea is simple - a scientist gets burned by liquid nitrogen and his face becomes ruined so he starts trying to get an artificial one as close as possible to lifelike; in the process he splits his identity in two - the "original" and the "mask" and they start to compete for the affections of his wife of eight years.

However the novel is much, much more than that as a meditation on identity, on what it means to be human, on what visual impressions (...more

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Jun 02, 2009 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: translations

Oh, the under-appreciated Kobo Abe. His work is always intriguing, especially Women in the Dunes and The Ruined Map, and usually quite compelling, but something about this one had me less than enthusiastic to pick it up. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but it just wasn't the same Abe I have enjoyed so much in his previous novels.

There is plenty of intrigue: a man loses his face in a laboratory accident, constructs a mask to hide the deformity, then, as he plays psychological mind games with him...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Damar hening Sunyiaji rated it 4 of 5 stars

akhirnya ketemu, baru selesai kemarin. Saya suka kalimat,
bahkan aku menutup diri ketika engkau datang dengan camilan dan kasih sayang di sore hari. Kata katanya bukan rintihan tapi tiap kalimat mampu membuat saya sabar meniti lembar demi lembar.
Benar benar menarik merasakan kegelisahan orang yang terbuang karena kerusakan fisik terutama wajahnya, eksperimen pembuatan topeng walaupun alurnya lambat tapi entahlah ini menurut saya keren sekali. Bagaimana sang tokoh utama gelisah untuk pertama kalin...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Joey rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Face of Another is an intriguing novel- the ideas and characterisation are rich, but the pacing and language is such that it feels like one is reading the work through a glass darkly, one or two steps removed from the immediacy of the narrative. It's difficult to say whether this is the fault of the writer or the translator.

The core theme: the mask as the other, through which the protagonist is transformed, is a gripping notion and it's exploration here is more existential than, say, the exp...more

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Aug 31, 2010 Miranti Artarina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Aku suka buku ini! Idenya brilliant! apalagi tentang khayalan dari tokoh "Si Topeng": penggunaan topeng secara massal akan digemari dunia karena anonimitasnya...KTP akan sia-sia. Foto buron polisi akan in-efektif...Aktor populer akan ngotot mendapatkan hak cipta untuk wajah mereka...tatakrama baru sebelum transaksi bisnis, saling mencubit wajah sebelum negosiasi...bisa selingkuh berkali-kali, mengganti pasangan sama mudahnya dengan mengganti wajah...
Alhamdulillah, Tuhan telah adil menciptakan se...more

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Apr 22, 2009 Kevin rated it 4 of 5 stars

What can I say about Kobo Abe? Well, for one thing he has some deep psychological issues and some very massive lodes of creativity he masterfully convinces me to plunge. The Face of Another does a great job describing the plight of a very insecure, disfigured man who, underneath it all, is searching for love but can't see it because he's blinkered by his own self-hatred and paranoia. It's a dreamy book much like other Abe books and although not as exciting as Box Man it does have some very insig...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Jessie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Hysteric and full of platitudinous-counter-platitudes that seem juvenile. At certain points in the book, Mr. Abe reveals that he may be aware that of this, but then does not use that awareness to make the narrative more interesting. My favorite part of the novel was the short story told at the very end about a young woman who lost half her face. He stopped telling the story from first person and moved to 3rd, which inevitably curtailed his fever storms and provided a more engaging story.
I guess...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Sharon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

3. 5 stars (review has spoilers)

I battled with myself on how to rate this. A large part of me felt I should give 4 stars because it is really very good. But it was very scenitific in places and the scientists musings were quite in depth to the point that I don't think I grasped everything he was trying to say, which hindered the enjoyment for me a bit. It also meant that although it was good to read a book that made me think things through, I didn't find it easy to read when I was tired. Therefo...more 3. 5 stars (review has spoilers)

I battled with myself on how to rate this. A large part of me felt I should give 4 stars because it is really very good. But it was very scenitific in places and the scientists musings were quite in depth to the point that I don't think I grasped everything he was trying to say, which hindered the enjoyment for me a bit. It also meant that although it was good to read a book that made me think things through, I didn't find it easy to read when I was tired. Therefore I plumped for 3.5.

That being said it is a very good book with very good ideas behind it. As the blurb says it looks at the face as a means of identity and how a person without one relates to the world and others around them. The scientist starts off by repulsing people with his bandages and then starts researching into the creation of a mask. Through these events he gathers opinion, along with his own feelings and experiences around the importance of a face with regards to society. Then once he has made the mask he tries it out. But finds that it gives him a freedom that non-masked people do not have and he starts to don an alternate self that considers breaking the law. He believes he is being controlled by the mask. Is he, or has the freedom unleashed impulses that were within him all the time? The book looks at the need for human connection and intimacy as he tries to build a "roadway" again between himself and his wife who he feels has distanced herself from him. He seduces her while wearing the mask. Yet when she accepts his advances he ends up putting himself into a prison of jealousy and hated as he watches his wife cheat on him . . . with himself.

Although a bit heavy on the scientific side (I don't think I grasped what he meant by all his musings) I really liked this. It keeps you in suspense and is full of some interesting ideas. Its not an easy book to read however, I described it to my brother as "wading through treacle" now I have finished I feel a little weary, so am looking forward to reading some easier, more lighthearted books now :) But it is definitely worth it if you can dedicate the time to studying it properly. I'm looking forward to reading some of his other books in the future.(less)

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Mar 24, 2012 Denise rated it 4 of 5 stars

You know when characters are stupid and annoying, and you tend to bring the author to account, disregard the book and think little of it? But when the author himself humiliates his characters, you suddenly praise the book because you know that the characters were meant to be like this and it's not that they were badly created. That's kinda how this was. I was one step away from disposing of the book and I don't know how I made it to the end, but I'm glad I did because there was THE WIFE who save...more You know when characters are stupid and annoying, and you tend to bring the author to account, disregard the book and think little of it? But when the author himself humiliates his characters, you suddenly praise the book because you know that the characters were meant to be like this and it's not that they were badly created. That's kinda how this was. I was one step away from disposing of the book and I don't know how I made it to the end, but I'm glad I did because there was THE WIFE who saved everything from drowning.

(view spoiler)[The book is a meditation on the self-identity as dependent on the face, a psychological drama depicting the struggles of a scientist who gets disfigured after a laboratory accident. We read the three notebooks that he left for his wife, filled with musings about the importance of face in defining one's identity, laments and self-pity, and accusations against his wife who, supposedly, isn't sexually attracted to him anymore.

The narrator starts his quest for a new face and much of his journal is dedicated to his research and planning and experiments, but after he finally creates The Mask, a struggle for the possession and control of the body starts to take place inside of him.

From his point of view, The Mask is his one-way ticket to a world where he doesn't have to take responsibility for anything. His new-formed persona promises to free him from anything of the sort, to be the perfect scapegoat, but this in exchange for his identity. He slowly feels that The Mask is taking over, he feels he loses himself in favor of it, he even loses his wife in favor of his alternate self so jealousy adds up to the man's list of torments.

The fact is, he is still there, this being proven especially by his hesitation and fear in proceeding with his plan. He has always been like this, there was always something holding him back, an impairment, making him first incapable of sexually pleasing his wife, and then discouraging him to take his new face out in public. So he dawdles endlessly, you can see this even by the way he writes his journals, how he strays and wanders, sometimes creating confusion... Even if he has the freedom, he doesn't know what to do with it, he still doesn't know what to do with the mask, just as his wife says at the end. Also, it is obvious from the fact that his wife recognized him from the very first moment that even if his appearance has changed, his identity hasn't.

The book, thus, does not depict the process of identity loss, but that of the transition from sanity to insanity of a man who mistakenly perceives the physical appearance as defining one's identity and who starts to obsess about the idea. At first, he is certain that a face is not everything, he keeps telling himself that, but he is bothered by the looks on people's faces when they see his bandages, he is bothered by his wife accepting The Mask and rejecting him, so he ends up believing the opposite.

The narrator tends to over-think and over-analyze his condition and every situation, he is extremely insecure and "self-pitiful", if I may say so, causing the reading of the book to be extremely difficult and cumbersome and giving the reader the impression of it never ending. (hide spoiler)](less)

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Jan 13, 2012 Parrish Lantern rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, j-lit, translation, on-my-shelves, favourites, blog-post, authors-tbr, sci-fa-spec

A “persona” in the standard vernacular, refers to a social role or character performed by an actor. The word is thought to have derived from Latin, where it’s original meaning referred to a theatrical mask. The Latin word probably has it’s roots in the Etruscan word “Phersu” which had the same meaning*. In the study of communication, persona is a term used to describe the versions of self that all individuals possess, with behaviours selected like masks according to the impression an individual...more A “persona” in the standard vernacular, refers to a social role or character performed by an actor. The word is thought to have derived from Latin, where it’s original meaning referred to a theatrical mask. The Latin word probably has it’s roots in the Etruscan word “Phersu” which had the same meaning*. In the study of communication, persona is a term used to describe the versions of self that all individuals possess, with behaviours selected like masks according to the impression an individual wishes to project when interacting with others. Therefore, “personas” presented to other people will vary according to the social environment a person is engaged in and the persona presented before others will differ from the one an individual will display when they happen to be alone. According to Carl Jung whilst a child is growing, the development of a viable social persona is a vital part of adapting to and in preparation for adult life in the external social world - 'A strong ego relates to the outside world through a flexible persona; identification with a specific persona (doctor, scholar, artist, etc.) inhibits psychological development'. For Jung the danger was that people become identical with their personas (the doctor with his stethoscope, the conductor with her baton ) resulting in what could be a shallow, brittle, conformist kind of personality which is "all mask”.

The Face of Another (1964) was Kobe Abe’s first major novel after the success of The Women in the Dunes (1962) and like that book follows the theme of the modern individuals alienation with the society they live in. The novel tells the story of a scientist so hideously disfigured by Keloid* scars - the result of a failed laboratory experiment - that his whole face is covered in bandages and his wife finds his image disgusting. He comes up with a plan of creating a mask, with the aim of seducing his wife as another man, all the while documenting everything in a series of notebooks. The first part sees him planning and building the mask, which is so realistic that it appears to fool everyone, save for one girl who, although we are told is intellectually challenged, still recognises that the man in the mask and the man in the bandages are one and the same.

http://parrishlantern.blogspot.com/20...
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Oct 07, 2012 Kate Sherrod rated it 5 of 5 stars

I experienced this story first several years ago via the film adaptation by the great Hiroshi Teshigahara.

So, one of the things that interests me is the tandem experience of book and film; the film really explores the idea -- a man's face is destroyed in an accident and he creates (or, in the film, has created) a mask so lifelike almost nobody realizes it's a mask at all, only to find that instead of restoring him fully to his life and his humanity, it has made him more of a monster than he was...more I experienced this story first several years ago via the film adaptation by the great Hiroshi Teshigahara.

So, one of the things that interests me is the tandem experience of book and film; the film really explores the idea -- a man's face is destroyed in an accident and he creates (or, in the film, has created) a mask so lifelike almost nobody realizes it's a mask at all, only to find that instead of restoring him fully to his life and his humanity, it has made him more of a monster than he was when his face was a hideous mass of scars and ruined tissue -- from the exterior. The plot wanders quite a bit from that of the novel, but that's immaterial for my purposes; what interests me now is how book and film complement each other; the film cannot, except in voice-overs, really explore the inner man of the scientist except indirectly (hence the introduction of a sub-plot lifted mostly from a film our protagonist watches early on in the book, of a girl, her face half destroyed in the Hiroshima bombing, who does charitable work for WWII veterans despite her disfigurement, but who is ultimately too isolated by it to continue); for all its startling imagery (get a load of that doctor's office, wholly invented for the film), it does not begin to come close to what makes the book such a disturbing read.

The book is written in an extended epistolary/diary form; the first person narrator is the scientist (nameless in the book) who has lost his face, writing an extended confessional to his wife. And herein lies the creepiness, for while he believes he has fashioned the mask (in secret, all on his own, in the book) to "restore the roadway" between him and his wife, he has gotten so carried away with the sudden duality of existence it affords him that he has actually come to think of The Mask as another person, a person who quickly becomes his Mr. Hyde, all id and transgressions, all an exploration of what he can get away with when no one knows it's him. Inevitably -- and I give nothing away here that isn't given away in the very opening paragraphs of the book -- he and it decide to see about seducing his own wife; the roadway he sought to restore to her is left forgotten; he takes the long way round and comes back at her as a stranger, and then rages with jealousy when Mask Him succeeds.

Throughout this confession, he reveals that the roadway was washed out long ago; he has created a wife-emulator in his head who is much stupider than she really is, less perceptive and with no self-determination, and unwaveringly regards his real wife as that lesser being. She is trapped in his imagination, confined to the smallest possible space, surrounded on all sides by him and his limited, limiting understanding of her -- and the further we get into the novel, the more oppressive is his tendency to project onto her most, if not all, of his negative feelings about himself. It's a classic trope, but I've never seen it so elegantly, horrifyingly done as here. The build-up to the actual meeting between Mask Him and his wife treats the seduction as a fait accompli ratchets the depressing creepiness up to eleven; all the time we spend alone (except for the Mask) in the nameless man's skull dials it up to twelve.

I can't recommend this one highly enough, shattering though it is.(less)

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Aug 17, 2012 Kat rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that I read in hopes of becoming enlightened and educated in the process of flicking though each page. 'The Face of Another' details the life of a scientist, left horribly disfigured after an experiment gone wrong. Spending most of his days with his face wrapped tight in bandages, he comes to the realisation that since his accident, both his career and marriage are failing.

He seeks out a man specialising in realistic and prosthetic masks, and uses this 'new face' as a...more

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Sep 29, 2009 Kathleen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: japanese-novels, science-fiction, gender-bending, favorites

you know, on recently watching the film "The Skin I live In," which came out this year, I was instantly reminded of this book, and also the film based on this book. Similar themes with the horror-surgery-fiction in which a kind of body-transplant takes place (though in Skin, it's the whole body, or at least its surface, which is transplanted, and in The Face of Another, it's just the face), symbolizing the fantasy of being able, or forced, to physically become another person.
I think anyone who f...more

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Aug 08, 2009 Harun Harahap rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: punya, fiksi, terjemahan

sebenernya agak pegel juga baca ni buku..mungkin seperti orang bilang..terjemahan dari penerbit J***S**** tidak bagus..jadi kalau ingin membaca, saya sih menyarankan untuk membaca edisi inggrisnya saja..atau kalau memang bisa berbahasa jepang, silahkan baca edisi aslinya yang bahasa jepang..

kenapa saya memberi bintang 3..tidak bisa lebih atau kurang..sulit untuk memberikan bintang lebih dari 3 karena saya capek membacanya..tapi tidak bisa memberi bintang kurang dari 3 karena saya yakin dan perc...more

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May 28, 2009 Gertrude & Victoria rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: japanese-library

If Abe Kobo is one of the most important writers in post-war Japan, then The Face of Another is one of its most incisive commentaries on human nature and identity. Brilliantly conceived and meticulously crafted, a work of this magnitude can only be the product of an intellectual with rare creative ability. It is a veritable invention of genius, and nothing less than a philosophical tour de force.

The Japanese title Tanin no Kao is a more apt title for it connotes something stronger than just "of...more If Abe Kobo is one of the most important writers in post-war Japan, then The Face of Another is one of its most incisive commentaries on human nature and identity. Brilliantly conceived and meticulously crafted, a work of this magnitude can only be the product of an intellectual with rare creative ability. It is a veritable invention of genius, and nothing less than a philosophical tour de force.

The Japanese title Tanin no Kao is a more apt title for it connotes something stronger than just "of another." The feeling that something is without any relation or attachment to another and something which is foreign and distant is central and contained within the Japanese phrase. Perhaps a better translation would have been "The Face of a Stranger."

Abe Kobo invites the reader to ponder such questions as: Can and does the face, its physical features, the physiognomy, render significant meaning to our existence - our essence - by means of how the individual assesses and identifies himself, the face acting as the representative of the person with which others encounter and interact with? Does the face influence man to such a degree as to completely govern his ideas of himself? In addition, the manner in which man views himself is created and shaped perpetually by the perception of others to a large measure, as to have a mirroring effect. This mirror image or reflection likewise plays a crucial part in the development of our psyche. This mirroring effect can, and often does, expropriate the ownership of an individual's image of himself and transfers it to others, which places an uncertain power into their hands.

In this narrative, the protagonist, a scientist, struggles with these questions. After a laboratory accident, which leaves his face irreversibly damaged, insofar as orthodox medical science is concerned, he sets out to create a life-like mask, which takes many weeks to perfect. This accident utterly changes his understanding of man and forces him to see others very differently from before. The scientist not realizing at first how profound those changes would be, struggles to reassert his self-confidence and reaffirm his existence, in an effort to regain some self-worth and dignity of his former life.

Abe Kobo graduated from medical school and was well read, thus his prose is written in an academic style. His observations are scientifically precise and psychologically penetrating. Consequently, many of his main characters are men of science. From this point of view The Face of Another is written, and takes the form of notebooks, through long discursive monologues. The authority of the intellect is asserted, persuasive, and powerful and The Face of Another is staggering work of intellectual elegance!(less)

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Oct 27, 2008 Ben Dutton rated it 3 of 5 stars

For his second novel Kobo Abe attempted to deal with larger issues of identity and personality on a national scale, by focussing on one nameless man. In Woman of the Dunes (1962), his first novel, Abe’s prose had a simple elegance, but with The Face of Another (1964) the basic form is much diluted, and complicated by multiple questions. The protagonist of Woman of the Dunes was simply trying to escape; the protagonist of this work is trying to find himself and lose himself, and trying to find a...more For his second novel Kobo Abe attempted to deal with larger issues of identity and personality on a national scale, by focussing on one nameless man. In Woman of the Dunes (1962), his first novel, Abe’s prose had a simple elegance, but with The Face of Another (1964) the basic form is much diluted, and complicated by multiple questions. The protagonist of Woman of the Dunes was simply trying to escape; the protagonist of this work is trying to find himself and lose himself, and trying to find a way to live in a society that seems to have rejected him. Abe’s novel eventually brings in a host of other concerns – taking in Noh theatre, the Hibakusha, and racism, and all thoughts connected with them. All of this has the cumulative effect of making The Face of Another a less successful novel than Woman of the Dunes, but one still filled with interesting undertones.

The narrator, who tells his story through a series of notebooks (black, white and grey), records how following an accident at the laboratory where he worked is left with keloid scars covering his face. This disfigurement (and the first resonance with the Hibakusha (those people who survived the atomic bomb blasts in Japan and were permanently disfigured)) causes the narrator to feel an outcast in society, and estranged from his wife to whom he feels he can no longer make love. The first Frankenstein allegories becomes clear as the narrator begins to furnish a mask, one so detailed and perfect that it will fit him like skin, and be indistinguishable as a fake. He dedicates himself to this with zeal, perfecting the technique and seeking out the perfect model.

With the mask complete, the protagonist is faced with further questions of identity and personality – can one live as a man without a face? Can one live with another man’s face? The mask begins to exert power upon him, and he finds his personality changing, becoming more forceful and assertive for the mask has given him anonymity, despite having a face.

“The mask was growing thicker and thicker. It had grown at last into a concrete fortress that enveloped me; and I crept out into the night streets wrapped in concrete armour… I hid beneath my mask, which had neither name nor status nor age.” (P.152)

Abe never takes his novel into the horror territory it could quite easily stroll – he is much cannier than that. At times imagination is allowed to run riot – as Abe the novelist and the narrator ponder upon what might happen if everyone were allowed a mask (actors copyrighting their faces for instance), and what crimes one might theoretically get away with. The main concern is of a sexual one, though, as the narrator seduces his own wife wearing the mask, bringing up questions of fidelity and play within a relationship.

As with Woman of the Dunes, the film director Hiroshi Teshigahara turned Abe’s novel into a film (Tanin No Kao (1966)), and though the film is less successful than the novel (or indeed their previous collaboration), cinema is something of an issue within the novel and Abe has clearly been influenced by his collaboration with Teshigahara. In the novel the protagonist watches a film – leading to further discussions upon the nature of masks, for all actors are wearing one though they still have the same face – and it is later revealed that the woman in the film is Hibakusha, the right side of her face covered in keloid scars. The man she loves kisses her finally, and the protagonist asks his wife (and us) what the significance would be if he kissed her on the left or right cheek. Also, we are to consider how much the mask that he is wearing becomes a cinema screen, how much it might remove him from his actions, whether there is any responsibility left there.

From Kaori Nagai’s introduction we learn one further fact. The title Tanin No Kao is a play on words: “By choosing the word which can mean at once the other and the stranger as his keyword, Abe turns our most familiar landscape – the face of our most intimate other – into a baffling maze.” (p.vii) The other can be familiar – the other is his wife – but it is also a stranger. Abe’s novel does not appear baffling, but it certainly becomes a moral maze, filled with ambiguity and doubt.

Our final scene of the protagonist is of him watching and waiting, wondering whether he should commit a crime. It becomes the final perfect metaphor for everything that has come before, and the final unifying choice: he will be committing the crime, whatever face he wears, and the implications of that will rest in him, not on the face, though he shall find freedom.

“I wonder if I shall become a swan with an act like this. Can I make people feel guilty for me? It is useless to think. What is amply clear, at least, is that I shall be lonely and isolated, that I shall only become a lecher. There will be no reward outside of being freed from the crime of being ridiculous. Perhaps that’s the difference between movies and actuality.” (P.237)

Abe’s novel, though not entirely successful, and some of the concepts and thoughts contained within now seem dated or outmoded - we live now in a world where a face transplant has occurred – and it does seem very much of its decade. As one of Abe’s stories of metamorphism – a familiar motif in his work – it is not his best, but one worth wallowing in for a few hours. For like all the best pulp it asks questions of us, and what more can we ask from such fiction?(less)

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Jul 27, 2011 John Pappas rated it 5 of 5 stars

A profound and disturbing dissertation on identity and transformation, narrated by one of the more discomfitting narrators of the twentieth century -- a Japanese Meursault-like scientist who loses his face in an experiment gone wrong is bent on crafting a new face that will allow him access to the world, and the opportunity for violent revenge. Kobo Abe writes about the fine line between being and seeming, as well as the necessity of social connection and acceptance.

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Feb 10, 2010 Rhesa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novel

This novel tells a story of a scientist whose face is disfigured in a laboratory explosion. Since then he feels cut off from human community, even his wife refuses to have sex with him. Then he creates a perfect mask and acquires new personality. He tries this mask in many situations, even to his wife, without revealing his identity. A compelling existential narrative.

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May 22, 2011 Sophie Baudelaire rated it 5 of 5 stars

The story is so fascinating at the beginning; the long interrogation on the question of identity, self, and the reflection of our inner-selves through the face, make the reading a thrilling philosophic-intellectual enterprise. One can be the silent-witness at the fragmentation of the individual, at the fabrication of a new character, everything through the slow rhythm of the narrative. Unfortunately, the book is ruined by its endless lament... The protagonist is too narcissistic, over-thinks sit...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Marc Kozak rated it 1 of 5 stars

The only book I've ever started and not finished was The Story of the Eye, which I didn't know anything about when I started it, and it turned out to be basically disturbing pornography. I usually read a lot about the books I'm about to read, so I at least I know what I'm getting in to for the most part.

When reading about The Face of Another, I heard a lot of Kafka comparisons, and the basic idea sounded intriguing enough. But 70 pages in, and I just can't go on. I'm starting to skim over parag...more

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Jul 08, 2011 Zach rated it 3 of 5 stars

Abe always offers up unique insights, and this book doesn't fail in that regard. Unfortunately, his ideas on faces/masks are over-explored in this novel. The plot is slowed down by the narrator's musings, which constitute the bulk of the text. They're good thoughts, but they don't develop at a fast enough pace, and by the end they become repetitive.

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Apr 02, 2012 Andy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kool-imports

Edgar Allen Poe-style tale regarding issues of identity, loneliness and conforming to a society that doesn't even care. The overall premise could fit in well with any Lon Chaney or Bela Lugosi film classic, but upon closer inspection the novel is a meditation on the reconstruction of Japan following the atom bomb attacks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Jan 18, 2012 Jerry Ghazali rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

Satu jasad dua rupa dengan salah satu rupa adalah artifisial menutup sifat cela rupanya yang asal. Sengaja mengada-adakan hubungan cinta tiga segi dengan melibatkan dua rupa yang berbeza menggoda isteri milik sendiri semata-mata mahu menguji kesetiaan isterinya yang pada fikirannya mula berubah perasaan.

Boleh dikatakan keseluruhan jalan cerita melibatkan monolog dalaman menyebabkan jalan cerita tak berapa berkembang dan berlegar pada satu konteks yang sama untuk jangka masa yang lama.

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May 14, 2013 Patricia Lucido rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Perhaps the act of writing is necessary only when nothing happens."
This book is horrifying. And it's not the kind of horrifying that uses supernatural beings, creaking floors, old houses, and the like. This book uses the human soul, and when a book does that to me I would most likely call that book as "utterly amazing."
Sure, The Face of Another, is like Kafka's Metamorphosis on a more extreme, human level, but nonetheless this book bore me to some extent. It could use a little less of the narra...more

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Feb 20, 2008 Gabriel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jacket copy says: "Like an elegantly chilling postscript to 'The Metamorphosis.'" Way off the mark, though. Similar, instead, to Ballard-- inhabiting a particular (often abstruse) state. This--an examination of the face--could as easily be classified as philosophy, cultural studies. The "plot," such as it is, is secondary, perhaps even tertiary, and is often only evident as a way to highlight different facets of the problem of the face, of what the face represents. Rarely crystallizes into any p...more

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Aug 23, 2011 Christopher rated it 3 of 5 stars

Great ideas abound but.... the writing is so dry and filled with circular arguments, indecisiveness, tedious observations, etc. that I had a really hard time finishing this. Maybe I need a better translation.

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About Kōbō Abe

Kōbō Abe, 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 explora...more

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Quotes from The Face of Another

“Still, the one who best understands the significance of light is not the electrician, not the painter, not the photographer, but the man who lost his sight in adulthood. There must be the wisdom of deficiency in deficiency, just as there is the wisdom of plenty in plenty.” — 13 people liked it

“You don't need me. What you really need is a mirror. Because any stranger is for you simply a mirror in which to reflect yourself. I don't ever again want to return to such a desert of mirrors.” — 8 people liked it

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