book data
130 ratings, 3.72 average rating, 11 reviews
(more data...)
edit
published
July 9th 2002
by Vintage
binding
Paperback, 192 pages
isbn
0375726543
(isbn13: 9780375726545)
description
From the acclaimed author of Woman in the Dunes comes Secret Rendezvous, the bizarrely erotic and comic adventures of a man searc...more
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »
friend reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 177)
bookshelves:
fiction
Read in March, 2008
It warrants all of the "Kafka-esque" descriptions it gets. Unlike Kafka's characters, who never grasp the machinations of their world, the nameless main character of this book, at times, gets hip to the absurdity. As he does, however, he becomes deeper entrenched in the labyrinth sex research hospital, until his initial goals of finding his wife and returning home to normalcy become completely lost. The ending is still confusing me. It's lucidly rendered and absolutely disturbing.
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
3 comments
bookshelves:
yum
Read in September, 2003
i read this because the theater company i was working with was adapting it for a show. i'd never heard of Kobo Abe, but we all read a number of his works in preperation for this piece and i'm really glad i was introduced to his work. i haven't read Woman in the Dunes which is his most famous, but i have to say i was really drawn into Secret Rendezvous. it's incredibly bizarre and i always wonder with the Weirdness of east asain art - and Japanese art and culture in specific - how much of my i...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
bookshelves:
fiction
Read in August, 2005
recommends it for:
plumbers of creepy subconcious desires
Here the Hospital is the cite of Abe's existential mayhem--nary a chapter goes by where someone isn't watching someone else do it with themselves, an animal, or one or more other human beings. That this is a novel about sex and sexual deviancy and that takes place (increasingly hellishly) within the power structure of a hospital tremendously foregrounds the repercussions of treating desire as a strictly physical phenomena that must be treated systematically. Anyway, while one senses that a lot...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
bookshelves:
for-a-class-im-taking
abe's "secret rendezvous" takes place in a hospital that somehow resembles the imperialist nature of everything.
if sex is reduced to biological signals that can be calculated, will all intimacy suffer the same fate?
is it impossible to resist the lure of power when offered a position in the administration?
it's hard to think outside the box from within the box, definitely.
if sex is reduced to biological signals that can be calculated, will all intimacy suffer the same fate?
is it impossible to resist the lure of power when offered a position in the administration?
it's hard to think outside the box from within the box, definitely.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
a Surrealist absurdity from Japan. Fun quick and sometimes confusing read. I'm going to start reading his other books to see if they are similar.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in May, 2008
Pete's review of this was pretty dead-on; it was definitely akin to Burroughs, and in that regard: I still have no idea what it was about.
bookshelves:
fiction
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in August, 2004
Fucking weird. For fans of Kafka and Beckett. I liked it much more than most people would, I'd wager.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
to-read
(on 37 people's shelves)
currently-reading (on 10 people's shelves)
fiction (on 8 people's shelves)
japanese (on 2 people's shelves)
magical-realism (on 1 person's shelf)
japan (on 1 person's shelf)
abe (on 1 person's shelf)
by-and-of-japan (on 1 person's shelf)
nice-try (on 1 person's shelf)
want-to-read (on 1 person's shelf)
More shelves...
currently-reading (on 10 people's shelves)
fiction (on 8 people's shelves)
japanese (on 2 people's shelves)
magical-realism (on 1 person's shelf)
japan (on 1 person's shelf)
abe (on 1 person's shelf)
by-and-of-japan (on 1 person's shelf)
nice-try (on 1 person's shelf)
want-to-read (on 1 person's shelf)
More shelves...

























