Secret Rendezvous

by Kobo Abe
Secret Rendezvous
book data
130 ratings, 3.72 average rating, 11 reviews (more data...)
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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






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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 177)



Pete
Pete rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
03/14/08

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.
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Alexis
Alexis rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
06/18/07

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
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Joseph
Joseph rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
08/20/07

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
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Laura
Laura rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
10/14/07

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.
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Meredith
Meredith rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
09/01/08

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.
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Alexander
Alexander rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
05/30/08

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.
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  1 comment

John
John rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
04/25/07

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.
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Frederick
Frederick rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
09/07/07

Read in June, 2005
I never finished this. I probably should.
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Elaine
Elaine rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
06/23/08

a disturbing, strange read.
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Lillian
Lillian is currently reading it
07/28/08

bookshelves: currently-reading
slow to get into so far
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Patty
Patty rated it: 1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars
09/23/08

bookshelves: nice-try
Read in September, 2008
wait, what???
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Matthew
Matthew rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
11/28/08


Suresh
Suresh rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
11/28/08


Libby
Libby rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
11/17/08


Darren
Darren rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
11/17/08


Andrew
Andrew rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
11/17/08


Markosaurus Fisticuffs
Markosaurus rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
11/12/08


Mason
Mason rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
11/10/08


Leroy
Leroy rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
10/31/08


ensenchiridion
ensenchiridion added it
10/30/08

bookshelves: abe


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Secret Rendezvous (Hardcover)
Secret Rendezvous (Paperback)
Secret Rendesvous (Paperback)
Secret Rendezvous (Hardcover)
Rendez-vous secret (Paperback)







groups with this book

Japanese Literature