🔽 Quick summary 🔽 ✔ A man loses the skin of his face in an accident ✔ He hates himself for adoring the power of the mask but he can't deny the pleasure of deceiving himself ✔ The book makes you hate yourself for kind of understanding the man
★★★★★ A man loses his face, but he's too obsessed that he is unable to stop it - no, not the mask making, he can't stop enjoying making himself the hateful miserable man. I have always been intrigued by masks, and I might have found an answer here why.
I had misunderstood the plot and thought it was about a man who becomes someone else by wearing masks - I had underestimated Kobo Abe badly.
Mask is an interesting item. Historically masks have always been with us as long as we can know and in any culture, whether they represent desire, fear or beauty. They connect us, they make us human. Ever since I saw an exhibition in Tokyo about masks ages ago, the small obsession has been haunting me - and I might have found an answer in this book.
A man loses the surface of his face in an accident during a chemical experiment. He suffers from the isolation from the society, but what he suffers most is the rejection from his wife and gets obsessed with making a better mask. His hatred is not towards someone else, he truly hates himself for being deceived by the useless stupid mask but he is too obsessed that he is unable to stop it - no, not the mask making per se, he can't stop enjoying making himself the hateful miserable man. His masochistic, pervert pleasure is too great, much greater than the initial desire for the love from his wife, he does not want to step out of the safe world that is his skewed fantasy - and oh the ending!
The power of the mask, that moist, slimy, horrid mask. The book might make you hate yourself for kind of understanding the man.
赤パンの本棚 akapan's bookshelf 