The Face of Another Paperback – February 4, 2003

This is not merely good, compelling literature; it's philosophically profound thinking, good social theory, and inspiring thinking about the relationship between visuality and life.

A very good translation

In a sense this was an awful book but it was a book you cannot put down. The plot and characterization are completely unique. To the extent I had problems I think they had to do with my inability to relate to aspects of Japanese culture. Yet as a book emerging from that culture, it was outstanding.

Abe describes a scientist who after an accident causing him to break out in skin lesions on his face feels that he has lost a way to communicate with his wife and others. To try to regain this he creates a mask and it becomes more than just a replacement for his face but it comes with a different personality as well. Will the man in the mask get caught up in his new alter ego?

The ideas that populate this book don't justify its length. What does happen in this book IS interesting, the problem is that there isn't so much that happens. If he'd've written this book in 40 or 50 pages and continued in the same vein for 150 pages more, spinning out a real story, my suspicion is that it would've been worthwhile to read. But as it is, I can't recommend this very warmly. Neither the philosophy nor the psychology is lifelike or profound enough to add anything significant to our contemporary worlds. It's not that it's BAD, it's that other stuff is better.

This book begins odd and gets creepy and ends, I believe, scary. At the outset you have a feeling of sympathy for the character, which grows into 1 of 2 things as the book progresses - detached fascination with Abe's character study, or revulsion. Possibly both.The philosophical musings are there, but what hasn't been mentioned here is the flawed narrator. The musings themselves may be bs, but because our sympathy hasn't been completely destroyed when they begin, we give them the benefit of the doubt. That they become more and more absurd is to give an idea of the heightened sense of fear in the narrator about the impending action. At first we disagree with what he says (early on) but at the same time, due to our involvement, ask 'to what extent could that be true, or to what extent is it in fact true, if we look at it in a slightly different light?'I personally prefer this to Kangaroo Notebook, which, while outrageous and a fun read, is effective not for its realism, but for its fantasy. This book, on the other hand, produces its effects more believably, because there's really nothing to prevent this exact person from existing.I feel it is an interesting predecessor to Vanilla Sky based of course on the mask and also on the theme of isolation. It also reminds me of Palahniuk's 'Survivor' through the looking glass - a very opposite character, introverted, but also because of the ending - a very similar truncation that implies...Engrossing read.

I loved this book and will be giving it for holiday gifts this year. The philosophical musings are incredibly powerful and thought provoking, while the prose is intense and suspenseful. After page 83, I found myself yelling outloud to the narrator whose journal we read as he attempts to deal with the aftermath of an accident that has stolen his face. I dare you to read this book and look at your self and others the same way you did before.

I waffled between 2 and 3 stars to come down on 2 by the very end end. This book ultimately felt rather dated, a Novel wanting to explore Big Ideas when a scientist who has burned his face horribly in an accident decides to create a prosthetic face, as it were, to rejoin society, which gets him into tangents about the prejudice of faces and of course the question of identity if you have another face. The story is told from the scientist, so I’m not assuming his philosophizing to also be Abe’s, but the passages are long and essentially epistolary, a format that breaks down greatly in the end and convinced me towards the lower rating. Seems there was a style of the manly Novel where small moves made for chapters of pondering, all for a premise that could have come forward fifty or so pages to challenge itself further.

Love his writing style. My fav of abe stil is the woman in the dunes but the face of another is such a atmospheric read that you cant let it down.

Abe Kobo è uno dei miei autori preferiti. E tanin non kao uno dei romanzi nella mia top5. La storia di un uomo il cui volto è stato sfregiato a causa di un incidente in laboratorio. I temi affrontanti sono l'alienazione, la perdita di sé stessi e il desiderio dell'altro. Un capolavoro della letteratura giapponese

had to write a review to counteract the negativity: this is high grade Abe, internal, psychological, and nightmarish. differs from the Teshigahara film significantly in that here the protagonist is the creator of his own mask. english translation by E. Dale Saunders was fine.