Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #332196 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-28
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Synopsis
The narrator is a scientist hideously deformed in a laboratory accident - a man who has lost his face and, with it, connection to other people. Even his wife is now repulsed by him. His only entry back into the world is to create a mask so perfect as to be undetectable. But soon he finds that such mask is more than a disguise: it is an alternate self - a self that is capable of anything. A remorseless meditation on nature, identity, and the social contract, "Face of Another" is an intellectual horror story of the highest order.

Customer Reviews

Too much philosophising
After reading the superb Woman in the Dunes, I wanted to read more Abe Kobo, but so far this has led to disappointment. This is better than Inter-Ice Age 4 but it spends far too much time philosophising and far too little time on the action.

The best bit by far comes at the end of the novel, in which something from earlier on, initially presented as incidental, is revealed. The meaning of the novel is expanded, and the narrator's scarred face becomes a metaphor for a Japan ravaged by WW2.

Slow-going at first but well worth it!
I initially found this novel hard to respect since the central theme of a man and his mask seemed trite and a cliche. However this setup does allow the novel's main character to seduce his wife, posing as a stranger; a strange social situation which was described with much empathy and insight by Abe.