Kobo Abe: The Face of Another

The Face of Another is a book I love and hate.  I began reading Kobo Abe's novels a few years back, and I think the first one I read was The Ruined Map.  It was an excellent, ghostly tale of a crime that may or may not have happened.  Someone literally disappeared on a sidewalk, but how?  It was enthralling and chilling.

I went on to read other books by Abe, and soon realized that his primary occupation in most of his work, as it was in The Ruined Map, was identity.  Who is a person, anyway?  Is that person formed by the perception others form of him?  Can a person form a true, objective, separate identity?

He revisits these questions, once again, in The Face of Another, in which the protagonist suffers terrible chemical burns to the face and is impelled to create a life-like mask for himself so that others will not be repulsed by his appearance and still accept him as a "normal" member of society.  Abe goes on to explore the implications of masks and how they might alter a person's identity and sense of responsibility to the world.

Though a novel, Face tends to read more like a first-person philosophical manifest.  It is at times turgid and difficult to penetrate.  Though the subject matter is fascinating, its presentation is so dense it borders on stultifying.  One is often left to wonder just what exactly Abe is trying to convey.

It could be that the murkiness of the delivery is intended to be part of the story's fabric.  The anonymous protagonist, who conveys his tale through the medium of a series of journals, is himself confounded by the process in which he is immersed.  What is hard to swallow is that, though the protagonist is caught up in a very deep and rigorous examination of his actions, he is painted as somewhat vain and superficial.  Would such a vain individual really be so concerned with the intricacies of how a mask effects a persons actions?  Perhaps the considerations of the mask cause him to be less superficial?

Ultimately, if one isn't familiar with Abe's work, this book can be skipped. Start with The Ruined Map or The Box Man.  If you have read some of his work, and not this book, it is, though difficult, a necessary read.

Comments

[Lisa Geranimo]

I found that book to be fascinating - and your remark about the vanity of the protagonist brings up a good point - are we being vain when we insist on being understood, when we insist on shaping how we are perceived? I would venture to say that this would not be considered vanity, rather it would be self-expression. In fact, at the end of the book when we discover what the others in the protagonists life thought about the mask, I would argue that this further illustrates the difficulties of reconciling one's perception of oneself with others' perceptions of self. Which is the true self, who I think I am, or who other people think I am? I suppose Freud would weigh in and say that that both are important components. So, to sum up, I respectfully disagree with your recommendation that the book could be skipped - whether the reader 'likes' the book or not, it is worth checking out Abe's take on identity.