{"id":10847,"date":"2021-10-26T16:00:15","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/?p=10847"},"modified":"2025-11-24T16:05:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:05:58","slug":"review-the-ark-sakura-by-kobo-abe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/?p=10847","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Ark Sakura by K\u014db\u014d Abe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

first English translation: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

my version: Penguin Classics Science Fiction, 2020<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

384 pages<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

grab a copy here<\/span><\/a> or or through your local independent bookstore or library<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

I’ve read much about<\/em> the great Japanese speculative author K\u014db\u014d Abe, but I hadn’t read anything by<\/em> him. Thanks to Penguin Classics Science Fiction and the copy of The Ark Sakura<\/em> that they sent me, such is no longer the case.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This meandering, bizarre, funny-and-very-much-not<\/em>-funny tale reminded me of Stanislaw Lem’s Memoirs Found in a Bathtub<\/em> (whose protagonist roams endless corridors and meets the strangest people) and Yasutaka Tsutsui’s collection Bullseye!<\/em> (in which characters find themselves in the most absurd and unlikely situations). The Ark Sakura<\/em>, however, tricks you in the beginning into thinking that you’re reading a story with a distinct arc (pun so<\/em> intended!).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We first meet the protagonist, Mole, on one of his frequent jaunts downtown. Since he lives deep inside a quarry, which he refers to as his ark or ship, Mole doesn’t get much human interaction, a situation that suits him perfectly well. And yet, Mole has realized that at some<\/em> point, he really must start recruiting others who will live in his ark with him once the nuclear apocalypse hits. Because it will<\/em> hit…one day. And why not prepare for the worst as soon as possible?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Downtown at a market, Mole encounters a man selling eupcaccia–a small, legless insect that feeds on its own excrement. Mole is entranced and buys one, but then offers the seller a pass to his ark. After a run-in with two shills (sakura<\/em>) who also stop at the eupcaccia dealer’s stall, Mole decides to scurry back to his quarry and think more about who else to invite. Despite booby-traps and wild dogs, the shills (a man and a woman of uncertain relationship) get to the innermost part of the quarry before Mole and the insect dealer, and before he knows it, Mole has a small crew assembled. This group will be responsible for repopulating the Earth once the planet has recovered from nuclear devastation.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here’s where the whole plot starts to spiral downward, like the objects that Mole throws into the gigantic toilet in the main room of the quarry. By “downward” I don’t mean to suggest that the text becomes boring or unreadable; rather, I mean that we dive from the heights of ideas and expectations down to the bottomless pit of greed, jealousy, and a lust for power that characterizes human nature.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More and more people enter the ark over the course of the novel, displacing Mole (whom others are calling “Captain” at this point) and transforming the entire enterprise into a picture of authoritarianism. The imagined threat of a nuclear disaster that could happen at any time is subsumed by the human desire to control that which can be controlled.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s no surprise that Abe influenced many of Japan’s greatest speculative (and non-speculative) writers. I intend to read more of his work in the near future.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter first English translation: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988 my version: Penguin Classics Science Fiction, 2020 384 pages grab a copy here or or through your local independent bookstore or library I’ve read much about the great Japanese speculative author K\u014db\u014d Abe, but I hadn’t read anything by him. Thanks to Penguin<\/p>\n

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