Kobo Abe - Blog Posts

alishasthoughts

8 months ago

Secret Rendezvous-Kobo Abe Book Review

Secret Rendezvous By Kobo Abe was published in 1977, the book explores strange themes and events with hints of dark humour.

Personally i think this book is a very strange and interesting read, but really really brilliant.

On a impromptu trip with my friend to Waterstones, looking for a completely different book (Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, also a very strange book) I looked around and for some reason Secret Rendezvous popped out to me, upon reading the blurb and some of the first page i was instantly captured, i handed the book to my friend to read the blurb and i will say; he is not interested in reading much, he was impressed with the book and it sealed my mind and i bought it for £9.99.

I personally think if you are not instantly sucked into a book by the first page, it’s not the book for you, and as i thought about nothing but finallt getting to start it. i know this book was perfect for me.

The books blurb reads as:

“It is 4 a.m. when the ambulance comes to take the man's wife away - although no-one has called it, and there is nothing wrong with her. As he sets out to find her, he finds himself in the corridors of a vast underground hospital, where he encounters sinister medics, freakish sexual experiments and the unmistakable feeling of being watched. Even when he is suddenly appointed as the hospital's chief of security, reporting to a man who thinks he is a horse, he will not give up his search.

Secret Rendezvous is a nightmarish satire of bureaucracy, medicine and modern life.” with also having 2 reviews from the Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun Times. and additionally a review from The New York Times.

This book explores disturbing yet thrilling themes while this man is exploring this twisted yet fascinating hospital. i won’t spoil it but i don’t think anyone in 2024 could write something like this.

if secret rendezvous was made into a live action it would closely resemble Netflix’s Black Mirror or American Horror Story.

I do have a strong feeling that the ending was very rushed and unprompted but it did a good job of describing the effects that this “hospital” had on the narrator and how eventually he ended up clinging to his sanity even for a very short lived time.

Kobo Abe did a beautiful job of creating this very twisted world, he had a beautiful way of describing things in such shocking detail and making me create such horrifying mental images and scenes.