He settled with bandaging his face every single day so as not to show the scars beneath. But a face covered in bandage is still not a pleasant sight, after all, and the people around him reacted to it accordingly. Which made him feel alienated, if not worse.
The entire book is in the form of a diary (or three, rather) where the narrator walks the reader through his state of mind during the process where he devises a plan to create a lifelike mask in order to open a roadway between himself and the outside world who pretty much shunned him because of the terrible state of his outer appearance, in this case, a bandaged face, or a lack of face thereof.
Initially at least, that's what it was. A simple ploy to get out of this uncomfortable situation that his scarred face has put him into. But eventually, as the reader keeps reading, we see the narrator's own state of mind being changed. In the beginning it was him and the others. But as time passed, it became him and his wife. Basically, he was trying to make things right with his wife. The wife in question was obviously having trouble coping with his changed form, and so, the narrator, in a state of desperation, wanted to create a new face, or a mask, that will make his wife feel comfortable around him.
This book was heartbreaking. Many have compared it with Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, and while they are similar in nature, this book was more realistic than The Metamorphosis. The narrator's struggles were so real, and so painful, that I, as a reader, could not help but sympathize with him. I believe only a person who has been through similar situation would know what it is like to lose a face, be scarred for life, be stared at wherever they go, be shunned, avoided, for no good reason other than the fact that they looked different.
I felt fatigued and debilitated as I hurried off onto the platform. There was a bench at the end, and I sat down. I wondered if I were being shunned, for not a soul tried to sit down beside me; the bench seemed reserved for me alone. Overcome with contrition, I felt like crying as I vaguely watched the eddying current of travelers.The entire book was full of such descriptions and thoughts and I couldn't help but feel so terribly sorry for this man. Alone and cornered, he decided to make a realistic mask so he could reach out to the rest of the world, and especially the one closest to him, his wife.
The transformation of this man that we see throughout the book was painfully realistic. That is where I think this book was so very different from The Metamorphosis. The lack of metaphors or a metaphysical reality is what made this book special. Don't get me wrong, I love The Metamorphosis; it's one of my all time favorites. The Face of Another is just different. And while they are both extremely sad, I feel like The Face of Another had more of a profound effect on me. This book was haunting!
The ending was profoundly sad and yet, may be expected. Not that I'm trying to say it's an inevitable ending, and that there could not have been a different ending for the characters, but well, it's one ending, and a sad one. We see sad ending in real life all the time, so why shouldn't it be so in books? I am not trying to justify anything, simply observing one possible outcome, one very realistic possible outcome of having gone through what this man went through. People have gone through worse, yes. And have created a different story for themselves. The narrator could have done so as well. But he chose a different route. Some may pass judgement and say, he chose to be a coward, but I will refrain from such judgements. People cannot always be strong.
I loved, loved this book so very much, and I would recommend it, wholeheartedly, to anybody who doesn't mind reading extremely depressing books.
Title: The Face of Another (Buy on Amazon)
Author: Kobo Abe (Translated from Japanese by E. Dale Saunders)
Publisher: Vintage, February 4, 2003.
Format: Paperback, 238 pages.
Genre: Literary fiction, Adult, Psychological, Japanese
Source: University of Denver Library