The Hole

The story was okay, but felt like there wasn't really a destination or resolution. I just didn't get the point. But it was well written.

I recently visited an exhibit on Kafka at the Morgan library in NYC. It was there I determined that I didn’t really care much for his work or most of its derivatives.

The hole falls in line with this tradition, finding absurdity in the mundane and leading the reader to question occurrences that have no answer. There are interesting themes involving losing one’s self to changing circumstances—hinted at frequently by the oft-referenced cicadas and extreme deviations to weather patterns.

The titular hole that drew me in, its unnamed inhabitant, and the mysteries of those living in our narrator’s rural neighborhood had no explanation. That left me wanting.

i really really enjoyed this. the writing is snappy, and the story itself is surreal & kafkaesque, right down to its humor. i think, ultimately, this was a very good meditation on childhood / loss of childhood, grief, and progress vs. stagnation. the way the past holds us back vs the way it moves us forward. short but left a very strong impression on me

The Hole is an mildly unsettling tale of the wife in a couple moving into a house owned by her husband's parents. Nothing appears normal to the reader, but the characters don't seem to notice; nothing much happens. and the reader is left with the bagagge of unease picked up along the way. The translation into English is very good although it reads a bit literal at times. Recommended for readers looking for a novella that will leave you with an unsettled feeling.

Otherwise it's not for the reader looking for a good tale that goes somewhere and does something.

i really dont know what think abt this book. i enjoyed it and although i was confused when i first finished it. i get it more that ive sat on it, but still really strange.

I found The Hole a bit monotonous at first, but wow, the ending justifies every bit of seeming dullness.

almost ★★★★★

The part when Asahi falls into the hole beside Grandpa and she notices the creature beneath her gave me chills like no other book has.

whomp whomp

no he conseguido conectar de todo con las historias y x eso no le doy más, pero me parece buen libro igualmente y m gustan los temas y m encanta el ambiente q crea la autora, sobre todo el verano (escribo esto en abril pero no puedo esperar a que sea junio y la pereza del verano, el sofoco en el cuerpo, la sensación de que estás atrapada en el tiempo y escuchar las chicharras x la ventana abierta, necesito romantizarlo y lo necesito ahora)

the writing, the storytelling, the atmosphere, the confusion, the intrigue, the spookiness...this was amazing. I think I have an idea of what just happened but I also am completely in the dark. 10/10 Oyamada is incredible like wow

Title describes book

More like 3.5. Super hard to review. Like Oyamada's other work I love and relate heavily to the ideas presented, but the lack of structure and plot make it ultimately ring kinda hollow.

Am a fan though and will keep reading anything she writes.

So short (less than 100 pages), so weird, and so great. Asa has a temp position in a city in Japan. Her husband gets a transfer with more money, so they move to podunk countryside Japan to live in a house owned by his parents, right next door to his parents. Asa and her husband go from communicating and eating together to something else: She, no longer employed, is going slightly stir crazy because she's alone with nothing to do and no way really to get around; he, with the only car, is at work until all hours, or else he's on his phone, completely checking out of their life together.

And then she's walking to the store one day and sees a strange animal. With no clue what it is, she decides to follow it–and falls down a hole.

Thus begins her strange Louis Carroll-y almost non-adventure, in which she meets strange neighbors and, apparently, her secret brother-in-law. She sees dozens of children playing at the river. She notices strange things about her husband's grandfather and meets the strange neighbor who always wears the same clothes. And nothing seems quite right anymore.

Are the isolation and loneliness getting to her? Or is something weirder going on?

My wife read this first and wanted to discuss it, so I read it. It takes no time at all and is a bit WTF, but it was also weird and wonderful. It sparked a great discussion of what was actually happening with the weirdness and all those old people and children other people maybe don't see. And interactions Asa has just add to the weird. The atmosphere is great. In just a short book, Oyamada-sensei has created a very confusing, lonely world for our heroine. Is it real, or is she losing it? Is something mysterious going on, or is being a woman following a man with nothing upon which to fall back a potentially bad idea?

This dreamy little tale is a bit of a gem. I loved the conversational tone, as if your friend from school and you were catching up over a cup of coffee and she says, oh, and THIS happened. I kind of feel like I just read a Studio Ghibli movie. I'm sure it would reveal even more on multiple rereadings but I'm going to walk away with this with the fun experience of one reading (for now). Totally enjoyable.