The Face of Another by Kobo Abe

This most unusual novel is not an immediate attention-grabber, but the beauty of the language (although a translation from the Japanese) compelled me to continue reading. Written in the form of notebooks, the extended letter addressed to his wife is by the protagonist, a scientist who loses his face at the research laboratory during a chemical experiment. His face is so badly scarred that he wraps it in bandages until he gets the idea of creating a mask. After laborious attempts to find “the right mask,” he finally chooses it, makes it, and eventually wears it. But rather than providing him with the face with which he can face the world, the mask takes on its own identity, and when he wears it he becomes a different person who is in conflict with his original self. The masked identity seduces his wife, but he is jealous! It takes a long time to get into this book, but once you do, it becomes difficult to put it down, mainly because of the artistry of the language, but also because you want to know how it will all end.

Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata

I had to read this book twice. Like much Japanese literature, it is obscurely laconic. The main character, Yukiko is a young man caught in the web of the women who control his life. First there is Chikako, the woman with an ugly birthmark on her breast, who was once his father’s mistress. She tries to arrange a marriage for Yukiko and the Inamura girl, but at the meeting, he sees Mrs. Ota, his father’s lifelong mistress, and her daughter, whom he finds rather attractive. He ends up having a fleeing affair with his father’s ex-mistress, who dies of a guilt attack. The story gets more and more complicated. The end leaves you suspended in mid-air, so you don’t really know what to make of the novel. What seems to stay with you after you put down the book is the mood, or atmosphere, of the lonely characters and vivid images of the tea bowls and cups, which are described in greater detail than the characters themselves.