Abe is a member of the fantastic generation of Japanese writers that grew out of the post-war period. Some of my favorite novels come out of that generation, including Abe's pseudo-science fictional drama "The Woman in the Dunes."
Unlike his contemporaries Oe and Mishima, whose works are bold but understated character studies and realist fiction, Abe seems to be more interested in science fiction and the fantastic as morality parables. In "the Woman in the Dunes," the struggle of the protagonist to escape the strange village which trapped him in a hole to work, digging away sand for the rest of his life was a metaphor for the struggles of Japanese society, struggling to dig itself out of it's post-war hole. It spun out reflections on capitalism, the value of possessions and skewed gender politics.
From its first few chapters, "The Ark Sakura" seems to be a similar kind of book, but written for a different time (the mid 80s, rather than the mid 50s.) In this book, the main character, a repugnant and reclusive man named Mole has acquired an underground quarry with which to survive the nuclear holocaust he believes is imminent. But first he needs to find crewmembers.
Like "The Woman in the Dunes," this book has an unusual flow, mixing surreal observations about the flow of everyday life with the dryest, blackest sort of humor. Even though nothing terrible has happened so far, I can tell there's nothing good in store for Mole or his crewmembers.
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