But neither the screams nor the jeers he had anticipated were forthcoming.” - Ah! The box man reports a number of case studies, including how one box man was attacked by a gunman. The lead bullet must have bored into the fellow’s body with great force. The barrel of the gun, and then the box, made a noise like that of a wet trouser cuff snapped by an umbrella handle. Actually, I thought this fellow was rather cool. Back in the 70s I recall a college student who wore a black cloak over his body down to his shoes and called himself 'The Black Bag.' He said after a few days the other students on campus got used to him. A box man possesses some offensive poison about him.” - I can imagine the reaction of others in the city to the box man.

“As soon as anyone gets into this simple, unprepossessing paper cubicle and goes out into the streets, he turns into an apparition that is neither man nor box. I recall Ernesto Sabato saying 'hell is being looked at.' So, for the box man, he can create hell for others via his own gaze while not becoming the subject of the gaze of others. Curiously, the box man sounds as if he has developed his own distinctively creative way to become a voyeur, so imaginative that he views himself viewing through his slit as much as the people and objects of his gaze. Last of all, cut the remaining wire into one-, two-, four-, and six-inch lengths, bending back both ends, and prepare them as hooks for hanging things on the wall.” - Indeed, the most important aspect in being a box man is viewing the world through your slit in your box. The greatest care must be taken when making the observation window. “To construct your box there is no particular procedure to follow. He goes on to provide advice on the ways one can deal with useful objects within one's box - thermos, flashlight, towel, pens, change of clothing. “The most important reason to use the standardized form is that it is hard to distinguish one box from another.” - Here the box man shares a key concept for others who might consider becoming box men: if you want to shed individual identity, go all the way become a box man who cannot in any way be distinguished from other box man become as indistinguishable as humanly possible. I agree completely with Jerome Charyn's statement from his 1974 New York Times review: 'The action of the novel seems to take place inside the box, which has become a kind of labyrinth for the box man, a porous, breathing skin.' A cardboard box that reaches just to my hips when I put it on over my head.” - The narrator of the tale is a writer who sheds his past identity to become a box man. So, keeping within the spirit of existentialism, I will refrain from generalizations and zero in on specific passages of Kōbō Abe's 1974 one-of-a-kind novel. The core of existentialism is the opposite of abstract theory rather, artists and writers of the existential school tend to focus on a particular individual facing the very human dilemma of living in a world frequently absurd and alienating, a world where two men wait for Godot or a teacher walks the streets of a French town with a sense of nausea. If you are up for existentialism of the oddball variety, The Box Man may count among your all-time favorite novels. Reading this Kōbō Abe novel, I had the feeling I was floating six feet off the ground - reader as artist of the floating world. Are you up for some weird fiction? I mean REALLY weird fiction.

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