First, never "over-analyze", always stay within the context of the text and never go beyond it. Sometimes when we are trying to skin the novel, personal biases arise or when we are trying to impress our dear profs with our "expertise" of Lacan, Eagleton and all those literary watchamacallits, we end up opening cans of worms and maggots leading to misreadings, misinterpretations and worst of all a very low grade for what we think is the most profound of critiques..So, don't get carried away, relax, it's just fiction.
Next, always cite your sources, remember your MLAs and never forget the pages or reference materials where you acquired a certain quote or idea from, you don't want to be penalized for plagiarism right? And also keep in mind that doing this will add credibility to your analysis.

And, always remember that Lit Crit is boring and it steals the fun from reading...

Okay, I'm not here to do Literary Criticism (and, I don't care about profs since it's been two years since I graduated from college), so I can do away with all these MLA stuff... My name is j, and my role here is not to do Lit Crit, but to tell y'all if a novel is good, or if it is downright crap, and also to advertise the stuff that we are going to sell (Just, kidding)..

So, probably most of you here have read a book or two by Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto, and some even flaunt that they are fans of Japanese Literature (Duh?),
just because they've read "Kafka On The Shore" or "Norwegian Wood"....So what?
Let me tell you this, You don't know anything about J-Lit, if you haven't read any book by Mishima, Kawabata, Abe, Tanizaki and Oe...And to add insult to your injuries, let me tell you that not reading anything by the authors above means that you are an amputee, you are incomplete and you are missing an integral part of world lit, just like missing toes can cause imbalance to your total physique...Hahaha!

Now, let me present to you one of Murakami's influences, the man, Kobo Abe and his book, "Woman In The Dunes"...

Kobo Abe, was born in the 20's and, is heavily influencd by the works of Nietzsche,Kafka, Dostoevsky, Heidegger and Poe which explains why his works are heavily spiked with psychological themes and weird existentialist overtones.Nuff Said...
The novel published in the early 60's, is a very good example of an existentalist-absurdist novel, clearly showing the influence of Franz Kafka in Abe..
The story is basically about the existentialist notion of absurdity or being trapped in a place or an event, or being punished for no apparent reason and how an individual struggles against (or accepts) the oppression and despair caused by his condition..
Just like Kafka's chief character in "The Castle" or "The Trial", if you know what I'm saying...
Going back to the book, the story is about this guy who is fond of entomology, and goes to the sand pits to do some insect collecting...He gets too engrossed with what he is doing, until he discovers that he missed the last bus home...
Then, a group of villagers suggest that he stays the night in the village, where he was made to stay in a widow's house...Well, the lady's house is a place beneath the sand pits and the only way to get in or go out is by means of a rope ladder which was missing in the morning..Then, he had to struggle against(*some text missing)..
.Anyway,like Kafka's works, what makes this novel really effective is the simplicity and one slip of my tongue will reveal all the details.
And, since this is just a review, and I don't want to rob you of the fun of reading this novel, I highly suggest, that you peeps go out and find yourselves a copy.

Hmmm... Finding a copy is the hard part, now if you believe in fate or destiny you can probably get a copy at your nearest Booksale outlet.
I got mine way back in 2003 for 60 bucks in SM Bacoor's Booksale.
How about NBS or Powerbooks?
Well, for a country where bookstore shelves are crammed with all the titles that the crappy Coelho dishes out and almost none of the books under Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past" are existent, finding Abe is harder than finding a needle in a haystack..
So, I guess you would need to contact your friends in Japan for a Kodansha or Charles Tuttle Edition, or your friends in the States (or Ebay), to get the Vintage or Vintage International Edition..Goodluck.

Suggested Reading...

Inter Ice Age 4 , Kobo Abe (I've got a Charles Tuttle Edition, got it for 60 bucks in Booksale).

A Personal Matter, Kenzaburo Oe

Snow Country, Yasunari Kawabata

Anything written by Lester Bangs