坑夫
Some modern critics have reassessed the work for its experimental value. Modern critic Jay Rubin regards "The Miner" as Sōseki's "single most modern work, an antinovel that set him at the very forefront of the avant-garde in world literature." Rubin attributes the reception of Sōseki's contemporaries to the novel's focus on perception rather than plot or character. Scholar Beongcheon Yu has asserted that "The Miner" has no thematic connection to Sōseki's other works. In contrast, Rubin sees "The Miner" as a turning point in Sōseki's view of the average human being — from an evil "other" to an unreliable "self" — that persisted in his later works. Shin'ichirō Nakamura viewed "The Miner" as an early example of stream of consciousness fiction, though Rubin considers this characterization inaccurate because of the retrospective, rather than immediate, narration. Haruki Murakami has two characters discuss the book in his novel "Kafka on the Shore".