My compliments to the reviewers who have contributed to the further publicity of this harrowing and psychologically complex novel, an exploration of those who have denounced their spirituality in exchange for social acceptance, and the consequences they have to suffer. I would like to just add one side note. There is an excellent film adaptation of SEA AND POISON, directed by Kumai Kei in 1986. Because of the controversial subject matter, no major studio would finance the film and it took Kumai years to finish it. (It would certainly not be made in today's Japan, considering the strength of revisionists and glorifiers of the imperial past) This movie has also been nearly completely neglected in the US, no doubt due to its unflinching realism, thoroughly unexotic visuals and political content, something we do not expect from the country mostly known to us through bubblehead animation, Power Rangers and Godzilla. Please do seek it out, if you have wherewithal to do so, and show it to as many Americans (and Chinese, etc.) as you can. I believe the US distrubtor in 1987 was Gates Films.

Obedience to authority and power leads people to harm others, and not being able to resist authority of someone higher is human weakenss. It seems that the Intern named Toda is the one Endo wanted to emphasize upon. The charactor of Toda remainds me of Albert Camus's "The Stranger," and Dostoevsky's "Devils," and it can also be related to other charactors Endo draws in his other novels. Can people feel guilty without punishment of the society? What is morality? What is "right" and "wrong" in such an absurd world like today?

There is a sequel to The Sea and Poison. I do not believe that it is published in the United States, but it is about Dr. Suguro's later life. People judge him and punish him under the name of "democracy" and its "justice." Dr. Suguro ends up hanging himself. Can people judge and punish others? If judging and blaming are the meaning of justice, how does it differ from what is unjust?

I am Japanese, and I personally think that Endo is the best writer from our country. I strongly recommend all his work to Americans.

Condition of human hearts is so fragile yet too stubbon. This is a fiction losely based on what happened in Unit 731 (Japanese Imperial Army) in Manchuria where live vivisection and human experimentation were performed for development of biological weapon. Doctors were young, innocent and ambitious then and commited henious sins on POWs sometimes willingly but somtimes under pressure. This type of internal human battle does not stop here, it's in every hearts in every countries. Endo is a devoted chatholic and he looks into human hearts from an angle where we don't want God to see.

I first read Wonderful Fool in a high school English class, it was out of print so my teacher photocopied 60 copies of the entire book, and it was wel worth it. I loved both the story and the way it was told, with vivid colors and moods. Highly recommended

Didn't Mr Endo pass away in 1996?

Being a large fan of Shusaku Endo, when I saw this book with an interesting title, I decided to read it. I was very happily surprised. Not only is this excellently written story a very moving tale, but it is often very funny. Endo has used his talent to tell the story of an often foolish man named Gaston Bonaparte, a man with a passion for Japan. He travels to Japan and stays with a small Japanese family. While his old pen pal, the only son of the family, is very supportive of him, the only daughter does not like him at all. Things get even worse when he is abducted by an angry gangster, and eventually forced to make the greatest sacrifice of all. If you like dramatic, moving, and funny stories, make sure you read this one.

Mr. Endo is a rarity: a Japanese Catholic novelist, a literary Sadao Watanabe. His Catholicism and literary studies in Europe have made him the most accessible of Japanese novelists to the western reader. Those who know and appreciate his work will welcome these five short stories, and will recognize his usual style and typical concerns. A novelist retraces the steps of the Christian martyrs of Shimabara, but he is more interested in and identified with the apostate who agonizes spiritually because he did not have the faith to suffer physically. Japanese tourists on the make and their impassive guide wander Warsaw and find in the strangest of places St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish missionary to Japan who died in Auschwitz. A box of old postcards uncovers the secret life of a missionary's daughter during wartime Japan. A fifty-year old man takes dancing lessons amid intimations of mortality. A man who could not share his feelings with his wife watches her die and then wonders about her possible reincarnation. The last of these short stories is in fact the opening chapter of the novel "Deep River," but it becomes more intriguing on its own. Those who don't know Endo yet will find this a tasty and representative sampling of his work. Van C. Gessel, who has translated at least six Endo novels, has provided a very readable text.

If ever there were an author who could wedge a knife into the cracks of the human soul, it must be Shusaku Endo.

In these five stories -- Unzen, A Fifty-Year-Old Man, Japanese In Warsaw, The Box, and The Case of Isobe -- Endo draws back the curtain on a group of people obsessed with such themes as cowardice, sex, martyrdom, death and the love of animals.

With bleak eloquence and hard-edged compassion, Endo creates a banquet of irony and emotion that succeeds in filling the void created by 95% of modern fiction.

If you are weary of the predictable and formulaic fiction churned out by the big publishing houses, I recommend this slim volume. Shusaku Endo's stories feel like a gust of cold, clean and pungent mountain air from the top of Japan's highest mountains.

Somehow Endo--or, I suppose, his translators--always seem to make simplicity a true virtue. His writing tends to be clear and direct, but not pushy--he lets you draw your own conclusions, a trait he shares with Abe Kobo and most of the rest of their generation of Japanese novelists. Anyway this book is lovely in that tradition, dealing with the conflicts entailed by being Catholic in Japan and living across cultures in general. While I don't have any experience personally of strong religious conflict, the stories he tells ring true on other levels as well. Particulalrly here I liked the story of the Japanese student on exchange in a French university.

This is a collection of short stories spanning a twenty year period from the late 50's to the late 70's, and in these stories we come across most of Endo's favourite themes - martyrs of Christianity in Japan, the stories of those who apostatized (gave up their religion for fear of torture and persecution), Endo's own prolonged illness and his fear of suffering, and his own religious uncertainty.These themes sound altogether pretty depressing, and yet when you read his writing, the crisp, clear style seems so effortless that you might think,like I did, that you could gladly read anything he wrote, on any topic no matter how turgid. His ability to contrast the depth of one person's belief with the weakness and uncertainty of another's is genuinely masterly. I think he manages to do this so well because he is able to comprehend both types perfectly, and he clearly does not favour one over the other. His message is ultimately humanist - that we are none of us perfect, n! either those who seek perfection nor those who give up, knowing perfection cannot be achieved, neither those who face fear and suffering nor those who run from it, and furthermore that the idea of sin should not be used by one person to chastise another, but rather to help guide each of us in our own lives. Endo is able to conjure up powerful emotion in only a few pages, as he does recounting his own feelings of guilt towards his mother in one story, or his joy at a reunion with some childhood friends, or the ambiguous guilt of the 'kakure' apostates on a small island off Kyushu. Though I cringe to admit it, I honestly thought on reading these stories 'If only I could write like this!'

"Silence" is perhaps one of the finest novels written that addresses the meaning of Christian faithfulness in the midst of intense persecution and suffering. The protagonist, a Jesuit missionary named Rodrigues, arrives in hostile Japan with a sense of pride and confidence in his faith. But his witness of the martyrdoms taking place and the intense psychological torture the authorities inflict upon him and others force a reexamination of who he thinks Jesus is and where God might be in the midst of all the tribulation.

Endo's deeply compassionate portrait of all the characters involved--even the apostastes and the persecutors--made the novel quite controversial upon its release in the Japanese Christian community. But I admire his courage for not feeding the reader easy answers. The book is unflinchingly realistic in the dilemmas faced and Rodrigues's crisis of faith, though occasionally the symbolism is blunt and unnuanced (a problem somewhat corrected in Endo's later novel, "The Samurai"). Ferreira, the apostate missionary, is particularly a complex and intelligent character who speaks eloquently about why the Japanese are so resistant to Christianity. If he is right, then all missionaries and others trying to spread the Gospel to foreign nations ought to rethink their methods and approaches to sharing their faith. ("The Samurai" also addresses these issues in an even more direct way.)

I recommend that all Christians who care about their persecuted brethren, are thinking about foreign missions work, or in general wonder what it's like to be put in a truly hard spot for one's faith, to read this novel carefully and prayerfully. The book shouldn't make you comfortable, but I think the discomfort is salutary, and will hopefully help those of us who have faith to come to a deeper understanding of "the cost of discipleship" (Bonhoeffer).

Silence is one of the most moving, most gut-wrenching, and most true novels I have ever read. It explores the questions which all Christians and non-Christians have to ask themselves at some time in their life to find out where they are. It does so in a way that is remarkabley compelling.

Silence is the story of Father Rodrigues, a Portuguese priest who travels to Japan in the Sixteenth Century during their Christian persecution. Once there, he tries to carry out his mission but sinks in the "swamp of Japan." He faces unimaginable tortures and lives through the most profound anguish of humanity. All the while, he struggles with questions about God. Why is God silent amidst human suffering? He faces questions about what it means to truly be a Christian.

Silence is an unflinching book, taking on what is possibly the central dilemma of Christianity. I read this in a college class in which people took varied things away from the book. For myself, Silence was one of the most triumphant books of the Christian faith I have ever read. It marks a profound move from a Christian doctrine of doctrine towards a Christian doctrine of compassion. I don't believe that God is silent in this novel. This novel asks God some tough questions, and He quietly answers in a voice that moves mountains.

This question, raised countless times by the main character Rodrigues, is just one of many theological issues that Endo explores in this highly emotional, extremely probing novel. The Christian period of Japan is regarded as a somewhat curious anomaly by the Japanese themselves, and is largely unknown in western circles. That Endo could weave so elegant a tale, using a foreign main character (there are few precedents in Japanese literature) and frequently changing narrative styles no less, is an accomplishment in itself.

"Silence" raises several theological points, but the two that stuck with me the most were the following: how can God remain silent despite the suffering of his people (a question no less relevant with the events going on in the world today), and secondly, is it possible that Christianity cannot "grow roots" in the "swamp" that is Japan. A Catholic himself, it is obvious that Endo has struggled over these questions himself, searching for answers. Is it possible to betray your faith but stay true to your God? Endo's frank look at questions like this is part of his universal success. It is amazing to consider that this book was a huge seller in Endo's native Japan, which itself is barely 1% Christian.

"Father, you were not defeated by me," Inoue says to Rodrigues. "You were defeated by this swamp of Japan." "No, no ... my struggle was with Christianity in my own heart" Rodrigues replies. Ultimately, Christian or non-Christian, no matter your age or nationality, faith comes down to these battles in the heart. Endo does a magnificent job depicting this, and Silence is an outstanding book because of it.

I just finished "Scandal" by Shusaku Endo which makes it the third book I've read by this author. All of the books have been excellent with "Silence" being my favorite. Endo is a Christian Japanese author and "Scandal", like "Silence" give an insight to the theological questions that go through his mind. The basic issue in Scandal is the relationship between good and evil in all of us. The main character in the story is a Japanese Christian writer (this whole book is pretty autobiographical with little attempt to hide that fact). At an awards ceremony he is confronted by the possibility that he has a double and that double has been spending a lot of time on the seedier side of life. The actions of his double threaten his reputation and he searches out this "doppleganger" to resolve that threat. Along the way he becomes interested in the nature and motives of the underworld people he comes in contact with.

Mr. Endo poses a variety of questions for the reader. As I previously mentioned, the main question is the level of good and evil in all of us. He seems to suggest that those of us who worship Jesus have within us the potential to have been one of those who stoned Jesus on His way to the Cross. While this is a shocking proposition to many, Endo's tale leaves one pondering the issue.

This book, like the other two I've read (including "The Sea and Poison"), is written in a compelling style that moves the reader along without any literary roadblocks. Even though you may quess correctly at some of the outcome, you want to see how the author gets you there. I rated this a "4" instead of a "5" because it fell a bit short of "Silence" so I knew he could do better.

Endo doesn't give you easy answers. This book explores the darker side of human nature, the side behind easy domestic life, beyond common decency, beneath worldly success. It may not be a pleasant book to read, as it doesn't gloss over the capacity for evil in a human being, but it is a book that will leave you thinking about just how authentic you are. If you're not ready to face brutal honesty, don't read this book. But if you're prepared for some deep insights into the nature of man, you shouldn't let this one pass you by.

I picked this book up in a used books store in Hiroshima, mainly because the selection of English books was very limited. I had not heard of Endo prior to that, but having read this work, I intend to find and read more of his novels.

The most intriguing aspect of this book is certainly how Endo manages to simultaneously keep us reading and caring for his characters even as they commit reprehensible acts. Without offering final answers, Endo details some fascinating problems inherent in human relationships and human nature. Sin? Evil? Redemption? God? Trust? Honesty? Marriage? Multiple personalities? All of these topics are intricately interwoven through the web that links Suguro, the aging writer; his decadent impersonator; his trusted wife of many years; Madame Naruse, the mysterious hospital volunteer; Motoko Itoi, the chubby painter; Kobari, the dogged reporter; and Matsu, the caring teenager. Suguro is the focal point, and the story is told from his perspective. Some characters therefore remain incomplete to us because never fully understood by him, which serves to illustrate him more clearly. Those characters that Endo can flesh out he fleshes out brilliantly, making them complex, real and believable, driving home the point that sin and evil are inherent in all of us. I found myself identifying with several of the characters and wondering what exactly (apart perhaps from the grace of God) keeps me from living out my evil desires.

In retrospect you wonder how a couple things could happen the way they did - but there may be logical answers to these problems, provided they are framed in the logical framework of the story, which isn't always the framework of everyday reality as we experience it. Other questions may be unanswerable and intended as such, for instance what the exact relationship between Madame Naruse and Suguro's wife is. To me, these open questions add to the pleasure of this book.

The story will make you think - about yourself, the people around you, the repulsive urges within all of us, and the miracle it is that not more of us go crazy. And if you let it make you think, it will tell you about yourself, and tell perhaps more than you'd like to hear. Because it plumbs the depths of human depravity, it is depressing; because it makes the reader identify with that depravity, it is frightening.

Read it.

This very powerful novel known as a classic, evokes strong feelings and emotions in the reader, especially if he is a committed Christian. The background of the novel is the persecution of Christians in Japan in the early seventeenth century. There are lots of historical elements in the novel. The Samurai who undertook a voyage in 1613 seems to have kept a journal of his experiences abroad. Fr Luis Sotelo the model for Valesco is also a historical person. Besides, the author as the first Japanese to study abroad after the war acknowledges that there are also some autobiographical elements in the novel. The Samurai called Rokuemon Hasekura and Fr Velasco a missionary of the Franciscan Order are the main characters. Both are on a mission to the Nueva Espana, Espana and Rome as a Japanese envoy and his Spanish interpreter respectively. They plan to meet the King as well as the Pope. Both are eager to make their mission successful. Blinded by their own ambitions, both of them fail to see the truths before them. Both of them meet with disappointment and defeat. Soon they realize their mistakes, but too late to save their own lives. They gradually come to an understanding of what it really means to follow Christ, and embrace martyrdom.

There are various themes that are dealt with in the novel in a profoundly powerful manner. The snobbishness of the religion preached by the affluent clergy, the relevance of the sufferings and death of Christ to the ordinary people, the fickleness and pride of the Japanese people, the political strategies of the Japanese rulers, the ambitions of the foreign missionaries, the rivalries between missionary orders etc are only some of them.

One of the biggest surprises I have received in the last year was "The Samurai", for good reason. Though it starts slowly, this novel is a gripping tale of determination, sacrifice, honor, deceit, and love, following a group of three Japanese noblemen and a Spanish priest in their trek from Japan to Rome. The priest hopes to be declared Bishop of Japan in order to oversee the missionary effort in that country, and is willing to sacrifice almost anything to conquer the religious intolerance of Japan at the time. The noblemen are trying to regain family lands by succeeding in their mission to establish trade between Japan and Nueva Espana. I could not put this novel down once the quest began, and I nearly wept as I finished it. I highly recommend this novel to one and all.

This is a fictionalized account of a true event, a Japanese diplomatic expedition to Mexico and eventually to Spain and Rome. The characters are well drawn, and their motivations made clear notwithstanding the considerable cultural differences between their time/place and ours. Not a book you will soon forget -- highly recommended.

Shusako Endo has written his "Life of Jesus" for a readership that is primarily Japanese. To that end, he writes in the preface:

"The religious mentality of the Japanese is responsive to one who 'suffers with us' and who 'allows for our weakness,' but their mentality has little tolerance for any kind of transcendent being who judges humans harshly, then punishes them. In brief, the Japanese tend to seek in their gods and buddhas a warm-hearted mother rather than a stern father. With this fact always in mind I tried not so much to depict God in the father-image that tends to characterize Christianity, but rather to depict the kind-hearted maternal aspect of God revealed to us in the personality of Jesus."

In short, Endo is completely aware that he is not capturing the "whole" Jesus in this account. Further, he wants the reader to understand that he is not trying to write an all encompassing account of one whom Endo completely agrees is the very Son of God.

Having kept Endo's prefatory admonition in mind, I must agree that this book wonderfully conveys of the love of Christ for man. To that end, I highly recommend the book.

On the down-side, Endo indulges in some rather speculative theories regarding Christ. To illustrate, Endo believes that Jesus was a disciple of John the Baptist. He also asserts that Jesus' temptation in the desert by the devil is metaphor for a conflict he may have had with the Essenes. Unfortunately, Endo doesn't really endeavor to support these theories.

In defense of the author, however, Endo is entirely up-front with the fact that his understanding of these matters is theory. He does not pass his notions off as uncontrovertible truth. His humility in this area is refreshing.

If you have an interest in Christ and, more particularly, in what others think about him, pick this book up and take the time to read it slowly. You won't be disappointed.

This book is the life of Jesus, told in a way that will help today's individuals understand the political and religious climate back then. Using a writing style very similar to "The Perfect Storm", Endo write a beautiful story, interuppting it often to explain the history of a certain people, or explain the politics of the day, so that the reader can better understand what is occuring.

Endo is very careful to point out the difference from what is fact and what is his personal belief, and often provides multiple points of view when his personal beliefs are concerned.

All in all this is an outstanding book that allows people to better understand what the life of Jesus was really like. Whether or not you believe that he was the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth really did exist, and he did live an extrodinary life.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has any interest in the subject.

Shusaku Endo, in his own words a "solitary novelist in the Orient", has given us a singular gift in "A Life of Jesus." This novelist employed his talent to put a soundtrack and lighting to the gospels, complete with the dimensions of smell, taste, and touch. While I feel he used the word 'emaciated' one too many times in reference to Jesus, the point he makes is clear; Jesus was not what anyone expected a Messiah to be.

Endo takes a good portion of the book to explore the POV's of the disciples. His is the first account I have seen that presents a compassionate portrait of Judas Iscariot, a man who, in the end, hated himself to death. Toward the end of the book, Endo hammered the perplexing question of what changed the cowardly disciples, who had abandoned Jesus to his fate...the conclusion Endo reached did indeed resonate with this particular reader, though I could not help feel a bit of restless frustration with the end...his conclusions about the 'electrifying change' he saw in the disciples not once suggested the beginning of the book of Acts, where a once denying Peter is now empowered to not only hold forth, but to do so boldly.

The point Endo labors is more about the power of resurrection...he says "Regarding other miracles in the life of Jesus, the Gospel record is soft, compared to the resurrection." Indeed, it was fascinating to get inside the brains of Endo's disciples--the word 'resurrection' has new meaning for me.

I greatly admired this work, am still thinking about it, and had the feeling it ended too soon. In Endo's own words, because I cannot say it better, "Regarding those who deserted him, those who betrayed him, not a word of resentment came to his lips...he prayed for nothing but their salvation. That's the whole life of Jesus. It stands out clean and simple, like a single Chinese ideograph brushed on a blank sheet of paper. It was so clean and simple that no one could make sense of it, and not one could produce its like."

I just finished this for a class on journey literature. Definitely an entertaining read. An interesting commentary on reconciling Christianity with Japanese social, cultural, and religious traditions. I believe Shusaku Endo, the author, modelled this somewhat on the struggles in his own life (hence "retrospective"). The book tells of the journey of a group of Japanese tourists to the Ganges river in India, each in search of something different. First, we have the Isobe, the Japanese salaryman whose wife's death fills his heart with regret at never having professed his love for her adequately. Then we have Mitsuko, the divorced college grad who insists on tormenting a studious Catholic classmate named Otsu. We are also treated to several other characters with various backgrounds and reasons for visiting the Ganges. At times, the characters seem too contrived. For example, the newlyweds on their honeymoon are conceivable in their cultural insensitivity, but at times it seems as if they are being used as tools to play off of the main characters. Definitely an enjoyable read, but the construction of the characters is a bit forced at times. One of the main themes seemed to be the positive lack of a clear dichotomy between good and evil. Otsu finds this in the religious tolerance of his Hindu teachers (ironically, while they are in India, Indira Gandhi is murdered by Sikhs); Mitsuko finds this in the Indian pantheon of Gods and Goddesses--each portraying both a fearsome, bloodthirsty side in striking juxtaposition with a compassionate, loving side. I feel like Endo is a bit heavy-handed with this point at times... just seems like he goes a little far with using the characters to make his point. I don't know if I completely recommend picking this one up.

Shusaku Endo's "Deep River" is the story of several Japanese tourists on a sightseeing trip to visit various Hindu and Buddhist holy sites in the region of the Ganges River in India. For four of these tourists, however, this trip is more like a pilgrimage; each is at a point of spiritual or moral uncertainty in his or her life and is seeking some sort of redemption, closure, or significance.

First we meet Isobe, an elderly man who recently has lost his wife to cancer. Although skeptical at first, he now has hope that his wife has been reincarnated, and he has evidence he might find her in India. Then there is Mitsuko, a woman who, when in college, seduced a pious Christian student named Otsu just for fun, to see if she could lure him away from his God; after an unhappy marriage she devoted her time to charitable hospital work and is now searching for Otsu, who she has heard is now a Catholic priest living in India. Numada is a children's story writer who gets his inspiration from imagined communications with animals; recovering from tuberculosis, he comes to believe that a bird his wife bought for him as a pet died in place of him. He has come to India to see the bird and animal sanctuaries. Kiguchi is an ex-soldier who suffered horrible near-death experiences in World War II Burma; he has come to India to memorialize his fallen war comrades.

My feelings about this novel are divided. On one hand, Endo's descriptions of Indian scenery and customs from the Japanese vantage point and the culture clash are excellent; he writes poignantly, if a little too sentimentally; and his hope for peace between the religions of the world is certainly noble. (Repudiating Christianity's Eurocentrism, Otsu believes God can be found among all nations and religions.)

On the other hand, the simplicity with which Endo presents his protagonists and their situations implies that the author is more interested in conveying his personal religious convictions than in pure narrative invention. His symbols of the divine (Otsu as a Christ-like savior, Gaston the hospital volunteer as an angel) are so transparent, they seem less like literary devices than arbitrary miraculous avatars, especially towards the end, where the novel's tone becomes increasingly didactic. Case in point: The tour group includes a young married couple named the Sanjos, whose selfish, insensitive, and materialistic attitudes seem to represent the modern affluent Japan and what Endo feels is an arrogant, godless society. Their speech and actions are too unrealistically annoying, too unconvincing, as though Endo were manipulatively trying to make his readers hate them and see his point. This is some of the most contrived characterization I've seen in any novel meant to be read by adults.

"Deep River" is a nicely written novel of good intentions, but it is more craft than art, and it ultimately reads more like a laundry list of conventional religious platitudes than an enduring piece of literature.

I had to read this for my Asian history class. It's a quick read, something that can be easily read in two hours. It's also fairly understandable. Endo's depiction of each character on their journey to India is amazing. Mitsuko, the self-abosorbed, divorced, cynical woman and her friend Otsu, a Catholic priest who is more pantheistic than he is Catholic, Numado, a meloncholy man who writes children's books and can talk to animals, Isobe, a widower trying to make sense of his life and his wife's death, Kiguchi , a sickly war vet in which everything around him reminds him of combat, and the Sanjos, the yuppie, naive couple going to India on their honeymoon.

There is great significance in each of the characters. Ostu being a Christ figure, the Sanjos representing the "Westernized" Japanese who are almost ignorant of the Indian culture and religion. Although I cannot agree with some of the worldviews discussed in the novel, it's a great book and the most symbolistic book I have read in years.

It is no accident that Ostu gave God the name of "Onion." An onion has several layers to it. Ostu believed that the God of Christianity was also the God of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, etc. This is where I give this book 4 stars instead of 5. The God of the Old and New Testaments cannot be the same as the ones of Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.