Silence - Endo - 3 stars

[Jgrace]

Silence - Shusaku Endo
3 stars

I had high hopes for this book. It is such an interesting premise, a book about a 17th century Jesuit priest ministering to the persecuted Japanese Christians of feudal Japan; written by famous, Japanese, Catholic author. The first half of the book is Father Rodrigues’ first person account of his journey and the beginning of his mission in Japan. Much of this is in letters to his superior. After Rodrigues’ capture and imprisonment, Endo switches to a third person narrative.

Father Rodrigues and his partner have two goals; to minister to the remaining Christian population and to discover the truth about their mentor, Father Ferreira. They are unwilling to believe reports that Ferreira renounced his faith under torture. The book is deliberately constructed to examine major theological conflicts. What is the role of Judas, as represented by the character Kichijiro? Why is God silent in face of suffering? Is there really a God? What is Christian mercy?

I tend to enjoy characters who grapple with hard questions. Father Rodrigues definitely had a plateful of tough issues to deal with. The questions are fascinating. The book was not. It may be that I missed something in translation, but the writing was too stilted. It read like a court document. I never felt the necessary emotions that impelled the character’s behavior. ( And I wish the translator could have used synonyms for apostasy and apostatize now and then.)

It was interesting to have this perspective on early Christianity in Japan, but I think Endo was more interested in presenting the theological questions than in creating a rich historical fiction. My book had a foreward by Martin Scorsese and a translator’s preface. These were the most interesting parts of the book.

[Michael]

So glad to see your review and save me from jumping into it (it reached a top of pile of my bedside table).

I am not religious but I like tales of missionaries and the balance between the effort to good and the sin of serving colonialism or ignoring native beliefs.

[Jgrace]

The interesting thing about this book is that it was not overtly critical of the Portuguese Jesuits. It portrayed the remnant Japanese Christians as being from the misused and abused serf class. The daimyo naturally saw any belief system that might question their supremacy as a threat. It's a different way to view the mission Jesuits. However, that wasn't the focus of the book, or only peripherally. The book is about the man's crisis in faith.