Deep River (novel)
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2009) |
.jpg) First edition | |
| Author | Shusaku Endo |
|---|---|
| Original title | 深い河 |
| Set in | India |
| Published | 1993 |
Deep River (深い河, Fukai kawa) is a novel by Shusaku Endo published in 1993. When he died in 1996, only two novels were chosen to be placed inside his coffin. Deep River was one of them.[citation needed]
Plot summary[edit]
The story traces the journey of four Japanese tourists on a tour to India in 1984.[1] Each has different purposes and expectations. Even though the tour is interrupted when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by militant Sikhs, the tourists find their own spiritual discoveries on the banks of the Ganges River.
One of the tourists is Osamu Isobe. He is a middle-class manager whose wife has died of cancer. On her deathbed she asked him to look for her in a future reincarnation. His search takes him to India, even though he has doubts about reincarnation.
Kiguchi is haunted by war-time horrors in Burma and seeks to have Buddhist rituals performed in India for the souls of his friends in the Japanese army as well as his enemies. He is impressed by a foreign Christian volunteer who helped his sick friend deal with tragic experiences during the war.
Numada has a deep love for animals ever since he was a child in Manchuria. He believes that a pet bird he owns has died in his place. He goes to India to visit a bird sanctuary.
Mitsuko Naruse, after a failed marriage, realizes that she is a person incapable of love. She goes to India hoping to find the meaning of life. Her values are challenged by the awaiting Otsu, a former schoolmate she once cruelly seduced and then left. Although he had a promising career as a Catholic priest, Otsu’s heretical ideas of a pantheistic God have led to his expulsion. He helps carry dead Indians to the local crematoria so that their ashes can be spread over the Ganges. His efforts ultimately lead to his peril as he is caught in the anti-Sikh uprisings in the country. Meanwhile, Mitsuko meets two nuns from the Missionaries of Charity and begins to understand Otsu's idea of God.
Characters[edit]
- Osamu Isobe, a middle manager who looks for a girl named Rajini Puniral, the potential reincarnation of his dead wife.
- Mitsuko Naruse, a former housewife who takes a trip both as a pilgrimage and to see her ex-boyfriend Otsu as atonement for mistreating him
- Numada, a bird watcher who wants to set a bird in his possession free.
- Kiguchi, a former WWII Imperial Japanese Army soldier.
- Enami, the tour guide.
- Mr. Sanjo, a photojournalist on honeymoon with his wife.
- Mrs. Sanjo, his vapid new wife.
- Augustine Otsu, Mitsuko's former boyfriend, now a Catholic priest in Varanasi.
Film adaption[edit]
A film based on the novel (also named Fukai kawa) was made in 1995. It was directed by Kei Kumai. The film stars Kumiko Akiyoshi as Mitsuko, Eiji Okuda as Otsu, Hisashi Igawa as Isobe, Yoichi Numata as Kiguchi, and Tetta Sugimoto as Enami. Kyoko Kagawa plays Mrs. Isobe in flashbacks, while Numada becomes Tsukada, played by Toshiro Mifune, and Kin Sugai plays his wife.
References[edit]
- ^ Pace, Eric (30 September 1996). "Shusaku Endo Is Dead at 73; Japanese Catholic Novelist". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
===
Deep River Hardcover – 18 December 1995
by Shusaku Endo (Author), Van C. Gessel (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 88 ratings
See all formats and editions
Audible Logo Audiobook
1 Credit
Hardcover
$49.62
3 Used from $12.98
8 New from $37.44
The river is the Ganges, where a group of Japanese tourists converge: Isobe, grieving the death of the wife he ignored in life; Kiguchi, haunted by war-time memories of the Highway of Death in Burma; Numada, recovering from a critical illness; Mitsuko, a cynical woman struggling with inner emptiness; and, the butt of her cruel interest, Otsu, a failed seminarian for whom the figure on the cross is a god of many faces. In this novel, the renowned Japanese writer Shusaku Endo reaches his ultimate religious vision.
Read less
Print length
222 pages
Product description
Review
...Mr. Endo is a master of the interior monologue, and he builds 'case' by 'case, ' chapter by chapter, a devastating critique of the world that has 'everything' but lacks moral substance and seems headed nowhere.--Robert Coles "New York Times Book Review"
A soulful gift to a world he keeps rendering as unrelievedly parched.--Robert Coles "New York Times Book Review"
One of Japan's greatest twentieth-century writers.-- "Publishers Weekly"
From the Back Cover
Thirty years lie between the leading contemporary Japanese writer Shusaku Endo's justly famed Silence and his powerful new novel Deep River, a book which is both a summation and a pinnacle of his work. The river is the Ganges, where a group of Japanese tourists converge: Isobe, grieving the death of the wife he ignored in life; Kiguchi, haunted by wartime memories of the Highway of Death in Burma; Numanda, recovering from a critical illness; Mitsuko, a cynical woman struggling with inner emptiness; and butt of her cruel interest, Otsu, a failed seminarian for whom the figure on the cross is a god of many faces. Bringing these and other characters to vibrant life and evoking a teeming India so vividly that the reader is almost transported there, Endo reaches his ultimate religious vision, one that combines Christian faith with Buddhist acceptance.
About the Author
Shusaku Endo (1923-1996) is widely regarded as one of the most important Japanese authors of the late twentieth century. He won many major literary awards and was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times. His novel Silence was recently made into a major film directed by Martin Scorsese.
Van C. Gessel is a professor of Japanese at Brigham Young University, and has a Ph.D. in Japanese literature from Columbia University. After joining the Church of Latter-day Saints in 1968, Gessel served as a missionary to Japan from 1970-71. He was given a lifetime achievement award from the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture of Columbia University for his translations of modern Japanese fiction.
Read less
Pay with Zip
Buy now and pay at your pace using Zip Learn more
Product details
Publisher : New Directions (18 December 1995)
Language : English
Hardcover : 222 pages
ISBN-10 : 0811212890
ISBN-13 : 978-0811212892
Dimensions : 14.48 x 2.29 x 21.34 cm
Customer Reviews: 4.3 out of 5 stars 88 ratings
4.7 out of 5 stars 33
Paperback
$29.49
Get it 5 - 13 Jan
FREE Shipping
Illustrated World Religions: A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions
Illustrated World Religions: A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions
Huston Smith
4.6 out of 5 stars 360
Top reviews from Australia
There are 0 reviews and 0 ratings from Australia
Top reviews from other countries
BGH
5.0 out of 5 stars Really good book and brilliantly translated
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 3 August 2016
Verified Purchase
Really good book and brilliantly translated. There are similarities in terms of theme with another book by Endo: Silence. I really liked the setting of India and the "back stories" of the main characters in this book. Very readable and highly recommended.
One person found this helpful
Report abuse
Allen Aicken
4.0 out of 5 stars The river subsumes it all.
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 20 March 2013
Verified Purchase
The book has a spiritual, even religious, heart that sees life through the eyes of one committed to the starting point of Jesus, yet it sees that life, warts and all. There are the usual story themes here but they come from a Japanese perspective, which translates most beautifully into deeper and clearer Western perception. There is hope in ihe novel that filters through from surprising sources.
Report abuse
Consumer Watchdog
3.0 out of 5 stars Flawed Masterpiece
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 11 February 2011
Verified Purchase
Read this book for the possibilities of what it could have been. Not for what it is. This work really does have a masterpiece hidden within it, like a sculpture in marble, but the final form is missing. Many of the conversations are just not that realistic or engaging while the plot appears somewhat contrived at times. The character of Gaston, for example, appears to have been simply 'transplanted' from 'Wonderful Fool', although it does serve the purpose of echoing the self-sacrifice of Otsu and acts as a counterpoint to Mitsuko's motivation for working in a Hospital. While the book purports to be about a group of Japanese tourists the focus eventually turns to the fate of Otsu, a Catholic priest of sorts. On the one hand, Otsu's failings are, at times, a projection of Endo himself (with his troubles of reconciling Western thought with Eastern traditions) while the sacrifices Otsu makes clearly cast him as a Christ-like figure. Underlying 'Deep River' is the beautiful idea of redemption. The Classical writers directed Western thought to believe that life, in all its guises, is a quest for immortality whether it be through fame, deeds or our own children. In 'Deep River', Endo portrays life not as a quest for immortality (a little surprising given the religious scope of the work), nor as the pursuit of happiness, but as a searching for fulfillment. A disparate group of Japanese tourists each seek an answer to their troubles. Only the minor characters of Sanjo and his wife seem to be 'typical' tourists unburdened with life's troubles being simply swept along by materialism. In a place where two rivers meet, Endo tried to reconcile the East -West dichotomy in his own thinking. He doesn't quite get there. 'Deep River' is a good read but lacks the philosophical weight and credibility of 'Silence'. Endo requested to be buried with two of his books. One of these was 'Deep River', which he believed to be his masterpiece, but which is flawed. The other was 'Silence', which is his masterpiece, and one of the greatest works of the twentieth century.
Read less
3 people found this helpful
Report abuse
sb
3.0 out of 5 stars A grave Indian story
Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on 15 February 2013
Verified Purchase
This story has been presented from the perspective of a non-Hindu Asian in a soul-searching manner and offers interesting insights into the one of the oldest traditions of death...
Report abuse
Ryan
3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 26 December 2012
Verified Purchase
The novel starts pretty well as Endo describes case by case who the main characters are. However the narrative gets repetitive at times and in the end the cases don't really come together.
Report abuse
==
Deep River
by
In this moving novel, a group of Japanese tourists, each of whom is wrestling with his or her own demons, travels to the River Ganges on a pilgrimage of grace.
Aug 09, 2011K.D. Absolutely rated it liked it
Shelves: 1001-core, asian, saddest, religion
Reading Deep River is like having a sugar rush. It is too much sweet. Right after the book, I just thought of having an edgy book. Maybe one that is dark and sad. I thought I’d like to neutralize the taste and get rid of the sweetness. Maybe a dark and strong coffee or some salty corn chips. Maybe just brush my teeth and I would be fine again.
Had I read this in high school when I was still a naïve young man, I would have rated this with 5 stars outright. It talks about pantheism or a belief that God and material world are one and the same thing and that God is present in everything. It talks about One God. The God was there at the beginning but men had different ideas of worshipping Him so they created different religions. No religion is perfect since men are not perfect. It tackles the beliefs of three religions: Buddism, Catholicism and Hinduism.
Aug 09, 2011K.D. Absolutely rated it liked it
Shelves: 1001-core, asian, saddest, religion
Reading Deep River is like having a sugar rush. It is too much sweet. Right after the book, I just thought of having an edgy book. Maybe one that is dark and sad. I thought I’d like to neutralize the taste and get rid of the sweetness. Maybe a dark and strong coffee or some salty corn chips. Maybe just brush my teeth and I would be fine again.
Had I read this in high school when I was still a naïve young man, I would have rated this with 5 stars outright. It talks about pantheism or a belief that God and material world are one and the same thing and that God is present in everything. It talks about One God. The God was there at the beginning but men had different ideas of worshipping Him so they created different religions. No religion is perfect since men are not perfect. It tackles the beliefs of three religions: Buddism, Catholicism and Hinduism.
The setting starts with the characters in Japan and as they search for something, they all end up in India particularly at the Ganges River. This river is the most sacred river to the Hindus. They believe that the river is holy because its water comes from a confluence of many small streams and thus it has its cleansing effect. They believe that when you bathe in it, your soul is purified and you are reborn. They also scatter the ashes of their dead people believing that they will have a peaceful journey to reincarnation. So, even carcasses of dead animals can be seen floating on it. So, they submerge themselves there, swim and even rinse their mouths, unmindful of the fact that the water is ranked among the top 5 most polluted rivers in the world in 2007 due to high levels of fecal coliform bacteria.
The storytelling is wonderful though. The plot is thicker than say Paolo Coelho’s The Alchemist and the characters are multi-dimensional. Each of the four Japanese tourists has his/her own interesting story.
The storytelling is wonderful though. The plot is thicker than say Paolo Coelho’s The Alchemist and the characters are multi-dimensional. Each of the four Japanese tourists has his/her own interesting story.
The story of Isobe was the one that struck me most. The opening scene of him being told that his wife for 35 years had cancer and would only have 4 months to live was so moving it made me glued to the book and ignored the 2 buddy books I was expected to read for our book club. The other equally brilliant story was that of the soldier Kiguchi and I was entralled by the twist. I did not see it coming. The death of his friend and the way Endo made it intersect with the life of atheist nurse Mitsuko were nicely crafted. Endo chose not to incorporate fantasy or supernatural elements to make himself believable. This is my first time to read a Japanese novel with religion as the main theme. I’ve read 8 books by Haruki Murakami and one book each by Banana Yoshimoto, Yukio Mishima and Kenzaburo Oe. They all did not dwell anything on religion and all use gimmicks (talking river, apparition, surrealism, falling leaches, talking cat, etc). So, this book got me interested since I found it refreshing and beguiling.
Yet, after reading, the sweet taste was there. Motherhood statement like All religions are equal. Scenes that seemed like pan in the sky: the Japanese priest carries the dead Hindus imitating Jesus Christ; the nuns belonging to the congregation of Mother Theresa (may the Lord bless her soul) helping the sick and the needy; and the nurse realizes that she needs God in her life after all. They were too positive that my head was swirling and my heart was palpitating from sugar rush. Quite timely because this was the season of Lent but I just did not expect the book to be like a Religion101 prescribed-book in high school.
But then, maybe I am an old man and my eyes are jaded already. I better have my blood sugar checked and my eyes refracted one of these days.
(less)
flag38 likes · Like · 10 comments · see review
Sep 08, 2019Dhanaraj Rajan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: favorites, literature, japanese-lit
First Declaration: This book is my new favourite. And it has made it to the list of my all time favourites.
The Reasons:
The book answers many questions or tries to answer many questions. These questions are obviously the themes very close to my heart.
Some of the Questions:
1. What is humanity? Is suffering part of humanity? Why can life be only of happiness? (Answer is primarily tried in the episode relating to Hindu Goddess Chamunda. And parts of the answer are also scattered in the other chapters).
2. The differences. Do they add to the value of human kind? What are the negative sides to them? Do we bond together because of the hatred we have for the other? For instance, do I bond with my fellow compatriots because we are united in hating my enemy nation? Is the enmity the reason for our bonding or the love? Can differences be brought together under one unifying umbrella? If yes, at what expense? (Answer partially tried in the episode relating Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination).
3. What is a true religion? Is it Catholicism/Christianity or Hinduism or Buddhism or Shintoism? Can one religion claim superiority over other religions? Can one religion claim full authority for God's revelation? Why are there many religions? The answers are tried in the episodes relating the encounters between a Japanese Catholic Priest (Otsu) and Mitsuko (the girl who seduced Otsu in his school days). These episodes are my favourites too. The present day hot theological discussions on Religious Pluralism are expressed in a wonderful manner by Endo. Implicit in these arguments are also the tensions between the understanding of spirituality in the East and in the West. Superb analysis. (Disclaimer: It will appeal to the people in the East and for the people in West it may not appeal immediately. But it might help in clarifying the positions of the people in the East).
4. Reincarnation. Can a person be reincarnated after his/her death? I loved the answer. One gets reborn in one's memory.
5. Can good exist in bad? And can life and death be together? Can sin which results in separation from God also act as the source of redemption? Again, the answer is lovely.
6. Who is Jesus? What is the River Ganges? What does the Amida Sutra (Buddhist religious text) say? You will love the answers as you read the pages in the book.
7. How does a person cope with the loss of the beloved/hope? How does one deal with the grief? How does one deal with his/her inability to love?
Finally: Endo had brought to the conclusion of his own heart's search for many answers in this novel (Endo's last novel). If he had time left, he could have written another five or six novels each for the each question mentioned. Anyway, he did well in encapsulating everything in a succinct manner and weaving them in a superb story.
Postscript: In this novel, Shusaku Endo recommends, using the characters as his mouthpieces, two French novels. I will have to read them. The recommendations are: Moira by Julien Green and Therese by Francois Mauriac. (less)
flag28 likes · Like · 9 comments · see review
Jan 08, 2012B0nnie rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Deep River is a rich story which jumps around in time, in place, in ideas. So off we go, to Japan, Washington DC, France, Manchuria, Burma and India. We catch glimpses of the gods Chamunda and Kali, the Burma Highway of Death, yakiimo, reincarnation, a Ginko tree, a stray dog, Buddhist holy spots such as Lumbini Kapilavastu, Buddh-Gaya and Sarnath, the caste system called varna jati, the Andes Survivors, Shirley Maclaine, Indira Gandhi - and - sins of the flesh. Pierrot appears as a man, and as a bird. There is the quintessential ugly American, who happens to be Japanese this time.
One of the characters studies the works of François Mauriac, Georges Bernanos, and Julien Green at University (as Endo himself did). Their novels become a blueprint of her life.
Endo has stated in an essay that characters in a novel are free and cannot be coerced. He, like other great Christian writers (Charlotte Bronte, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Waugh, Greene, Tolkien, Flannery O’Connor, to name a few), reveals much about his characters through their relationship with God - but they act freely and have a will of their own.
The title and the epigraph reference an old negro spiritual called Deep River. However, the river in question here is the Ganges, sacred to Hindus. On its shores, in the year 1984, the characters search for spiritual meaning in their lives. They are pilgrims who do not know what they seek - it's not really the Buddist temples they are touring. Endo sees them as "cases", and there is a chapter for each.
The case of Otsu is central. A failed Catholic priest, he is a type of Prince Myshkin, a bumbling Christ like figure, full of goodness. Otsu has his onion, a name he uses for God. As in the parable of the onion told by Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov, the humble, earthy onion takes on a spiritual significance.
Another case is the woman Mitsuko. Acting out Moïra in Julien Green's novel, she seduced Otsu while they were students together, then spurns and despises him. Later on, in a loveless marriage she sees herself as Therese Desqueyroux.
Numada, who yearns for a connection with every living thing but finds it only with animals, has a back-story which could be its own novel, though that could be said of all these characters.
There's Kiguchi, a former soldier in Burma, with hellish memories,
I like this image of Chamunda too, Kiguchi unexpectedly announced with deep feeling. "On the battlefields in Burma, I always felt as though death was close at hand, and when I look at this gaunt statue now, I remember all the soldiers who died in the rain. The war was - horrible. And all those soldiers - they looked just like this."
Isobe, recently widowed, searches for his lost wife, yet the search is more inward than he knows.
Enami, the tour guide, has issues of his own and sees Chamunda as his mother. And that figure of woman, whether goddess or virgin or human is a major theme in the story.
The ending is abrupt, although you can easily make your own conclusions. I just wanted more. Also, some expressions in the translation seemed a bit clichéd. So, a heaping 4.5 stars and a handful of stardust too.
(less)
flag26 likes · Like · 7 comments · see review
Nov 29, 2017Fabian rated it really liked it
Wow, those forlorn and disparate spirits do not rest! But they do manage to come together, and what they find there, at the fated nucleus, fountainhead, existential monolith is exactly what moves the reader towards the epic end. The Ganges has never before been characterized in such a raw, personified way...
Asians in the Holy Lands. Japanese tourists in India...
There is something about the P.O.V. of Japanese tourists... mystical figures all their own. I will definitely abstain from saying anything about Japanese tourists in Las Vegas. Or Los Angeles. Or the beaches of Mexico. So the psychologies of these very Eastern characters is like mana from heaven, we unaccustomed to such unabashed neosemiEuropean repression. Unique, sad. But I cannot altogether subscribe to such fickle ways of reality... (less)
flag22 likes · Like · comment · see review
Sep 13, 2011Mariel rated it it was ok
Do you know that scene in Billy Madison when (this is a major spoiler if you haven't seen Billy Madison and still mean to) Bradley Whitford's character is asked to explain the difference between ethics and morals? And he whips out a gun instead? (It's on youtube.Here it is anyway. It must be wrong to post links to Adam Sandler movies. What can I say? I'm a heathen.) Deep River is apparently beloved by ethics students all over goodreads and amazon. I guess it is loved in Japan too, if ejaculatory book jacket quotes are to be believed (why would they falsely present information?). I really didn't love it. I'm probably the only person who pretty much hates this book. I don't know what the heck it had to do with ethics anyway. If I had a gun I'd whip it out instead of answering the big questions about which religion is more valid than the other. I don't care about any of them. So what does that have to do with ethics (or morals)? If anyone trembles in face of the gun than maybe any of these characters was anything more than a platform for Endo's religious posturing.
What Shusaku Endo tried to do with his novel is something I can appreciate in a "That's a nice message" kind of way. Like a bumper sticker in traffic. I don't want to stare at that same bumper sticker for hours during a traffic jam. World peace! Yeah, let's get that. Am I going to be stuck here all day? Look, there's a horrific car accident. Or a billboard. Yawn. Looking for a face in crowds that don't have any. The answer was spiritual. Was it? The make up was different. Hinduism, Buddhism or Christianity. Sure, all religions should get along and are as valid as any other. It seems to me that if you are going to believe in any outside of what you were raised into it would come from living rather than theorizing and talking a whole lot. That bumper sticker solved all my problems!
The characters were fighting the great gnawing hunger in the stomach that's dread of nothing to look forward to. The not even knowing why you don't feel anything. The characters were not characters but faceless subjects for Endo to easiest fit the expressions of the serene gods. If they had looked in each other... If there was an other to look to... One husband took his wife for granted while she was alive and follows her last words about reincarnation because he doesn't know what else to do. It's a feeling she had. But we don't know her! She was the stereotype of the doormat Japanese wife. Where was the belated passion? Doing what someone said or ignoring them is still frictionless. Another guy is dying. So is everyone else. The furthest into the void is Mitsuko and her quest to "win" over God/Jesus when she has premarital sex with a fellow student, Otsu. Yeah, because people who are dying to preach to you about what big Christians they are never whore it up. Riiiight. Since he threatened to kill her when she dumped him I'd say he wasn't taking the basics to heart. She gets the idea from your basic idiot guys having fun because they instinctively scorn someone who doesn't know how to fake the same normal. Not exactly groundbreaking insights here. There could have been something in the mutual emptiness if only. Endo pretty much writes that she feels empty and wants to be chosen over God by a man who doesn't know if he believes in the first place. Because he's as boring as she is, I thought. She'd have better luck with unsmiling Russian guards. If there's a pitch black version of empty it is these two. Too empty for me to give a fuck.
That's not even the worst of it. Deep River is your basic hollow travel guide story. Yep. They go to India (what a load of crock their tour guide was! The Japanese are so shocked by the presence of the lower castes. Because Japan doesn't have that? Are you fucking kidding me, Endo? What about the burakumin? See what I mean? Like American tourists who are shocked by the starving and don't notice the homeless on their own streets. But there are poor people living amongst the rich!) Who needs real characters when you have an exotic backdrop and temples and pictures of virgin Marys and goddesses of suffering. The characters can talk about how they question their beliefs and then you can tack on an ending about relating to the gods that represent and never have any real personal feeling with those who really do live around you. That's better than a hug. But they were in India and anything can happen if you distract readers with the comings and goings.
Are there ethics about not getting away with not writing a real book because you tacked on a religious answer? Or is that a moral dilemma? I hate this book, anyway. I look for answers in art. Can't expressing being the expression? Does it gotta get stuck that way? (less)
flag21 likes · Like · comment · see review
Mar 24, 2011William2 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: japan, fiction, translation, 20-ce
Second reading. Isobe is a middle-aged, Japanese businessman whose wife is dying of cancer. Before she dies she comes out of a coma long enough to whisper to her husband: ‘I know for sure...I’ll be reborn somewhere in this world. Look for me...find me...promise... promise!’ He is stricken by her loss. Whereas he hardly ever thought about her during her life, now he thinks about her all the time. He has never loved her as he does in death.
Ms. Naruse is a young hospital volunteer who sometimes sits with Mrs. Isobe. Back in college she was friends with a bullying group of young men, a few of whom she screwed without pleasure. The men want her to seduce Mr Ōtsu, a young student enrolled in the college's divinity program. Ms. Naruse despises everyone around her--especially Ōtsu--because doing so allows her to feel superior to them. She is in fact quite lost. She competes with Ōtsu’s god. She tries to break his faith. She is a cruel woman utterly lacking a spiritual life and devoid of compassion.
Numada makes his living writing stories about children and animals. He grew up in Japanese-occupied Manchuria (“Manchukuo”). His emotional connections in life have all been with animals. Things are going along quite well for Mr. Numada and his raucous family, he is alone even when surrounded by them, when he develops a serious lung condition. He’s in the hospital for two years and barely survives his final surgery. A myna bird his wife has brought him for company in the hospital, he believes, dies in his stead.
Kiguchi and Tsukada were both soldiers during WW II who traveled the Burmese Highway of Death. British and colonial-Indian troops chased their unit through inhospitable terrain during the rainy season until starvation and illness set in. It is thanks to Tsukada that Kiguchi is still alive. At one point he had brought Kiguchi meat he identified as that of a dead cow. Both survive. Thirty years later back in Japan Tsukada has the misfortune to meet the wife and daughter of the man whose flesh he ate. He drinks himself to death as a result.
All these characters,who respond to suffering in different ways, join a tour group going to India to see the Buddhist holy sites. Mr. Isobe to search for his reborn wife. Why India? This question is never addressed. Ms. Naruse goes to follow the troubled Ōtsu because, despite his misfortunes, he’s found meaning in life that she hasn’t. Numada wants to make an offering in thanksgiving for his survival. Kiguchi wants to undertake a Buddhist ceremony of remembrance for Tsukada and the soldiers who traveled the Highway of Death. At some point they all end up standing before the ghats on the River Ganges.
Varanasi, a Hindu holy city, is a place of extraordinary contrasts. Living and dying is everywhere, one right next to the other. The place is teeming, pestilential, filthy. Old and infirm Hindus from all over India travel here to die so their cremated remains --a free service supplied by outcasts-- can be scattered on the River Ganges. For only in this way, they believe, will their karmic slate be wiped clean. Only in this way can they proceed to the next life unfettered by mistakes made in the one they’re leaving.
In reading Endo’s earlier novels I often bridled at his particularly cloying form of Christian storytelling. In Deep River however something entirely new happens. Ōtsu is an outcast among his Catholic brethren because he will not adopt the view that Catholicism is the one true faith. In India he finally breaks with the Church and finds a welcome from a group of local saddhus, Hindu mendicants. It is his belief that every religion has validity, that every faith moves the supplicant toward salvation. For this view he is damned by his pious, dogmatic teachers and fellow students.
Deep River, Endo’s last novel, represents a fundamental shift for him in his subject matter and possibly in his world view. The book’s strength is its religious pluralism, its ecumenicism, nowhere evident in the doctrinaire earlier novels I have read. His narrative is without clutter and full of pungent Indian street scenes. The characters' humanity or lack thereof is convincing and movingly rendered. This is my favorite Endo novel without question. Highly recommended. (less)
flag21 likes · Like · 4 comments · see review
Dec 06, 2019Celia rated it it was amazing
Shelves: reading-the-world, translated, 2020-read, ten-year-challenge, 1001-challenge
"Endo has successfully dramatized the discovery that the sacred river of humanity flows within ourselves."--National Catholic Reporter
That description has really grabbed me.
Book is now both heard and read. I listened to the crisp voice of David Holt while I followed the text in a library paperback.
The book is written by a Japanese author but is primarily about India. A group of Japanese tourists are led through various parts of India as they seek spiritual re-birth. The experience of seeing the Ganges is central to their re-awakening.
The characters are very well drawn out.
There is Isobe, recently widowed and searching for his re-incarnated wife,
Kiguchi, a war veteran haunted by memories of Burma,
Numada, a writer recovering from a serious illness, and
Mitsuko, a cynical nurse searching for a heretical priest she knew in her youth.
I look forward to my next Shusaku Endo: Silence.
5 stars (less)
flag14 likes · Like · 5 comments · see review
May 16, 2020Inderjit Sanghera rated it really liked it
The novel begins with the beautiful-yet haunting-image of a man who, upon finding out that his wife has cancer, also hears the vulgar reverberations of a street pedlar selling his wares, his wife's death forever associated with the pedlar's voice in his mind. In many ways this passage comes to symbolise the feelings of the various characters who inhabit the novel, who are seeking a sense of fulfilment in India as their inner lives have become dominated by a sense of loss and ennui.
Endo explores the motivations of his characters with patience and understanding, building empathy for his characters. So the spiritually empty Mitsuko seeks to the vacuity which has overtaken her life with mockery; firstly for the conventions of bourgeois Japanese society and secondly for religion via her cruel treatment towards the pathetic Otsu. The writer Numada is unable to replicate the empathy he shares with animals in his relationship with people, whereas Kiguchi is haunted by his time as a soldier during the Second World War. Finally we come to Isobe, the character whose wife dies of cancer and is seeking for a sense of passion and love for her which didn't exist when she was alive.
Whilst, like most Endo's stories, the novel is highly moralistic, it does this in way which isn't cloying or sententious, or in a way that all of the character reach a moral apotheosis at the end of the novel. Instead Endo focuses on the human condition, with the stories acting as snapshots at a certain point in time of the characters lives, who demonstrated both frailty and strength, selfishness and selflessness and who are merely seeking a sense of belonging in a world which they cannot seem to make sense of. (less)
flag11 likes · Like · comment · see review
Aug 21, 2013David rated it it was ok
Shelves: big-red-circle
Three words for Otsu: Church of England. You can believe whatever the fuck you like and they'll let you be a bishop. Don't some of them not even believe in the literal truth of any of the Bible?
Two words for all of the other characters: Let's communicate!
Endo's created a host of emotionally inarticulate characters that are incapable of open and frank relationships, taken us through all of their problems and then left us grasping at spiritual solutions.
It's very ethnocentric, I know, but I would recommend that they work on their emotional articulacy and establishing open and frank relationships. Sure, go to India if you like. But communicating honestly with your life partner is probably much more helpful. (less)
flag8 likes · Like · 2 comments · see review
Feb 06, 2008Karson rated it really liked it
Shelves: favorites
A novel about different streams towards God and how there is a deep river that runs deep enough to handle all the craziness that goes on down here. I learned some really beautiful things about some other religions that I didn't know before I read this book. One of the most beautiful things that stuck with me is the symbolism of The Ganges river in India. People bring death there (they sprinkle loved ones ashes in there), but the also come to this river for ritual cleasings. It takes it all. Nothing is too ugly for the Ganges. It accepts all of reality death and life. This is also a theme in one of my other favorite novels called "My Name is Asher Lev" by Chaim Potok where Asher Lev (a little jewish boy) is drawn to art, but he finds himself wanted to draw the ugly things in the world as much as the beautiful things. He sees beauty in both death and life. (less)
flag7 likes · Like · comment · see review
Apr 20, 2019Curtis R rated it it was amazing
Shelves: asian-lit, books-about-rivers
Really a remarkable book; my review will NOT do it justice.
This sat on my shelf for awhile because I was intimidated by the topic. Shusaku Endo is one of my favorite authors, but his tone and themes typically take a much more melancholy look at life than many other authors. Perhaps you've seen the movie Silence, directed by the great Martin Scosese, with Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield, and Adam Driver. This is based on a book by the same author, and its friggin sweet as well.
Endo is a Japanese Catholic author, which is a rare and unique combination. Fittingly, one of his major themes in most of his works and this one as well, is the ability for Japanese society to authentically and naturally accommodate and integrate the Christian religion (without all of its additional western trappings). In many of his earlier works, he seems to believe in the possibility , while narrating the deep cultural and psychological difficulties of actually engaging the reality of it. His characters are never heroes, but individuals, people with problems deep set in their psyches from past trauma, current despair, relationship setbacks or personal failings. The advantage is a novel that is meaningful, insightful and relatable; the downside is that they can feel discouraging (because very often, life is). His portrayals of the Christian perspective on life are not glossy, easy or typical of the American idea. Apostasy, abandonment, cross-cultural confusion, historical impact on truth-claims, addiction, personal pride...these ingredients pepper the Christian existence for the faithful follower of Christ, who, in Endo's eyes, is typified by this verse more than any other: "[Jesus] was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem." With this as a central thrust, Endo emphasizes the themes of rejection, servanthood and sacrifice, and universal compassion as his character come to understand and align themselves with Christian ideas in a very complex and antagonistic world. (Like seriously, think about that verse just one minute. How different would American Christianity - or Roman Christianity, or YOUR Christianity - be, if that was the verse you always came back to, and judged everything else by? What if that verse represented the Church more than any other? What if I had the commitment to pursue that lifestyle above all else? yeesh, right?)
This book was his last, and is particularly interesting to me. From a literary perspective, he is a master storyteller and effortlessly weaves four or five plotlines of important characters throughout the novel - together, a group of Japanese tourists travel to the Ganges in India. Although none are particularly religious, each is seeking some sort of emotional and existential relief from the burdens of life. Most of them are quite taken aback when they come to realize that the primary religion surrounding them in India is not their own Buddhism, but Hinduism. The stories are special and sad, and we care deeply for the characters while we observe their search for self-understanding and some sense of freedom from pain. There are some unique plot-twists and overlaps and it moves at a very steady pace for so serious a book.
The Hindu religion and the Ganges provide a suitable context for the novel's thematic excursions, but also as a peek behind the curtain at Endo's own ideas. As the characters travel to a distant land with different religions ideas and socioeconomic dividers, they experience personal enlightenment in unexpected ways.
In all of his writings, Endo considers the compatibility between his Japanese cultural identity and his Christian theological persuasion, and it seems that his convictions have developed as well. As the main character Otsu is constantly kicked out of seminaries because of his eastern-leaning beliefs (tending towards pantheism or a religiously functional relativism), we see glimpses of Endo's own struggles to successfully assimilate the western-influenced ideas of Christianity into his own more open eastern mindset. Many other reviewers have concluded that he may've abandoned his original Christian convictions, but I think that Endo, as always, has not necessarily arrived to any conclusions, but has merely expanded his understanding of God's involvement in the world and has taken a more global vision. Otsu remains loyal to his own spiritual connection while acknowledging God's presence in traditions that are not his own (he finds community with Hindu monks and takes part in their traditional practices of caring for the destitute caste in India). In similar fashion, I wonder if Endo also recognizes the active engagement of the Christian God through other traditions - keeping in mind the close knit relationship religion, culture and history play together, which has plagued and provoked his thought in the past.
If you are interested in the inward journey of individuals as they navigate through particularly challenging, lonely, and even shattering situations, this book may offer a lot of validation and insight for you. I am a Christian, but I am also often conflicted by the reality of infinite perspectives and possibilities (seriously, what is anything? is anything anything?). I am also acutely aware of how one's own personal upbringing and cultural conception of reality colors everything, and this makes me wonder if true change is possible at any level of one's being. This book, while offering no attempts at answers or answers themselves, allowed me to embrace others on that same journey of self-realization and redemption and reconsider my own activities, existence and aims.
If you want to read a book with a lot of action scenes or obvious answers, I would not recommend this at all.
(less)
flag6 likes · Like · comment · see review
Sep 09, 2019booklady marked it as to-read
After reading my friend Dhanaraj Rajan's review of this book I knew I wanted to read this. (less)
flag6 likes · Like · see review
Dec 12, 2013S. rated it it was amazing
Shelves: red-queen
it's been reported in literary papers or sections that an unofficial "twenty-year rule" applies to the Nobel Prize in Literature-- that is, every twenty years or so (unless it was every twenty-five years, and I'm misremembering), the Nobel Literature Prize committee "has" to award the prize to a Japanese writer. such would not be unvelieable. if I remember the WP entry on the NPL correctly, the first twenty years of the prize were entirely Sweden or Sweden-Norway specific, until the realization slowly dawned that the entire world was watching what was then the only true international prize, and a large cash bonus to boot. Japan is 10% of the world economy and possibly that percentage of major world literature in sales, and perhaps more importantly to the publishing world at large, it highly respects copyright and will even invest in projects requiring half of all royalties be sent abroad.
the first big postwar duel apparently erupted between YASUNARI KAWABATA (the master of elegiac, short little pieces capturing Japanese uniqueness and intricate social minueting) and his protégée YUKIO MISHIMA (who wrote longer, more ambitious plot-filled novels about grief and longing). literary scholars, after decades of scholarship on both, probabliy feel the Prize was mis-awarded-- MISHIMA, despite his vainglorious death, is more highly referenced and influential; more writers fifty years on list him as "influence," whereas Kawabata, while known to the entire community, is more the origami-expert of the intricate fold.
today of course the central Nobel story is HARUKI MURAKAMI vs. HARUKI MURAKAMI. as in, will the Nobel Prize award the medal to HM or will it fail to act in time. no other name is seriously floated in contention.
the 1980s battle is interesting on a different level. both KENZABURO OE (the eventual winner) and ENDO SHUSAKU are a bit less read today and considered a step down from the KAWABATA-MISHIMA showdown. OE represented secular sociality and ENDO heretical Christianity. but aside from this issue, there is the overall sense of aesthetics in each's work, and of course the philosophy.
this is a book about five Japanese pilgrims to the Ganges and the "case" of each, describing the spiritual concerns and life events that bring them all to India for a brief trip. it begins "on the airplane" and then explores the background and history of each.
endo's other work I've read although a 3/5 non-fiction/fiction piece (literary analysis and just literature), always inspires rounds of conversation in artistic dinners.
this work is more just a very solid 5/5 lit work (less)
flag6 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jul 24, 2022Nocturnalux rated it liked it
Shelves: japanese-literature-translated, 2022-boxall, asian-literature, japanese-literaturate-all, 2022-books
Endou is at his best when dissecting Japanese society, and tends to lose me when he goes into speechifying mode. So this one is pretty much hit and miss.
flag6 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review
Dec 12, 2022George rated it liked it
Shelves: 1001-books-list-read-2007-to-2018
3.5 stars. An original, intelligent, character based novel about Japanese tourists undergoing varieties of life crisis, visiting the river Ganges, at Varanasi, India, during the week of the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister. All the characters seek reconciliation, self acceptance or fulfillment.
One character is a World War 2 veteran haunted by memories of his experiences in Burma, another, Isobe, is coming to terms with his wife’s death from cancer and her comments on reincarnation. Otsu, a Japanese Catholic, never fully accepted by the church elders, has followed his faith in God, to India. Misuko is a woman seeking forgiveness for once seducing Otsu in a frivolous attempt to undermine his faith when she was a student.
This book was first published in 1993. (less)
flag5 likes · Like · comment · see review
Mar 03, 2014David Rush rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5
Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles 1 Corinthians 1:22-25
I wonder at the faith and Christianity of Shusaku Endo a thoughtful, reflectfull Japanese Christian. Did he feel as at odds with his faith and heritage as the central character, Otso, of Deep Rivet?Did he feel himself as outcast as Otsu who identified with the lowest caste of India?
I will draw a conclusion that Endo found the essence of Christ in the suffering sacrifice rather that the victorious resurrected champion of the prosperity gospel. I think Endo saw “true” Christianity in the comfort of the poor and meek.
I think more people would NOT like this book than do. In Endo's world the avenues of success only bring a hollow happiness. In my (American) world the general feel I get is that the Christianity brings a victorious uplifting life full of prosperity. Endo would have none of that. For him you only get to the truth by embracing the poor and outcast.
So....do you think this life is a project of empirical pluses and minuses and the point is to end up with a positive when you die? And the “authentic” life is one that discounts anything that is not measurable, and religion is at best an illusion and at worst the bane of humanity?
If so, this book will be nonsense to you.
Are your religions beliefs secure and do they provide reason and stability that explains everything? If so, this book will be nonsense to you.
There are a number of “themes” involving connecting with something. First, for Otsu, is the notion that Christ is found most clearly in the rejected. Which leads him, as a Catholic priest, to be shunned by his order and end up adopting the clothes of a Hindu untouchable who's only task is to carry other discarded, poor, and dying people to the river Ganges just before they die.
And then there is this idea that our existence is actually a river of humanity and we are all trying to connect with it. I think Endo is saying we use most of our energy avoiding the very things that really do give us the connection to everything else we need.
For Miss Naruse she wants to experience actual love, not the kind that is actually a role that people adopt with enthusiasm.
For Mr Kiguchi it is honoring his fellow Japanese soldiers who suffered a burtal retreat in WWII in Burma.
For Mr Numada it is a mystical connection with nature embodied by a Myna bird.
And finally for Mr Isobe, he is only recognizing his connection with his wife after she dies after telling him to look for her to be reborn somewhere in the world.
If I were to write a high school report about it I think I would come up with something about the Deep River of the the Ganges is much like life itself. And that the road of death Mr. Kiguchi was on is also much like life itself. In that we will all die sometime.
If you are sure of yourself, in your belief or non-belief...then you will think this book is nonsense. But for those of us you inexplicably think what the world tells us about itself is most likely wrong...well, you might end up loving this book.
Quotes...
After living nearly five years in a foreign country, I can't help but be struck by the clarity and logic of the way Europeans think, but it seems to me as an Asian that there's something they have lost sight of with their excessive clarity and their over abundance of logic, and I just can't go along with it....in the final analysis, the faith of the Europeans is conscious and rational, and these people reject anything they cannot slice into categories with their rationality. Pg117
But an Asian like me just can't make sharp distinctions and pass judgment on everything the way they do. Pg118
Every time I look at the River Ganges, I think of my Onion (Christ). The Ganges swallows up the ashes of every personas it flows along, rejecting neither the beggar woman who stretches out her finger-less hands for the murdered prime minister Gandhi. The river of love that is my Onion flows past, accepting all, rejecting neither the ugliest of men nor the filthiest. Pg 185
The Onion had died many long years ago, but he had been reborn in the lives of other people. Even after nearly two thousand years had passed, he had been reborn in those nuns, and had been reborn in Otsu. And just as Otsu had been taken off to a hospital on a litter, the nuns likewise disappeared in the river of people. Pg 215 (less)
flag5 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jan 23, 2018Chinook rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: europe, asia, 1001
For a short book, Deep River covers a lot. It’s interesting to be gazing through a window at the lives of these Japanese men and women as they themselves gaze through a window at Europeans (mostly French) and Indians. The main themes of the book are religion and grief - characters contemplate rebirth, Japanese Buddhism, the differences between Japanese Christianity and European Christianity, Hinduism and a few personal constructions, like the man who thinks of God as being in communion with nature and a woman who eventually decides that humanity is all connected in their river of sorrows.
But the book also touches on the horrors of war, on marriage, of generational gaps in Japan, on sex and love, on work and its discontents, on travel and being respectful of new cultures. It is heavily influenced by two books, Moira and Thérèse Desqueyroux, which influence and mirror one woman’s choices.
Japanese novels tend, for me, to be somewhat hard to understand at a fundamental level - there always seems to be something presented as a universal feeling or action that baffles me. In this novel it’s the bullying of Otsu, which seems to the students to be inevitable and amusing. The tour guide later takes a similar attitude towards the tourists, one of wanting to have revenge against them for no reason that makes sense to me. It’s also sometimes hard to wrap my mind around the male-female relationships presented in Japanese novels. (less)
flag5 likes · Like · comment · see review
Nov 11, 2021Brennan rated it liked it
Shelves: religious-fic
Endo's infamous final novel, that had many quibbling over whether he finally abandoned the strict perimeters of Catholicism for a more generous pluralism/ecumenism. After all the reading I did for thesis, it seems inconclusive. His wife Junko indicates in a reflection a few years after his death that the pluralist beliefs of Otsū in Deep River are Endo's own. But a 1994 interview (the year of the novel's publication) with his close friend (and translator) William Johnston, Endo is recorded as saying "I have no doubt that dialogue is a very fine thing. But it has its limits. After all, when we Christians talk to Buddhists and learn from them, we must know where to draw the line. I would like to hear something about that." All that to say we can't really know. Nor should we.
I enjoyed the novel, but its cast of characters fell flat for me. I did not find them meticulously drawn or movingly real. Their monologues and dialogues were stilted. I always wonder what is lost in translation. Certain decisions by Gessel are odd--words like "pendulous" and "pestilential" stick out sorely. I did find the novel's cliffhanger ending reminiscent of Mark's gospel, an indication that Endo's spirituality remained Christocentric. Better than Volcano, worse than The Sea and Poison. (less)
flag4 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review
Mar 09, 2010Emilia P rated it it was amazing
Shelves: real-books, lost
Dang, yo.
Shusaku Endo wrote this book I read called SILENCE. It's about Catholic missionaries to Japan in like the 1600s and it's kinda boring and pretty one-note but also well written and about an important culture clash. Shusaku Endo, a Japanese Catholic, is an intriguing character himself, and so one is impelled to read more of his work. Especially since it's featured in Season 6 of Lost. And with good reason.
Silence was written in the 60s and Deep River was written in the 90s. The openness and full-heartedness of the latter belies a man with the wisdom and sadness and understanding of a whole life between these books - but it's still very clearly the same dude -- a person who cares about faith and the soul, in a way that is very Japanese and un-Japanese at the same time.
I tried to explain this to my cooly-Japanophile husband - to say this book was about how Japanese people are so focused on appearing calm and collected on the surface but are tumultuous and sad and beautiful underneath, and that perhaps that calm exterior itself signals, hints at, a profundity of soul which we openly emotional Westerners can only dream about. So that's what I thought this book captured really well -- everyone suffers, and here is a story about how four or five (or six or seven!) emphatically Japanese people suffered, in their own cultural context, mostly in silence and bitterness, and how they dealt with it by tapping into the life-force which connects us across cultures, ages, faiths (there's a Japanese Catholic priest who dresses up like a Hindu to carry bodies to the creamation grounds, to wit) , etc, while on a trip to the Ganges, the river of rebirth, in India. It sounds hippy-dippy, but it isn't. It's about how big our small little lives are -- it's a character study above all, no big sweeping things happen in it, in the end. It's about accepting and bearing suffering, and trying to love. It's kind of sad. But it's sweet.
There's a quote on the back about how Endo is unsentimental, yet sympathetic, and that's a mark of great writing. I have to agree. This is a wonderful book. Read it, yo. (less)
flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review
Nov 21, 2011Nick rated it really liked it
A group of Japanese tourists travel to India to visit historic sites from the life of the Buddha, without realizing that there are few modern Buddhists there. They wind up in Varanasi, by the side of the sacred, polluted Ganges, where people go to die. The group includes Isobe, who is looking for his reincarnated wife, who he ignored when she was alive and Mitsuko, who has found emptiness in a series of personae: hedonistic student, wife, volunteer at a hospital. Least affecting is Numada, a author of children's books and haunted by the fate of animals. Kiguchi's story is riveting, as he struggles not just with the memories of surviving the war in Burma, but of the soldier who sacrificed everything to save him. A thoughtful, meditative book, focussed on the struggle to define what truly matters, but not without a sly humor, as the fastidious Japanese try and mostly fail to cope with the overwhelming mass of humanity that is India, along with the comic foils, a pair of married tourists, her wishing to be in France, he trying to establish himself as a photographer. A book that lingers in the mind. (less)
flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review
Apr 26, 2020A.K. Kulshreshth rated it it was amazing
This is a great work. I listened to the audio book and will also read the print version.
Four very diverse characters, all Japanese, end up on a visit to the holy city of Varanasi, on the banks of the sacred river Ganga. Each of them has a different motive. In my interpretation, they get what they wanted to varying degrees, with none of them finding easy answers.
This is a book that works at many levels - from its range of settings in India, Japan, France, Burma and Manchuria, to its chronicling of events from Second World War Burma to Indira Gandhi's assassination and its characters and story arch. Two of its characters - Mitsuke and Otsu - are particularly fascinating.
It is necessary to mention that there are plenty of bloopers in this work. For example, the harmonium is not similar to a harmonica, contrary to Mr. Endo's assertion (assuming the translator is not to blame). In the audio book, Ganga is pronounced Gaan-Jaa. That is wrong, which is bad enough, but Gaanjaa also has a meaning. It means Opium in Hindi (and in other Indian languages)...
I put down the bloopers to poor quality control, and still rate this work highly because of its many strengths.
(less)
flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review
May 08, 2011Aubrey rated it really liked it
Shelves: r-2011, antidote-think-twice-read, translated, japanese, person-of-translated, antidote-translated, z-2, 4-star, reviewed, person-of-everything
There is death. Yet, there is also life. There are long emotionally dead passages. Yet, there are also moments so charged with feeling they consume all in their path, carry them along for a bit and then leave behind ones willing to do anything to catch up. You have the search for reincarnated love ones, the search for emotional fulfillment, the search to reconcile death with life, the search for atonement, each person ever searching for something omnipresent in its never clearly defined state. And on it goes, this one period of time accepting all parts of life into its midst; the river mentioned in the pages embodies this, and will take everything in without spitting out any straightforward conclusions of its own. This is definitely a novel that won't get very far with a reader without some interpretation on their part; it is only fully enjoyed if one can see their own life experiences within the pages, and leave with a new understanding of just what it means to exist. (less)
flag4 likes · Like · see review
Dec 06, 2019Kristel rated it really liked it
Shelves: 1001-books, 1001-challenge, 2019-botm
This is the second book that I have read by Roman Catholic, Japanese Author Shūsaku Endō. His books, Silence and Deep River are both included on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. Endō explores religion, especially Catholicism and the Japanese culture in his writings. In this book, set during the time period when Indira Ghandi, prime minister of India, was assassinated examines the lives of 4 Japanese who are on a tour to India to visit Buddhist sites.
1. Osamu Isobe, a man looking for his reincarnated wife.
2. Mitsuko Naruse, a former housewife who takes a trip both as a pilgrimage and to see her ex-boyfriend Otsu as atonement for mistreating him
3. Numada, a bird watcher who wants to set a bird in his possession free.
4. Kiguchi, a former WWII Imperial Japanese Army soldier.
These characters are on a journey, a pilgrimage and it is the story of their individual pilgrimage. The deep river is the Ganges where all peoples are taken in and flow together.
This was an interesting book and look at both Japanese and Indian culture. One point the author makes; I think, is that all Gods are the same God and that in seeking God, no matter which God, that Jesus is born again in that person. Another point in the book is that peoples, cultures, and religions are at odds with each other and in the best circumstances, conflict remains. I personally did not enjoy the descriptions of the river but also believe that the author did an excellent job of painting the picture of the river bank and of India (without using the camera). This book did not inspire me to want to visit India. (less)
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jan 10, 2018Pip rated it it was amazing
Shelves: 1001-books-challenge
I found this novel so much more powerful that Silence, which was about a group of Portuguese missionaries who were tortured in Seventeenth Century Japan. Endo, a practising Catholic, returns to the theme of forcing a Christian to deny one's faith, an idea which seems quaintly anachronistic now, but which he must feel strongly about to reintroduce it again. This time he tracks a group of Japanese on a pilgrimage to Buddhist Holy Sites in India. One of them had ignored his wife until her dying plea for him to look for her reincarnated self allowed Endo an opportunity to explore the idea of reincarnation. Another protagonist is a children's novelist with an affinity for animals who believes that a mynah bird sacrificed himself so that the author could live. Although he is not Christian the sacrifice of Jesus is mirrored in his story. A third pilgrim had suffered atrociously in Burma. His life was saved by a comrade who ate human flesh in order to survive (another Christian symbol) but became an alcoholic because his guilt was terrible. The fourth protagonist is a woman who believes she has no capacity for love. She seems to be following a student friend whom she had seduced and then dumped after forcing him to deny his faith. That he should also be in Varanasi, striving to live a meaningful life by helping the Untouchables carry bodies to the Ghats, and that he should die saving a clueless tour member who is insensitively trying to photograph the funeral pyres, stretches coincidence to the limits, but the whole works because it is a nifty way to talk about contrasting religious beliefs.
I listened to an Audible version, read by David Holt. He was a pleasure to listen to, my only carp being that when he spoke as the clueless Japanese tourist he used an English dialect which seemed forced to me, but that was a minor quibble. The Deep River of the title was the Ganges, of course, but it also was the river of humanity, flowing on, absorbing individuals ceaselessly despite their various beliefs and idiosyncracies. (less)
flag3 likes · Like · see review
Nov 08, 2014Wen Cof rated it it was amazing
Shusaku Endo’s book Deep River is about a journey to the river Ganges with a collection of tourists immersed in their own private spiritual struggles. Each character presents a face of spirituality as a whole. The characters face uncomfortable spiritual questions that aren’t always neatly answered. I loved the book because it brings together ideas of Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism.
Not only are the questions uncomfortable, so are the characters. The young woman Mitsuko, is so cruel, I almost stopped reading the book. But I’m glad I continued, because I realized that what she displays on the outside, so many of us are really hiding on the inside. She comments that the chaos and disorder of India is comforting to her, while the neatly organized gardens of Paris are disconcerting. There is something comforting about the chaos of India to Mitsuko, and there is something comforting about the chaos of the book to the reader. It jangles and fits together at odd angles. The ending is not a neat bow on a package, but is left open the reader to write their own conclusion.
So why did I love this book with ugly characters and an inharmonious plot? Because it didn’t try to explain or mollify their questions – it just took me on a journey as a reader through their process, and allowed me to draw my own conclusions about right, wrong, good, evil, life and death. It allowed me to also travel to the Ganges and observe and reflect.
(less)
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
May 22, 2012Christopher rated it liked it
Shelves: religion, lit-fiction, lost-library
Another book I started with high hopes which failed to live up to my expectations. Endo's characters all end up seeming contrived and sometimes ridiculous in their actions and dialogue as the stories progress and they make their pilgrimages to the Hindu and Buddhist holy sites along the Ganges. I was hoping for some insight into Christianity as it is viewed and experienced in Japan and the Orient but was instead treated to an individual's ecumenistic dreams. And I think maybe he sets up some of his characters as straw men to let us all know what he thinks of modern materialistic Japan. The character's backgrounds are all somewhat interesting and I think Endo writes very well (or has been translated very well). However, no great events happen, no deep thoughts are offered, no great revelations are found, and ultimately, the book ends up being a rather boring read. I saw another review somewhere before I started reading this that said: "Deep River, Shallow Story" - I agree. It's not your everyday pulpish junk, so I bumped up the 2.5 stars to 3. I can't imagine spending time on another Endo work again. (less)
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jan 27, 2018Melissa rated it really liked it
Shelves: read-2018, own, reading-1001-group, own-audiobook
A very interesting study in faith as seen through the eyes of a group of Japanese tourists to India as they recall pivotal moments of their lives, experiences, and their personal struggles as they try to reconnect with past acquaintances, past loves, and reconcile past traumas through the lens of different faiths and depths of faith as they visit the intersection of Asian faith, with Buddhism, Catholicism, and Hinduism.
flag5 likes · Like · comment · see review
Dec 26, 2019Book Wormy rated it liked it
Shelves: 2019-read, 1001-read
For me this book was an interesting exploration of religious beliefs and how they are more alike than different when you break it down and look into it. We start by exploring Christianity and the idea of sacrificing yourself for a higher good before moving on to look at Buddhism and the ideas of reincarnation eventually we end up in India with Hinduism and the caste system which while there is a strict hierarchy kept in life in death everyone is equal and the River Ganges accepts all souls with no questions asked.
The Japanese tourists on the pilgrimage all have different reasons for going to India and while some personal quests are successful others (on the surface are not) everyone in the group is changed by the experience.
I liked the way the back stories of everyone on the trip are slowly revealed and how they all have subtle connections to each other. India is also beautifully bought to love in all her beauty and all her ugliness
(less)
flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jan 21, 2021Joanne Fate rated it it was amazing
Shelves: audible
This isn't my first Shusaku Endo book, and it won't be my last. The book starts with chapters that could be short stories in and of themselves. The main characters are all Japanese. Endo brings most of them to India on a tour. There's a lot about religions in this book. Endo was Roman Catholic, living in a mostly Buddhist country. When they travel to India they tour many religious places.
Parts of this book are sad. There's talk of death and the afterlife. The writing transcends all that. It is beautifully written and profound.
I'll stop there. I'm listening through the alphabet, partly to try to get to some books that have been in my library for a while.
I loved the narration as well. It suited the book. (less)
flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review
Yet, after reading, the sweet taste was there. Motherhood statement like All religions are equal. Scenes that seemed like pan in the sky: the Japanese priest carries the dead Hindus imitating Jesus Christ; the nuns belonging to the congregation of Mother Theresa (may the Lord bless her soul) helping the sick and the needy; and the nurse realizes that she needs God in her life after all. They were too positive that my head was swirling and my heart was palpitating from sugar rush. Quite timely because this was the season of Lent but I just did not expect the book to be like a Religion101 prescribed-book in high school.
But then, maybe I am an old man and my eyes are jaded already. I better have my blood sugar checked and my eyes refracted one of these days.
(less)
flag38 likes · Like · 10 comments · see review
Sep 08, 2019Dhanaraj Rajan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: favorites, literature, japanese-lit
First Declaration: This book is my new favourite. And it has made it to the list of my all time favourites.
The Reasons:
The book answers many questions or tries to answer many questions. These questions are obviously the themes very close to my heart.
Some of the Questions:
1. What is humanity? Is suffering part of humanity? Why can life be only of happiness? (Answer is primarily tried in the episode relating to Hindu Goddess Chamunda. And parts of the answer are also scattered in the other chapters).
2. The differences. Do they add to the value of human kind? What are the negative sides to them? Do we bond together because of the hatred we have for the other? For instance, do I bond with my fellow compatriots because we are united in hating my enemy nation? Is the enmity the reason for our bonding or the love? Can differences be brought together under one unifying umbrella? If yes, at what expense? (Answer partially tried in the episode relating Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination).
3. What is a true religion? Is it Catholicism/Christianity or Hinduism or Buddhism or Shintoism? Can one religion claim superiority over other religions? Can one religion claim full authority for God's revelation? Why are there many religions? The answers are tried in the episodes relating the encounters between a Japanese Catholic Priest (Otsu) and Mitsuko (the girl who seduced Otsu in his school days). These episodes are my favourites too. The present day hot theological discussions on Religious Pluralism are expressed in a wonderful manner by Endo. Implicit in these arguments are also the tensions between the understanding of spirituality in the East and in the West. Superb analysis. (Disclaimer: It will appeal to the people in the East and for the people in West it may not appeal immediately. But it might help in clarifying the positions of the people in the East).
4. Reincarnation. Can a person be reincarnated after his/her death? I loved the answer. One gets reborn in one's memory.
5. Can good exist in bad? And can life and death be together? Can sin which results in separation from God also act as the source of redemption? Again, the answer is lovely.
6. Who is Jesus? What is the River Ganges? What does the Amida Sutra (Buddhist religious text) say? You will love the answers as you read the pages in the book.
7. How does a person cope with the loss of the beloved/hope? How does one deal with the grief? How does one deal with his/her inability to love?
Finally: Endo had brought to the conclusion of his own heart's search for many answers in this novel (Endo's last novel). If he had time left, he could have written another five or six novels each for the each question mentioned. Anyway, he did well in encapsulating everything in a succinct manner and weaving them in a superb story.
Postscript: In this novel, Shusaku Endo recommends, using the characters as his mouthpieces, two French novels. I will have to read them. The recommendations are: Moira by Julien Green and Therese by Francois Mauriac. (less)
flag28 likes · Like · 9 comments · see review
Jan 08, 2012B0nnie rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Deep River is a rich story which jumps around in time, in place, in ideas. So off we go, to Japan, Washington DC, France, Manchuria, Burma and India. We catch glimpses of the gods Chamunda and Kali, the Burma Highway of Death, yakiimo, reincarnation, a Ginko tree, a stray dog, Buddhist holy spots such as Lumbini Kapilavastu, Buddh-Gaya and Sarnath, the caste system called varna jati, the Andes Survivors, Shirley Maclaine, Indira Gandhi - and - sins of the flesh. Pierrot appears as a man, and as a bird. There is the quintessential ugly American, who happens to be Japanese this time.
One of the characters studies the works of François Mauriac, Georges Bernanos, and Julien Green at University (as Endo himself did). Their novels become a blueprint of her life.
Endo has stated in an essay that characters in a novel are free and cannot be coerced. He, like other great Christian writers (Charlotte Bronte, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Waugh, Greene, Tolkien, Flannery O’Connor, to name a few), reveals much about his characters through their relationship with God - but they act freely and have a will of their own.
The title and the epigraph reference an old negro spiritual called Deep River. However, the river in question here is the Ganges, sacred to Hindus. On its shores, in the year 1984, the characters search for spiritual meaning in their lives. They are pilgrims who do not know what they seek - it's not really the Buddist temples they are touring. Endo sees them as "cases", and there is a chapter for each.
The case of Otsu is central. A failed Catholic priest, he is a type of Prince Myshkin, a bumbling Christ like figure, full of goodness. Otsu has his onion, a name he uses for God. As in the parable of the onion told by Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov, the humble, earthy onion takes on a spiritual significance.
Another case is the woman Mitsuko. Acting out Moïra in Julien Green's novel, she seduced Otsu while they were students together, then spurns and despises him. Later on, in a loveless marriage she sees herself as Therese Desqueyroux.
Numada, who yearns for a connection with every living thing but finds it only with animals, has a back-story which could be its own novel, though that could be said of all these characters.
There's Kiguchi, a former soldier in Burma, with hellish memories,
I like this image of Chamunda too, Kiguchi unexpectedly announced with deep feeling. "On the battlefields in Burma, I always felt as though death was close at hand, and when I look at this gaunt statue now, I remember all the soldiers who died in the rain. The war was - horrible. And all those soldiers - they looked just like this."
Isobe, recently widowed, searches for his lost wife, yet the search is more inward than he knows.
Enami, the tour guide, has issues of his own and sees Chamunda as his mother. And that figure of woman, whether goddess or virgin or human is a major theme in the story.
The ending is abrupt, although you can easily make your own conclusions. I just wanted more. Also, some expressions in the translation seemed a bit clichéd. So, a heaping 4.5 stars and a handful of stardust too.
(less)
flag26 likes · Like · 7 comments · see review
Nov 29, 2017Fabian rated it really liked it
Wow, those forlorn and disparate spirits do not rest! But they do manage to come together, and what they find there, at the fated nucleus, fountainhead, existential monolith is exactly what moves the reader towards the epic end. The Ganges has never before been characterized in such a raw, personified way...
Asians in the Holy Lands. Japanese tourists in India...
There is something about the P.O.V. of Japanese tourists... mystical figures all their own. I will definitely abstain from saying anything about Japanese tourists in Las Vegas. Or Los Angeles. Or the beaches of Mexico. So the psychologies of these very Eastern characters is like mana from heaven, we unaccustomed to such unabashed neosemiEuropean repression. Unique, sad. But I cannot altogether subscribe to such fickle ways of reality... (less)
flag22 likes · Like · comment · see review
Sep 13, 2011Mariel rated it it was ok
Do you know that scene in Billy Madison when (this is a major spoiler if you haven't seen Billy Madison and still mean to) Bradley Whitford's character is asked to explain the difference between ethics and morals? And he whips out a gun instead? (It's on youtube.Here it is anyway. It must be wrong to post links to Adam Sandler movies. What can I say? I'm a heathen.) Deep River is apparently beloved by ethics students all over goodreads and amazon. I guess it is loved in Japan too, if ejaculatory book jacket quotes are to be believed (why would they falsely present information?). I really didn't love it. I'm probably the only person who pretty much hates this book. I don't know what the heck it had to do with ethics anyway. If I had a gun I'd whip it out instead of answering the big questions about which religion is more valid than the other. I don't care about any of them. So what does that have to do with ethics (or morals)? If anyone trembles in face of the gun than maybe any of these characters was anything more than a platform for Endo's religious posturing.
What Shusaku Endo tried to do with his novel is something I can appreciate in a "That's a nice message" kind of way. Like a bumper sticker in traffic. I don't want to stare at that same bumper sticker for hours during a traffic jam. World peace! Yeah, let's get that. Am I going to be stuck here all day? Look, there's a horrific car accident. Or a billboard. Yawn. Looking for a face in crowds that don't have any. The answer was spiritual. Was it? The make up was different. Hinduism, Buddhism or Christianity. Sure, all religions should get along and are as valid as any other. It seems to me that if you are going to believe in any outside of what you were raised into it would come from living rather than theorizing and talking a whole lot. That bumper sticker solved all my problems!
The characters were fighting the great gnawing hunger in the stomach that's dread of nothing to look forward to. The not even knowing why you don't feel anything. The characters were not characters but faceless subjects for Endo to easiest fit the expressions of the serene gods. If they had looked in each other... If there was an other to look to... One husband took his wife for granted while she was alive and follows her last words about reincarnation because he doesn't know what else to do. It's a feeling she had. But we don't know her! She was the stereotype of the doormat Japanese wife. Where was the belated passion? Doing what someone said or ignoring them is still frictionless. Another guy is dying. So is everyone else. The furthest into the void is Mitsuko and her quest to "win" over God/Jesus when she has premarital sex with a fellow student, Otsu. Yeah, because people who are dying to preach to you about what big Christians they are never whore it up. Riiiight. Since he threatened to kill her when she dumped him I'd say he wasn't taking the basics to heart. She gets the idea from your basic idiot guys having fun because they instinctively scorn someone who doesn't know how to fake the same normal. Not exactly groundbreaking insights here. There could have been something in the mutual emptiness if only. Endo pretty much writes that she feels empty and wants to be chosen over God by a man who doesn't know if he believes in the first place. Because he's as boring as she is, I thought. She'd have better luck with unsmiling Russian guards. If there's a pitch black version of empty it is these two. Too empty for me to give a fuck.
That's not even the worst of it. Deep River is your basic hollow travel guide story. Yep. They go to India (what a load of crock their tour guide was! The Japanese are so shocked by the presence of the lower castes. Because Japan doesn't have that? Are you fucking kidding me, Endo? What about the burakumin? See what I mean? Like American tourists who are shocked by the starving and don't notice the homeless on their own streets. But there are poor people living amongst the rich!) Who needs real characters when you have an exotic backdrop and temples and pictures of virgin Marys and goddesses of suffering. The characters can talk about how they question their beliefs and then you can tack on an ending about relating to the gods that represent and never have any real personal feeling with those who really do live around you. That's better than a hug. But they were in India and anything can happen if you distract readers with the comings and goings.
Are there ethics about not getting away with not writing a real book because you tacked on a religious answer? Or is that a moral dilemma? I hate this book, anyway. I look for answers in art. Can't expressing being the expression? Does it gotta get stuck that way? (less)
flag21 likes · Like · comment · see review
Mar 24, 2011William2 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: japan, fiction, translation, 20-ce
Second reading. Isobe is a middle-aged, Japanese businessman whose wife is dying of cancer. Before she dies she comes out of a coma long enough to whisper to her husband: ‘I know for sure...I’ll be reborn somewhere in this world. Look for me...find me...promise... promise!’ He is stricken by her loss. Whereas he hardly ever thought about her during her life, now he thinks about her all the time. He has never loved her as he does in death.
Ms. Naruse is a young hospital volunteer who sometimes sits with Mrs. Isobe. Back in college she was friends with a bullying group of young men, a few of whom she screwed without pleasure. The men want her to seduce Mr Ōtsu, a young student enrolled in the college's divinity program. Ms. Naruse despises everyone around her--especially Ōtsu--because doing so allows her to feel superior to them. She is in fact quite lost. She competes with Ōtsu’s god. She tries to break his faith. She is a cruel woman utterly lacking a spiritual life and devoid of compassion.
Numada makes his living writing stories about children and animals. He grew up in Japanese-occupied Manchuria (“Manchukuo”). His emotional connections in life have all been with animals. Things are going along quite well for Mr. Numada and his raucous family, he is alone even when surrounded by them, when he develops a serious lung condition. He’s in the hospital for two years and barely survives his final surgery. A myna bird his wife has brought him for company in the hospital, he believes, dies in his stead.
Kiguchi and Tsukada were both soldiers during WW II who traveled the Burmese Highway of Death. British and colonial-Indian troops chased their unit through inhospitable terrain during the rainy season until starvation and illness set in. It is thanks to Tsukada that Kiguchi is still alive. At one point he had brought Kiguchi meat he identified as that of a dead cow. Both survive. Thirty years later back in Japan Tsukada has the misfortune to meet the wife and daughter of the man whose flesh he ate. He drinks himself to death as a result.
All these characters,who respond to suffering in different ways, join a tour group going to India to see the Buddhist holy sites. Mr. Isobe to search for his reborn wife. Why India? This question is never addressed. Ms. Naruse goes to follow the troubled Ōtsu because, despite his misfortunes, he’s found meaning in life that she hasn’t. Numada wants to make an offering in thanksgiving for his survival. Kiguchi wants to undertake a Buddhist ceremony of remembrance for Tsukada and the soldiers who traveled the Highway of Death. At some point they all end up standing before the ghats on the River Ganges.
Varanasi, a Hindu holy city, is a place of extraordinary contrasts. Living and dying is everywhere, one right next to the other. The place is teeming, pestilential, filthy. Old and infirm Hindus from all over India travel here to die so their cremated remains --a free service supplied by outcasts-- can be scattered on the River Ganges. For only in this way, they believe, will their karmic slate be wiped clean. Only in this way can they proceed to the next life unfettered by mistakes made in the one they’re leaving.
In reading Endo’s earlier novels I often bridled at his particularly cloying form of Christian storytelling. In Deep River however something entirely new happens. Ōtsu is an outcast among his Catholic brethren because he will not adopt the view that Catholicism is the one true faith. In India he finally breaks with the Church and finds a welcome from a group of local saddhus, Hindu mendicants. It is his belief that every religion has validity, that every faith moves the supplicant toward salvation. For this view he is damned by his pious, dogmatic teachers and fellow students.
Deep River, Endo’s last novel, represents a fundamental shift for him in his subject matter and possibly in his world view. The book’s strength is its religious pluralism, its ecumenicism, nowhere evident in the doctrinaire earlier novels I have read. His narrative is without clutter and full of pungent Indian street scenes. The characters' humanity or lack thereof is convincing and movingly rendered. This is my favorite Endo novel without question. Highly recommended. (less)
flag21 likes · Like · 4 comments · see review
Dec 06, 2019Celia rated it it was amazing
Shelves: reading-the-world, translated, 2020-read, ten-year-challenge, 1001-challenge
"Endo has successfully dramatized the discovery that the sacred river of humanity flows within ourselves."--National Catholic Reporter
That description has really grabbed me.
Book is now both heard and read. I listened to the crisp voice of David Holt while I followed the text in a library paperback.
The book is written by a Japanese author but is primarily about India. A group of Japanese tourists are led through various parts of India as they seek spiritual re-birth. The experience of seeing the Ganges is central to their re-awakening.
The characters are very well drawn out.
There is Isobe, recently widowed and searching for his re-incarnated wife,
Kiguchi, a war veteran haunted by memories of Burma,
Numada, a writer recovering from a serious illness, and
Mitsuko, a cynical nurse searching for a heretical priest she knew in her youth.
I look forward to my next Shusaku Endo: Silence.
5 stars (less)
flag14 likes · Like · 5 comments · see review
May 16, 2020Inderjit Sanghera rated it really liked it
The novel begins with the beautiful-yet haunting-image of a man who, upon finding out that his wife has cancer, also hears the vulgar reverberations of a street pedlar selling his wares, his wife's death forever associated with the pedlar's voice in his mind. In many ways this passage comes to symbolise the feelings of the various characters who inhabit the novel, who are seeking a sense of fulfilment in India as their inner lives have become dominated by a sense of loss and ennui.
Endo explores the motivations of his characters with patience and understanding, building empathy for his characters. So the spiritually empty Mitsuko seeks to the vacuity which has overtaken her life with mockery; firstly for the conventions of bourgeois Japanese society and secondly for religion via her cruel treatment towards the pathetic Otsu. The writer Numada is unable to replicate the empathy he shares with animals in his relationship with people, whereas Kiguchi is haunted by his time as a soldier during the Second World War. Finally we come to Isobe, the character whose wife dies of cancer and is seeking for a sense of passion and love for her which didn't exist when she was alive.
Whilst, like most Endo's stories, the novel is highly moralistic, it does this in way which isn't cloying or sententious, or in a way that all of the character reach a moral apotheosis at the end of the novel. Instead Endo focuses on the human condition, with the stories acting as snapshots at a certain point in time of the characters lives, who demonstrated both frailty and strength, selfishness and selflessness and who are merely seeking a sense of belonging in a world which they cannot seem to make sense of. (less)
flag11 likes · Like · comment · see review
Aug 21, 2013David rated it it was ok
Shelves: big-red-circle
Three words for Otsu: Church of England. You can believe whatever the fuck you like and they'll let you be a bishop. Don't some of them not even believe in the literal truth of any of the Bible?
Two words for all of the other characters: Let's communicate!
Endo's created a host of emotionally inarticulate characters that are incapable of open and frank relationships, taken us through all of their problems and then left us grasping at spiritual solutions.
It's very ethnocentric, I know, but I would recommend that they work on their emotional articulacy and establishing open and frank relationships. Sure, go to India if you like. But communicating honestly with your life partner is probably much more helpful. (less)
flag8 likes · Like · 2 comments · see review
Feb 06, 2008Karson rated it really liked it
Shelves: favorites
A novel about different streams towards God and how there is a deep river that runs deep enough to handle all the craziness that goes on down here. I learned some really beautiful things about some other religions that I didn't know before I read this book. One of the most beautiful things that stuck with me is the symbolism of The Ganges river in India. People bring death there (they sprinkle loved ones ashes in there), but the also come to this river for ritual cleasings. It takes it all. Nothing is too ugly for the Ganges. It accepts all of reality death and life. This is also a theme in one of my other favorite novels called "My Name is Asher Lev" by Chaim Potok where Asher Lev (a little jewish boy) is drawn to art, but he finds himself wanted to draw the ugly things in the world as much as the beautiful things. He sees beauty in both death and life. (less)
flag7 likes · Like · comment · see review
Apr 20, 2019Curtis R rated it it was amazing
Shelves: asian-lit, books-about-rivers
Really a remarkable book; my review will NOT do it justice.
This sat on my shelf for awhile because I was intimidated by the topic. Shusaku Endo is one of my favorite authors, but his tone and themes typically take a much more melancholy look at life than many other authors. Perhaps you've seen the movie Silence, directed by the great Martin Scosese, with Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield, and Adam Driver. This is based on a book by the same author, and its friggin sweet as well.
Endo is a Japanese Catholic author, which is a rare and unique combination. Fittingly, one of his major themes in most of his works and this one as well, is the ability for Japanese society to authentically and naturally accommodate and integrate the Christian religion (without all of its additional western trappings). In many of his earlier works, he seems to believe in the possibility , while narrating the deep cultural and psychological difficulties of actually engaging the reality of it. His characters are never heroes, but individuals, people with problems deep set in their psyches from past trauma, current despair, relationship setbacks or personal failings. The advantage is a novel that is meaningful, insightful and relatable; the downside is that they can feel discouraging (because very often, life is). His portrayals of the Christian perspective on life are not glossy, easy or typical of the American idea. Apostasy, abandonment, cross-cultural confusion, historical impact on truth-claims, addiction, personal pride...these ingredients pepper the Christian existence for the faithful follower of Christ, who, in Endo's eyes, is typified by this verse more than any other: "[Jesus] was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem." With this as a central thrust, Endo emphasizes the themes of rejection, servanthood and sacrifice, and universal compassion as his character come to understand and align themselves with Christian ideas in a very complex and antagonistic world. (Like seriously, think about that verse just one minute. How different would American Christianity - or Roman Christianity, or YOUR Christianity - be, if that was the verse you always came back to, and judged everything else by? What if that verse represented the Church more than any other? What if I had the commitment to pursue that lifestyle above all else? yeesh, right?)
This book was his last, and is particularly interesting to me. From a literary perspective, he is a master storyteller and effortlessly weaves four or five plotlines of important characters throughout the novel - together, a group of Japanese tourists travel to the Ganges in India. Although none are particularly religious, each is seeking some sort of emotional and existential relief from the burdens of life. Most of them are quite taken aback when they come to realize that the primary religion surrounding them in India is not their own Buddhism, but Hinduism. The stories are special and sad, and we care deeply for the characters while we observe their search for self-understanding and some sense of freedom from pain. There are some unique plot-twists and overlaps and it moves at a very steady pace for so serious a book.
The Hindu religion and the Ganges provide a suitable context for the novel's thematic excursions, but also as a peek behind the curtain at Endo's own ideas. As the characters travel to a distant land with different religions ideas and socioeconomic dividers, they experience personal enlightenment in unexpected ways.
In all of his writings, Endo considers the compatibility between his Japanese cultural identity and his Christian theological persuasion, and it seems that his convictions have developed as well. As the main character Otsu is constantly kicked out of seminaries because of his eastern-leaning beliefs (tending towards pantheism or a religiously functional relativism), we see glimpses of Endo's own struggles to successfully assimilate the western-influenced ideas of Christianity into his own more open eastern mindset. Many other reviewers have concluded that he may've abandoned his original Christian convictions, but I think that Endo, as always, has not necessarily arrived to any conclusions, but has merely expanded his understanding of God's involvement in the world and has taken a more global vision. Otsu remains loyal to his own spiritual connection while acknowledging God's presence in traditions that are not his own (he finds community with Hindu monks and takes part in their traditional practices of caring for the destitute caste in India). In similar fashion, I wonder if Endo also recognizes the active engagement of the Christian God through other traditions - keeping in mind the close knit relationship religion, culture and history play together, which has plagued and provoked his thought in the past.
If you are interested in the inward journey of individuals as they navigate through particularly challenging, lonely, and even shattering situations, this book may offer a lot of validation and insight for you. I am a Christian, but I am also often conflicted by the reality of infinite perspectives and possibilities (seriously, what is anything? is anything anything?). I am also acutely aware of how one's own personal upbringing and cultural conception of reality colors everything, and this makes me wonder if true change is possible at any level of one's being. This book, while offering no attempts at answers or answers themselves, allowed me to embrace others on that same journey of self-realization and redemption and reconsider my own activities, existence and aims.
If you want to read a book with a lot of action scenes or obvious answers, I would not recommend this at all.
(less)
flag6 likes · Like · comment · see review
Sep 09, 2019booklady marked it as to-read
After reading my friend Dhanaraj Rajan's review of this book I knew I wanted to read this. (less)
flag6 likes · Like · see review
Dec 12, 2013S. rated it it was amazing
Shelves: red-queen
it's been reported in literary papers or sections that an unofficial "twenty-year rule" applies to the Nobel Prize in Literature-- that is, every twenty years or so (unless it was every twenty-five years, and I'm misremembering), the Nobel Literature Prize committee "has" to award the prize to a Japanese writer. such would not be unvelieable. if I remember the WP entry on the NPL correctly, the first twenty years of the prize were entirely Sweden or Sweden-Norway specific, until the realization slowly dawned that the entire world was watching what was then the only true international prize, and a large cash bonus to boot. Japan is 10% of the world economy and possibly that percentage of major world literature in sales, and perhaps more importantly to the publishing world at large, it highly respects copyright and will even invest in projects requiring half of all royalties be sent abroad.
the first big postwar duel apparently erupted between YASUNARI KAWABATA (the master of elegiac, short little pieces capturing Japanese uniqueness and intricate social minueting) and his protégée YUKIO MISHIMA (who wrote longer, more ambitious plot-filled novels about grief and longing). literary scholars, after decades of scholarship on both, probabliy feel the Prize was mis-awarded-- MISHIMA, despite his vainglorious death, is more highly referenced and influential; more writers fifty years on list him as "influence," whereas Kawabata, while known to the entire community, is more the origami-expert of the intricate fold.
today of course the central Nobel story is HARUKI MURAKAMI vs. HARUKI MURAKAMI. as in, will the Nobel Prize award the medal to HM or will it fail to act in time. no other name is seriously floated in contention.
the 1980s battle is interesting on a different level. both KENZABURO OE (the eventual winner) and ENDO SHUSAKU are a bit less read today and considered a step down from the KAWABATA-MISHIMA showdown. OE represented secular sociality and ENDO heretical Christianity. but aside from this issue, there is the overall sense of aesthetics in each's work, and of course the philosophy.
this is a book about five Japanese pilgrims to the Ganges and the "case" of each, describing the spiritual concerns and life events that bring them all to India for a brief trip. it begins "on the airplane" and then explores the background and history of each.
endo's other work I've read although a 3/5 non-fiction/fiction piece (literary analysis and just literature), always inspires rounds of conversation in artistic dinners.
this work is more just a very solid 5/5 lit work (less)
flag6 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jul 24, 2022Nocturnalux rated it liked it
Shelves: japanese-literature-translated, 2022-boxall, asian-literature, japanese-literaturate-all, 2022-books
Endou is at his best when dissecting Japanese society, and tends to lose me when he goes into speechifying mode. So this one is pretty much hit and miss.
flag6 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review
Dec 12, 2022George rated it liked it
Shelves: 1001-books-list-read-2007-to-2018
3.5 stars. An original, intelligent, character based novel about Japanese tourists undergoing varieties of life crisis, visiting the river Ganges, at Varanasi, India, during the week of the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister. All the characters seek reconciliation, self acceptance or fulfillment.
One character is a World War 2 veteran haunted by memories of his experiences in Burma, another, Isobe, is coming to terms with his wife’s death from cancer and her comments on reincarnation. Otsu, a Japanese Catholic, never fully accepted by the church elders, has followed his faith in God, to India. Misuko is a woman seeking forgiveness for once seducing Otsu in a frivolous attempt to undermine his faith when she was a student.
This book was first published in 1993. (less)
flag5 likes · Like · comment · see review
Mar 03, 2014David Rush rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5
Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles 1 Corinthians 1:22-25
I wonder at the faith and Christianity of Shusaku Endo a thoughtful, reflectfull Japanese Christian. Did he feel as at odds with his faith and heritage as the central character, Otso, of Deep Rivet?Did he feel himself as outcast as Otsu who identified with the lowest caste of India?
I will draw a conclusion that Endo found the essence of Christ in the suffering sacrifice rather that the victorious resurrected champion of the prosperity gospel. I think Endo saw “true” Christianity in the comfort of the poor and meek.
I think more people would NOT like this book than do. In Endo's world the avenues of success only bring a hollow happiness. In my (American) world the general feel I get is that the Christianity brings a victorious uplifting life full of prosperity. Endo would have none of that. For him you only get to the truth by embracing the poor and outcast.
So....do you think this life is a project of empirical pluses and minuses and the point is to end up with a positive when you die? And the “authentic” life is one that discounts anything that is not measurable, and religion is at best an illusion and at worst the bane of humanity?
If so, this book will be nonsense to you.
Are your religions beliefs secure and do they provide reason and stability that explains everything? If so, this book will be nonsense to you.
There are a number of “themes” involving connecting with something. First, for Otsu, is the notion that Christ is found most clearly in the rejected. Which leads him, as a Catholic priest, to be shunned by his order and end up adopting the clothes of a Hindu untouchable who's only task is to carry other discarded, poor, and dying people to the river Ganges just before they die.
And then there is this idea that our existence is actually a river of humanity and we are all trying to connect with it. I think Endo is saying we use most of our energy avoiding the very things that really do give us the connection to everything else we need.
For Miss Naruse she wants to experience actual love, not the kind that is actually a role that people adopt with enthusiasm.
For Mr Kiguchi it is honoring his fellow Japanese soldiers who suffered a burtal retreat in WWII in Burma.
For Mr Numada it is a mystical connection with nature embodied by a Myna bird.
And finally for Mr Isobe, he is only recognizing his connection with his wife after she dies after telling him to look for her to be reborn somewhere in the world.
If I were to write a high school report about it I think I would come up with something about the Deep River of the the Ganges is much like life itself. And that the road of death Mr. Kiguchi was on is also much like life itself. In that we will all die sometime.
If you are sure of yourself, in your belief or non-belief...then you will think this book is nonsense. But for those of us you inexplicably think what the world tells us about itself is most likely wrong...well, you might end up loving this book.
Quotes...
After living nearly five years in a foreign country, I can't help but be struck by the clarity and logic of the way Europeans think, but it seems to me as an Asian that there's something they have lost sight of with their excessive clarity and their over abundance of logic, and I just can't go along with it....in the final analysis, the faith of the Europeans is conscious and rational, and these people reject anything they cannot slice into categories with their rationality. Pg117
But an Asian like me just can't make sharp distinctions and pass judgment on everything the way they do. Pg118
Every time I look at the River Ganges, I think of my Onion (Christ). The Ganges swallows up the ashes of every personas it flows along, rejecting neither the beggar woman who stretches out her finger-less hands for the murdered prime minister Gandhi. The river of love that is my Onion flows past, accepting all, rejecting neither the ugliest of men nor the filthiest. Pg 185
The Onion had died many long years ago, but he had been reborn in the lives of other people. Even after nearly two thousand years had passed, he had been reborn in those nuns, and had been reborn in Otsu. And just as Otsu had been taken off to a hospital on a litter, the nuns likewise disappeared in the river of people. Pg 215 (less)
flag5 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jan 23, 2018Chinook rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: europe, asia, 1001
For a short book, Deep River covers a lot. It’s interesting to be gazing through a window at the lives of these Japanese men and women as they themselves gaze through a window at Europeans (mostly French) and Indians. The main themes of the book are religion and grief - characters contemplate rebirth, Japanese Buddhism, the differences between Japanese Christianity and European Christianity, Hinduism and a few personal constructions, like the man who thinks of God as being in communion with nature and a woman who eventually decides that humanity is all connected in their river of sorrows.
But the book also touches on the horrors of war, on marriage, of generational gaps in Japan, on sex and love, on work and its discontents, on travel and being respectful of new cultures. It is heavily influenced by two books, Moira and Thérèse Desqueyroux, which influence and mirror one woman’s choices.
Japanese novels tend, for me, to be somewhat hard to understand at a fundamental level - there always seems to be something presented as a universal feeling or action that baffles me. In this novel it’s the bullying of Otsu, which seems to the students to be inevitable and amusing. The tour guide later takes a similar attitude towards the tourists, one of wanting to have revenge against them for no reason that makes sense to me. It’s also sometimes hard to wrap my mind around the male-female relationships presented in Japanese novels. (less)
flag5 likes · Like · comment · see review
Nov 11, 2021Brennan rated it liked it
Shelves: religious-fic
Endo's infamous final novel, that had many quibbling over whether he finally abandoned the strict perimeters of Catholicism for a more generous pluralism/ecumenism. After all the reading I did for thesis, it seems inconclusive. His wife Junko indicates in a reflection a few years after his death that the pluralist beliefs of Otsū in Deep River are Endo's own. But a 1994 interview (the year of the novel's publication) with his close friend (and translator) William Johnston, Endo is recorded as saying "I have no doubt that dialogue is a very fine thing. But it has its limits. After all, when we Christians talk to Buddhists and learn from them, we must know where to draw the line. I would like to hear something about that." All that to say we can't really know. Nor should we.
I enjoyed the novel, but its cast of characters fell flat for me. I did not find them meticulously drawn or movingly real. Their monologues and dialogues were stilted. I always wonder what is lost in translation. Certain decisions by Gessel are odd--words like "pendulous" and "pestilential" stick out sorely. I did find the novel's cliffhanger ending reminiscent of Mark's gospel, an indication that Endo's spirituality remained Christocentric. Better than Volcano, worse than The Sea and Poison. (less)
flag4 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review
Mar 09, 2010Emilia P rated it it was amazing
Shelves: real-books, lost
Dang, yo.
Shusaku Endo wrote this book I read called SILENCE. It's about Catholic missionaries to Japan in like the 1600s and it's kinda boring and pretty one-note but also well written and about an important culture clash. Shusaku Endo, a Japanese Catholic, is an intriguing character himself, and so one is impelled to read more of his work. Especially since it's featured in Season 6 of Lost. And with good reason.
Silence was written in the 60s and Deep River was written in the 90s. The openness and full-heartedness of the latter belies a man with the wisdom and sadness and understanding of a whole life between these books - but it's still very clearly the same dude -- a person who cares about faith and the soul, in a way that is very Japanese and un-Japanese at the same time.
I tried to explain this to my cooly-Japanophile husband - to say this book was about how Japanese people are so focused on appearing calm and collected on the surface but are tumultuous and sad and beautiful underneath, and that perhaps that calm exterior itself signals, hints at, a profundity of soul which we openly emotional Westerners can only dream about. So that's what I thought this book captured really well -- everyone suffers, and here is a story about how four or five (or six or seven!) emphatically Japanese people suffered, in their own cultural context, mostly in silence and bitterness, and how they dealt with it by tapping into the life-force which connects us across cultures, ages, faiths (there's a Japanese Catholic priest who dresses up like a Hindu to carry bodies to the creamation grounds, to wit) , etc, while on a trip to the Ganges, the river of rebirth, in India. It sounds hippy-dippy, but it isn't. It's about how big our small little lives are -- it's a character study above all, no big sweeping things happen in it, in the end. It's about accepting and bearing suffering, and trying to love. It's kind of sad. But it's sweet.
There's a quote on the back about how Endo is unsentimental, yet sympathetic, and that's a mark of great writing. I have to agree. This is a wonderful book. Read it, yo. (less)
flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review
Nov 21, 2011Nick rated it really liked it
A group of Japanese tourists travel to India to visit historic sites from the life of the Buddha, without realizing that there are few modern Buddhists there. They wind up in Varanasi, by the side of the sacred, polluted Ganges, where people go to die. The group includes Isobe, who is looking for his reincarnated wife, who he ignored when she was alive and Mitsuko, who has found emptiness in a series of personae: hedonistic student, wife, volunteer at a hospital. Least affecting is Numada, a author of children's books and haunted by the fate of animals. Kiguchi's story is riveting, as he struggles not just with the memories of surviving the war in Burma, but of the soldier who sacrificed everything to save him. A thoughtful, meditative book, focussed on the struggle to define what truly matters, but not without a sly humor, as the fastidious Japanese try and mostly fail to cope with the overwhelming mass of humanity that is India, along with the comic foils, a pair of married tourists, her wishing to be in France, he trying to establish himself as a photographer. A book that lingers in the mind. (less)
flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review
Apr 26, 2020A.K. Kulshreshth rated it it was amazing
This is a great work. I listened to the audio book and will also read the print version.
Four very diverse characters, all Japanese, end up on a visit to the holy city of Varanasi, on the banks of the sacred river Ganga. Each of them has a different motive. In my interpretation, they get what they wanted to varying degrees, with none of them finding easy answers.
This is a book that works at many levels - from its range of settings in India, Japan, France, Burma and Manchuria, to its chronicling of events from Second World War Burma to Indira Gandhi's assassination and its characters and story arch. Two of its characters - Mitsuke and Otsu - are particularly fascinating.
It is necessary to mention that there are plenty of bloopers in this work. For example, the harmonium is not similar to a harmonica, contrary to Mr. Endo's assertion (assuming the translator is not to blame). In the audio book, Ganga is pronounced Gaan-Jaa. That is wrong, which is bad enough, but Gaanjaa also has a meaning. It means Opium in Hindi (and in other Indian languages)...
I put down the bloopers to poor quality control, and still rate this work highly because of its many strengths.
(less)
flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review
May 08, 2011Aubrey rated it really liked it
Shelves: r-2011, antidote-think-twice-read, translated, japanese, person-of-translated, antidote-translated, z-2, 4-star, reviewed, person-of-everything
There is death. Yet, there is also life. There are long emotionally dead passages. Yet, there are also moments so charged with feeling they consume all in their path, carry them along for a bit and then leave behind ones willing to do anything to catch up. You have the search for reincarnated love ones, the search for emotional fulfillment, the search to reconcile death with life, the search for atonement, each person ever searching for something omnipresent in its never clearly defined state. And on it goes, this one period of time accepting all parts of life into its midst; the river mentioned in the pages embodies this, and will take everything in without spitting out any straightforward conclusions of its own. This is definitely a novel that won't get very far with a reader without some interpretation on their part; it is only fully enjoyed if one can see their own life experiences within the pages, and leave with a new understanding of just what it means to exist. (less)
flag4 likes · Like · see review
Dec 06, 2019Kristel rated it really liked it
Shelves: 1001-books, 1001-challenge, 2019-botm
This is the second book that I have read by Roman Catholic, Japanese Author Shūsaku Endō. His books, Silence and Deep River are both included on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. Endō explores religion, especially Catholicism and the Japanese culture in his writings. In this book, set during the time period when Indira Ghandi, prime minister of India, was assassinated examines the lives of 4 Japanese who are on a tour to India to visit Buddhist sites.
1. Osamu Isobe, a man looking for his reincarnated wife.
2. Mitsuko Naruse, a former housewife who takes a trip both as a pilgrimage and to see her ex-boyfriend Otsu as atonement for mistreating him
3. Numada, a bird watcher who wants to set a bird in his possession free.
4. Kiguchi, a former WWII Imperial Japanese Army soldier.
These characters are on a journey, a pilgrimage and it is the story of their individual pilgrimage. The deep river is the Ganges where all peoples are taken in and flow together.
This was an interesting book and look at both Japanese and Indian culture. One point the author makes; I think, is that all Gods are the same God and that in seeking God, no matter which God, that Jesus is born again in that person. Another point in the book is that peoples, cultures, and religions are at odds with each other and in the best circumstances, conflict remains. I personally did not enjoy the descriptions of the river but also believe that the author did an excellent job of painting the picture of the river bank and of India (without using the camera). This book did not inspire me to want to visit India. (less)
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jan 10, 2018Pip rated it it was amazing
Shelves: 1001-books-challenge
I found this novel so much more powerful that Silence, which was about a group of Portuguese missionaries who were tortured in Seventeenth Century Japan. Endo, a practising Catholic, returns to the theme of forcing a Christian to deny one's faith, an idea which seems quaintly anachronistic now, but which he must feel strongly about to reintroduce it again. This time he tracks a group of Japanese on a pilgrimage to Buddhist Holy Sites in India. One of them had ignored his wife until her dying plea for him to look for her reincarnated self allowed Endo an opportunity to explore the idea of reincarnation. Another protagonist is a children's novelist with an affinity for animals who believes that a mynah bird sacrificed himself so that the author could live. Although he is not Christian the sacrifice of Jesus is mirrored in his story. A third pilgrim had suffered atrociously in Burma. His life was saved by a comrade who ate human flesh in order to survive (another Christian symbol) but became an alcoholic because his guilt was terrible. The fourth protagonist is a woman who believes she has no capacity for love. She seems to be following a student friend whom she had seduced and then dumped after forcing him to deny his faith. That he should also be in Varanasi, striving to live a meaningful life by helping the Untouchables carry bodies to the Ghats, and that he should die saving a clueless tour member who is insensitively trying to photograph the funeral pyres, stretches coincidence to the limits, but the whole works because it is a nifty way to talk about contrasting religious beliefs.
I listened to an Audible version, read by David Holt. He was a pleasure to listen to, my only carp being that when he spoke as the clueless Japanese tourist he used an English dialect which seemed forced to me, but that was a minor quibble. The Deep River of the title was the Ganges, of course, but it also was the river of humanity, flowing on, absorbing individuals ceaselessly despite their various beliefs and idiosyncracies. (less)
flag3 likes · Like · see review
Nov 08, 2014Wen Cof rated it it was amazing
Shusaku Endo’s book Deep River is about a journey to the river Ganges with a collection of tourists immersed in their own private spiritual struggles. Each character presents a face of spirituality as a whole. The characters face uncomfortable spiritual questions that aren’t always neatly answered. I loved the book because it brings together ideas of Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism.
Not only are the questions uncomfortable, so are the characters. The young woman Mitsuko, is so cruel, I almost stopped reading the book. But I’m glad I continued, because I realized that what she displays on the outside, so many of us are really hiding on the inside. She comments that the chaos and disorder of India is comforting to her, while the neatly organized gardens of Paris are disconcerting. There is something comforting about the chaos of India to Mitsuko, and there is something comforting about the chaos of the book to the reader. It jangles and fits together at odd angles. The ending is not a neat bow on a package, but is left open the reader to write their own conclusion.
So why did I love this book with ugly characters and an inharmonious plot? Because it didn’t try to explain or mollify their questions – it just took me on a journey as a reader through their process, and allowed me to draw my own conclusions about right, wrong, good, evil, life and death. It allowed me to also travel to the Ganges and observe and reflect.
(less)
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
May 22, 2012Christopher rated it liked it
Shelves: religion, lit-fiction, lost-library
Another book I started with high hopes which failed to live up to my expectations. Endo's characters all end up seeming contrived and sometimes ridiculous in their actions and dialogue as the stories progress and they make their pilgrimages to the Hindu and Buddhist holy sites along the Ganges. I was hoping for some insight into Christianity as it is viewed and experienced in Japan and the Orient but was instead treated to an individual's ecumenistic dreams. And I think maybe he sets up some of his characters as straw men to let us all know what he thinks of modern materialistic Japan. The character's backgrounds are all somewhat interesting and I think Endo writes very well (or has been translated very well). However, no great events happen, no deep thoughts are offered, no great revelations are found, and ultimately, the book ends up being a rather boring read. I saw another review somewhere before I started reading this that said: "Deep River, Shallow Story" - I agree. It's not your everyday pulpish junk, so I bumped up the 2.5 stars to 3. I can't imagine spending time on another Endo work again. (less)
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jan 27, 2018Melissa rated it really liked it
Shelves: read-2018, own, reading-1001-group, own-audiobook
A very interesting study in faith as seen through the eyes of a group of Japanese tourists to India as they recall pivotal moments of their lives, experiences, and their personal struggles as they try to reconnect with past acquaintances, past loves, and reconcile past traumas through the lens of different faiths and depths of faith as they visit the intersection of Asian faith, with Buddhism, Catholicism, and Hinduism.
flag5 likes · Like · comment · see review
Dec 26, 2019Book Wormy rated it liked it
Shelves: 2019-read, 1001-read
For me this book was an interesting exploration of religious beliefs and how they are more alike than different when you break it down and look into it. We start by exploring Christianity and the idea of sacrificing yourself for a higher good before moving on to look at Buddhism and the ideas of reincarnation eventually we end up in India with Hinduism and the caste system which while there is a strict hierarchy kept in life in death everyone is equal and the River Ganges accepts all souls with no questions asked.
The Japanese tourists on the pilgrimage all have different reasons for going to India and while some personal quests are successful others (on the surface are not) everyone in the group is changed by the experience.
I liked the way the back stories of everyone on the trip are slowly revealed and how they all have subtle connections to each other. India is also beautifully bought to love in all her beauty and all her ugliness
(less)
flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jan 21, 2021Joanne Fate rated it it was amazing
Shelves: audible
This isn't my first Shusaku Endo book, and it won't be my last. The book starts with chapters that could be short stories in and of themselves. The main characters are all Japanese. Endo brings most of them to India on a tour. There's a lot about religions in this book. Endo was Roman Catholic, living in a mostly Buddhist country. When they travel to India they tour many religious places.
Parts of this book are sad. There's talk of death and the afterlife. The writing transcends all that. It is beautifully written and profound.
I'll stop there. I'm listening through the alphabet, partly to try to get to some books that have been in my library for a while.
I loved the narration as well. It suited the book. (less)
flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review
No comments:
Post a Comment