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4 reviews
Shusaku Endo

New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1995

Warning: I Might Be Biased
It was written by Shusaku Endo. So, of course, I was almost fated to read it. Once again, the plot didn't sound like my usual choice in novels, (a refrain all too common in my reviews), but Endo always seems to be able to sucker punch me. And this novel is no exception. The basic plot shadows Yoshioka Tstomu, a poverty stricken student with an overlt developed libido. Yoshioka encounters ...

Wonderful Fool (Peter Owen Modern Classics)

5 reviews
Shusaku Endo

Peter Owen Publishers, 2000

This was a great story by one of Japan's finest writers
Being a large fan of Shusaku Endo, when I saw this book with an interesting title, I decided to read it. I was very happily surprised. Not only is this excellently written story a very moving tale, but it is often very funny. Endo has used his talent to tell the story of an often foolish man named Gaston Bonaparte, a man with a passion for Japan. He travels to Japan and stays with a small ...

The Samurai (New Directions Classics)

22 reviews
Shusaku Endo

New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1997

Very Good!
Okay first of all, don't let the title mislead you. One of the two main characters is a samurai but don't expect sword fights and bloody battles in this book. With that said I very much enjoyed this book and thought the author does an amazing job with making all the scenes come alive simply by his descriptions of the settings. I would certainly recommend this book to a friend and even though this ...

Five by Endo: (New Directions Bibelots)

2 reviews
Shusaku Endo

New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2000

Five Easy Pieces, Vintage Endo
Mr. Endo is a rarity: a Japanese Catholic novelist, a literary Sadao Watanabe. His Catholicism and literary studies in Europe have made him the most accessible of Japanese novelists to the western reader. Those who know and appreciate his work will welcome these five short stories, and will recognize his usual style and typical concerns. A novelist retraces the steps of the Christian martyrs ...

Silence

57 reviews
Shusaku Endo

Taplinger Publishing Company, 1980

The Honor of God
How proud is God? How should God's people uphold his honor? How exactly should the gospel transform human society? These questions lie at the heart of Silence. Written in the wake of World War two by the Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo, Silence tells the story of the persecution of Christians in seventeenth century Japan. Although proselytizing efforts by Francis Xavier had been successful ...

Stained Glass Elegies: Stories (Revived Modern Classic)

3 reviews
Shusaku Endo

New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1990

As eloquent and powerful as anthing you'll ever read.
This is a collection of short stories spanning a twenty year period from the late 50's to the late 70's, and in these stories we come across most of Endo's favourite themes - martyrs of Christianity in Japan, the stories of those who apostatized (gave up their religion for fear of torture and persecution), Endo's own prolonged illness and his fear of suffering, and his own religious ...

The Sea and Poison (New Directions Paperbook, No. 737)

11 reviews
Shusaku Endo

New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1992

Crime and Punishment
Obedience to authority and power leads people to harm others, and not being able to resist authority of someone higher is human weakenss. It seems that the Intern named Toda is the one Endo wanted to emphasize upon. The charactor of Toda remainds me of Albert Camus's "The Stranger," and Dostoevsky's "Devils," and it can also be related to other charactors Endo draws in his other novels. Can ...

A Life of Jesus

11 reviews
Shusaku Endo

Paulist Press, 1978

The man - not the God
This is one of the best works ever published on the life of the Jewish rabbi named Jesus. Shusaku Endo brings him to us devoid of our usual inclinations and prejudices. Which of us, having been to church, can forget those pictures of Jesus in which he appears almost Scandinavian or a slightly rumpled European? With an Eastern perspective, Endo can - in many ways - render a more balanced and ...

Golden Country
Shusaku Endo

Tuttle Publishing, 2003

Deep River

21 reviews
Shusaku Endo

New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1996

Searching for Peace in an Expanded Horizon
This is a beautiful story of 5 people searching for the inner peace that has eluded them throughout much, if not all, of their lives. The cause of their inner turmoil comes from a variety of sources but their emptiness and incompleteness is very real. Shusaku Endo introduces us to each of them seperately and then has them all, for seperate reasons, journey to India. They are in a guided tour ...

Scandal

7 reviews
Shusaku Endo

Vintage, 1989

deep and thought-provoking
Endo doesn't give you easy answers. This book explores the darker side of human nature, the side behind easy domestic life, beyond common decency, beneath worldly success. It may not be a pleasant book to read, as it doesn't gloss over the capacity for evil in a human being, but it is a book that will leave you thinking about just how authentic you are. If you're not ready to face brutal ...

Volcano

1 review
Shusaku Endo

Taplinger Pub Co, 1984

Do not go gently into that good night
This is a rather short novel about three different entities dealing with their retiring years. One of the entities is the director of a provencial Japanese weather station who is the local expert on a dormant volcano. Another is an apostate Catholic Priest who senses that his life ceased its' meaning when he ceased his calling. The last entity is the volcano itself. Although we don't sense a ...

L'extraordinaire voyage du samouraï Hasekura
Shusaku Endo

Buchet Chastel, 1994

The Final Martyrs

1 review
Shusaku Endo

Sceptre, 1993

Short Stories: Endo-Style
This is the first book by Shusaku Endo I have read in a long while, so it has been good to get back into his work. "Final Martyrs" is a collection of short stories on a variety of themes, all of them very human and very much in Endo's usual style and focus. The short stories are notable for their indebtedness to Endo's life. Many are set in French or European settings, or have elements of ...

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