Looking at a few quotes extracted from a dialogue between two Japanese characters in the novel will give you a sense of the encounters and re-encounters between individuals and the cross-cultural encounters, all of which are a strong feature of the play. In this dialogue which takes place in Paris, a Japanese woman talks to Otsu, one of the main characters who became a Christian early in his life in Japan.
The woman declares: "...It makes my teeth stand on edge just to think of you as a Japanese believing in this European Christianity nonsense." Otsu replies: "I've been here three years. For three years I have lived here and I have tired of the way people think. The ways of thinking that they've kneaded with their own hands and fashioend to meet the workings of their hearts..they're ponderous to an Asian like me. I can't blend in with them. And so everyday is hell for me..."
The reader of this novel who is not Japanese will gain some interesting insights into how Japanese might react to these different cultural settings, as characters move from Japan to France to the United States, and finally meet in India. Endo delivers a very personal sense of cross-cultural encounters, recognizable to those of us who have gone through similar journeys in different parts of the world.
Since I have only read Japanese novels in translation into either English or French, I cannot fairly judge Endo's style against other Japanese writers who are also well known to foreign readers, like Mishima and Kawabata. But while Endo may not share the grace and delicacy of these writers, his novels, including this one, are very human, and bring us very close to the inner lives of his characters.
If you want to better understand how Japanese come to view the rest of the world, or more generally how different cultures can collide, Endo's novels and his characters are a good place to start, or to continue, your journey.
There is great significance in each of the characters. Ostu being a Christ figure, the Sanjos representing the "Westernized" Japanese who are almost ignorant of the Indian culture and religion. Although I cannot agree with some of the worldviews discussed in the novel, it's a great book and the most symbolistic book I have read in years.
It is no accident that Ostu gave God the name of "Onion." An onion has several layers to it. Ostu believed that the God of Christianity was also the God of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, etc. This is where I give this book 4 stars instead of 5. The God of the Old and New Testaments cannot be the same as the ones of Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.