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1JDHomrighausen
Five by Endo by Shusaku Endo
Finished 12/7/12
After two months of reading straight nonfiction, my imagination was drying up. What better than a book of short stories to get it running again? Endo's stories focus around connection: lacking it, seeking it, trying to run away from it. My favorites were "A Case of Isobe," about a man who finds connection with his longtime wife only after her death; and "Japanese in Warsaw," about a Japanese tourist in Poland who finds something he did not expect:
"For a long while Imamiya remembered the weary figure of that missionary, the sad smile that had flashed from behind his round glasses, and the hollow-cheeked face. He remembered the image, but he had no other impressions and virtually no other recollections of the foreigners." (42)
Another story, "Unzen," is about a Japanese tourist visiting the sites of the Japanese Christian martyrs of the 1700s and lamenting his own cowardice and inability to be a martyr. If martyrs are gloried in God's eyes, where does that leave those who lack courage and conviction? The story refers to the events and stories of Endo's most famous novel Silence.
Endo writes in a very spare style, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks themselves. Christianity pops up frequently in these stories. Though Endo is not what you'd call an "evangelistic" author, his stories evoke for me the horror of life without connection to another human being. His characters come off as sad in their self-imposed solipsism. But being the "Japanese Graham Greene," Endo is not afraid to be realistic about the foibles of his characters. That's his strength.
Finished 12/7/12
After two months of reading straight nonfiction, my imagination was drying up. What better than a book of short stories to get it running again? Endo's stories focus around connection: lacking it, seeking it, trying to run away from it. My favorites were "A Case of Isobe," about a man who finds connection with his longtime wife only after her death; and "Japanese in Warsaw," about a Japanese tourist in Poland who finds something he did not expect:
"For a long while Imamiya remembered the weary figure of that missionary, the sad smile that had flashed from behind his round glasses, and the hollow-cheeked face. He remembered the image, but he had no other impressions and virtually no other recollections of the foreigners." (42)
Another story, "Unzen," is about a Japanese tourist visiting the sites of the Japanese Christian martyrs of the 1700s and lamenting his own cowardice and inability to be a martyr. If martyrs are gloried in God's eyes, where does that leave those who lack courage and conviction? The story refers to the events and stories of Endo's most famous novel Silence.
Endo writes in a very spare style, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks themselves. Christianity pops up frequently in these stories. Though Endo is not what you'd call an "evangelistic" author, his stories evoke for me the horror of life without connection to another human being. His characters come off as sad in their self-imposed solipsism. But being the "Japanese Graham Greene," Endo is not afraid to be realistic about the foibles of his characters. That's his strength.
