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Silence

Shūsaku Endō

Start date: February 1, 2020

Finish date: February 29, 2020

Discussion: 2020 Historical Fict. Tournament

Discussion leader: Christopher

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What Members Thought

Oct 10, 2016 Viv JM rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-historical, author-male, in-translation, rt-challenge-oct-16, read-in-2016, 1001-books-project

Silence tells the story of Father Rodrigues, a Catholic priest from Portugal, who travels to Japan in the 1600s to become a missionary. During this era in Japan, Christians were terribly persecuted and hence this is not a happy tale. The "silence" of the title refers to the seeming silence of Rodrigues' God in the face of all this suffering.

At the heart of this book is a difficult decision to be made by Rodrigues, and the book details his inner struggles with his faith, and what drives him to t ...more

19 likes · Like · see review

Nov 11, 2016 Gill rated it liked it

Shelves: challenge

3.5 stars

Some thoughts, no real spoilers:

I liked that it was based on a historical incident, and I enjoyed reading about life at that time in a country I know little about. I thought some of the descriptions of the countryside were lovely.

I'm not religious, so some of it felt irrelevant to me, but I am very interested in the role of Judas, whether to defend your beliefs at cost to other people etc etc, so I found that interesting.

I understand that Endo was strongly religious?? That might explain ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Sep 08, 2018 Henk rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: japanese-literature

A book which made me feel uncomfortable, allmost claustrophobic sometimes, because of the heavy themes and the hopeless feeling Sebastian Rodriguez goes through while being in Japan.

The start of the book is like a film intro, sketching the scene, with Japan closed for Europeans after Christian convertings threatened to undermine the rule of the Daimyo. One of the remaining Portugese priests in Japan is rumoured to have fallen from his faith, and Sebastian, together with two other priests sets ou A book which made me feel uncomfortable, allmost claustrophobic sometimes, because of the heavy themes and the hopeless feeling Sebastian Rodriguez goes through while being in Japan.

The start of the book is like a film intro, sketching the scene, with Japan closed for Europeans after Christian convertings threatened to undermine the rule of the Daimyo. One of the remaining Portugese priests in Japan is rumoured to have fallen from his faith, and Sebastian, together with two other priests sets out to find out if this is true and to gain first hand knowledge of Japan. What follows is a harrowing trip, narrated through letters alleged to have been send back by Sebastian, which for me took out some of the tension since apparentely he ended up safe enough to send them.

The pace is high after landing in Japan, the language subdued, detached, especially in the last part of the book where Sebastian changes in the unpersonal “the priest”. Historic feudal Japan is beautifully rendered, in all its brutality against the peasant communities. Besides Kichijiro, who helps the protagonist like a Japanese Gollum, there is some aid from the locals, until the authorities get more serious.
After this Sebastian keeping his faith does not only lead to his own suffering but also those around him, with punishments ranging from beheadings, “water” crucifixions, forced labour and being hung into pits.

Sebastian starts to doubt his god, who remains silent in the face of all these attrocities and starts to wonder if when compassion is the core of the Christian belief, how him being faithful to dogma’s of the church still fits. Also the question is raised if it is morally more easy being a good man of faith in friendly circumstances, like the missionaries in their base in Formossa, than being in a hostile land on your own, and if the strenght of faith can be gauched without being tested.

In the end there is a conclusion to the struggle of Sebastian, but the book just continues for another 30 pages which felt unnecessary to me. Also the parallels Sebastian makes between himself being prosecuted and Christ felt a bit overdone and too often repeated. ...more

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Aug 25, 2019 Petra rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: theological-musings

How much would one's self would one sacrifice for Mercy? Would one's self be sacrificed if Mercy were obtained? What if showing Mercy ostracizes one from one's community? Where does Faith fit into all this? Where is God when his Believers suffer in his name?
This is a powerful book. Father Rodrigues struggles with his Faith as he witnesses suffering and atrocities. Based on a true period of time in Japan with, I believe, some real life characters this book powerfully shows the confusion and helpl ...more

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Feb 13, 2020 Christopher rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, japanese, fiction, epistolary

This turned out to be a much more morally ambiguous story than I expected. It's about Catholic missionaries to Japan in the 17th century, a time when Japan was torturing and killing Christians, and it's written by a Japanese Catholic. I grew up reading Foxe's Book of Martyrs, so I expected some grisly and humiliating torture, but what's in this book is less physical torture, more spiritual dread and persecution. Which doesn't sound worse, but somehow it is.

There is a very compelling moral quanda ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Oct 08, 2016 Pamela rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: guardian-1000-read, boxall-1001-read, japan

Father Sebastian Rodrigues, Portuguese missionary, embarks on a mission to Japan where Christianity is illegal and Christians face torture and execution. He is certain his faith will lead him to a glorious martyrdom, but the reality of his struggle is very different from his expectations.

This book is beautifully written, and raises deep questions around faith and truth. Endo brilliantly conveys the severe and cruel environment of Japan at this time, the wretched existence of the peasants, and th ...more

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Nov 06, 2016 Irene rated it really liked it

A few decades after St. Francis Zavier first brought Christianity to Japan, the faith was outlawed and Christians forced to deny the faith under torture. This is the story of a Portuguese Jesuit priest who comes to Japan to serve the hidden Christian community ready to lay down his life. But the choice he is asked to make demands a conversion and a sacrifice he could never anticipate. This novel presents the priest and the reader with troubling questions of what it means to be faithful to Christ ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 06, 2020 Meghan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, historical-fiction, japanese, movie, religious, political, book-club, award-winning, audiobook, asian

I really enjoyed this book as a whole. It’s a solid 4 stars. But I had to take a star off for a few reasons.

1. I didn’t love the translation. I’ve read other Japanese translated books and this felt like they may have struggled trying to tell this story in a western voice. It read a bit uneven and I think this is due to trying to be an “English” story rather than a Japanese story in English.

2. I like this narrator but I didn’t think he was the appropriate choice for the story. Again, they tried t I really enjoyed this book as a whole. It’s a solid 4 stars. But I had to take a star off for a few reasons.

1. I didn’t love the translation. I’ve read other Japanese translated books and this felt like they may have struggled trying to tell this story in a western voice. It read a bit uneven and I think this is due to trying to be an “English” story rather than a Japanese story in English.

2. I like this narrator but I didn’t think he was the appropriate choice for the story. Again, they tried to “westernize” it by giving us a British narrator, which is bizarre given that it’s a Japanese story about Portuguese Jesuit priests. I’d have preferred a Japanese reader or one who at least can speak Portuguese and Japanese correctly. I find it extremely annoying when you hear narrators mispronounce foreign/non-English words.

3. It was dry in a couple of spots. I don’t know if it’s the story or the translation but it was a little difficult to get through in places.

But otherwise I really enjoyed the story. I had seen the movie so I was aware of how the story was going to go. But the book filled in a lot of details, not necessarily missing from the movie, but helpful.

I really appreciated the issues faced in this story. The moral struggle of standing firm in your beliefs (slaves to a belief structure, unbending or unyielding) or giving in to your oppressors in order to live to fight another day? As a Protestant, I don’t believe in the icons and symbols as being exceptionally holy. While I would not choose to tread on a picture of Jesus, neither do I believe that by doing so, I am doing anything sinful if I am forced to do so. So the inability to apostatize is something I don’t really understand.

That said I still appreciate the struggle. In a secular situation, I have non-religious friends who are choosing to protest the border policies in the US. They have been arrest and some mistreated. By not joining them, am I complicit in the policies I don’t agree with? If I join them and then, out of fear, leave for getting arrested, am I their enemy? If one of them cannot take the pain and hurt of their fight and quit, are they somehow less or worse than their comrades in arms? Is it betrayal if they choose to then side with the people who they used to be protesting against?

The thing I liked best about this story is that even though it took place centuries ago, the issues are ones we face in modern times.

I think one’s enjoyment of the story will be improved if one has a background in Japanese history and/or Catholicism/Christianity. But it’s not essential.
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Oct 30, 2016 Joey Anderson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Endo’s novel is quite a sober experience about the question of faith and nobility concerning the act of being a Christian in a country where Christianity has been outlawed, specifically that of the main character Sebastian Rodrigues. The title refers to the silence of God and how God refuses to stop suffering (Rodrigues’ perspective) and how the priest never understands that God is never really silent at all. Rodriguez just doesn’t like what God tells him, that keeping one’s faith is difficult a Endo’s novel is quite a sober experience about the question of faith and nobility concerning the act of being a Christian in a country where Christianity has been outlawed, specifically that of the main character Sebastian Rodrigues. The title refers to the silence of God and how God refuses to stop suffering (Rodrigues’ perspective) and how the priest never understands that God is never really silent at all. Rodriguez just doesn’t like what God tells him, that keeping one’s faith is difficult and that humans must suffer if they are to follow the path of Christ.

This novel is worth the read and you will be rewarded. It is one of the best religious novels I’ve read, ranking with Barabbas, The Last Temptation of Christ, and The Brothers Karamazov (primarily Ivan’s story of the Grand Inquisitor. Endo's work seems a direct parallel to the Grand Inquisitor where Christ refuses to answer the Inquisitor.

The priest’s faith and how the novel remains silent towards his final act of apostasy becomes the primary subject. The priest constantly questions whether he is losing his faith, and, at one point, wonders whether he still believes in God. The novel refuses to answer the question whether the priest loses his faith, but it is quite clear that torture can cause any man to betray himself.

Rodrigues self parallels his life to Christ and names Kichijiro as his Judas figure. Remarkably, the Japanese use pieces of silver as a temptation to betray men of faith.

Endo unconventionally structures his novel into the three narrative situations in this order: first person in letter form; authorial; and documentary narration, which is a disguise of figural narration (since a person always documents: a document is never an unvarnished version of reality). It may seem that one shows a more reliable version of truth and faith, but they are only matters of perspective. Not one of the three has a superior version of truth and reliability since the authorial narrator stays silent, refuses to comment.

The structure reveals how the novel tempts the reader to accept one version of reality over the other. The letters are certainly more personal; the authorial section is more biographical and excludes the primacy of Rodrigues’ viewpoint of the first part. The third section, named the Appendix, purports the facts of the last days of Rodrigues when he has transformed from a European priest into a Japanese apostate.

The conflict of faith demonstrated in acts between Ferreira and Rodriguez is another interesting aspect of the novel. Ferreira was Rodrigues’ hero, but succumbs to torture. At first, Rodriques despises Ferreira for his weakness, but become less judgmental after he commits the same act of apostasy. Ferreira’s original thinking that one will lose their faith under torture is the correct one it turns out, but the question remains: does a person lose his or her faith or only his or her ability to endure torture?

However, we cannot dispute that the Japanese Christians endure torture to their eventual deaths. Do they remain more steadfast to their faith than the priests? Does faith mean steadfastness against apostasy no matter what the torture (the Japanese powers that be were quite inventive in their methods of torture; I was amazed that any person could endure those forms).

The novel is silent about which kind of Christianity is more admirable. As silent as God.

One last reflection: I would say that if Rodrigues loses sympathy with the reader, it is because he possesses the sin of pride. He does compare his life to the trials and tribulations of Christ as if he is obsessed with a Christian heroism and martyrdom.
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