Shusaku Endo Summary

Endo Shusaku (1923–1996), Japanese writer. As a boy, Tokyo-born novelist and playwright Endo Shusaku, was baptized into the Catholic Church. After majoring in French literature at Keio Universi... Read more

End Shusaku is a study in contrasts: one of the most influential and popular writers in postwar Japan, but an author whose major works have focused upon Christian themes foreign to most of his readers... Read more

Critical Essay by John Mellors By way of demonstrating [the] difficulties of Christianity in Japan, Endo has written a novel [Silence] based on the persecution by the Japanese in the 17th century of m... Read more

Critical Essay by Valentine Cunningham When I Whistle shows how telling a novelist Shusaku Endo can be when he stops straining to live up to his dubious label as 'the Japanese Graham Greene�... Read more

Critical Essay by Edward Butscher Shusaku Endo has wisely set his gripping novel about one man's struggle for belief in early 18th-century Japan when medieval samurai still held sway and the br... Read more

Critical Essay by Paul Wilkes [Shusaku Endo's Jesus in A Life of Christ] is approached carefully, quietly, as if his story is to be told accompanied by a simple tune on a hand-carved flute ... Read more

Critical Essay by Anthony Thwaite What distinguishes [Endo from the modern Japanese masters is his] deceptively simple blend of unimpeded narrative and matter-of-fact style with fidelity to Japanese b... Read more

Critical Essay by Anthony Thwaite ["Volcano" is a] detailed, matter-of-fact confrontation with matters of ethics and guilt…. Akadake, the volcano of the title, is sited in Kyushu,... Read more

Critical Essay by Tom Kemme Six months before atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a vivisection was performed on an American prisoner at Fukuoka University Medical School. The Sea and... Read more

In the review below, Binding explores Endo's attraction to Catholicism and the autobiographical elements in the collection The Final Martyrs. “Dogs and little birds still appear frequent... Read more

In the below review, Bosha discusses Endo's attempts to reconcile his Japanese and Catholic identities in The Final Martyrs. The Final Martyrs is Shusaku Endo's second collection of stor... Read more

In the following excerpt, O'Connell describes Endo's short fiction as either “intriguing or exasperating.” In two newly translated volumes, a novel and a story collection, ... Read more

In the following review, Brown considers the theme of heroism in Endo's Stained Glass Elegies. That fiction is principally autobiography in the hands of modern Japanese writers becomes evident ... Read more

In the following review, Ryan discusses Endo's treatment of the experiences of Japanese in Europe as a means of expressing broader concerns about the human condition. In three tragic stories of... Read more

In the following review of Foreign Studies, Baldauf discusses Endo's focus on the persecution of Christians in Japan. When Portuguese missionaries landed in Japan in 1549, they proclaimed the J... Read more

In the following review, Beverly discusses the theme of moral struggle in Endo's Foreign Studies. Consider this book [Foreign Studies]. The author calls it a novel even though it consists of on... Read more

In the following essay, originally published in The Month in 1987, Mathy discusses Endō's Catholicism and surveys his writing career. Shusaku Endo's latest novel Scandal (1986) be... Read more

In the following essay, Netland examines the ways Endō addresses the clash of Western ideology and Japanese culture in his historical novels. The history of Christianity in Japan offers an inst... Read more

In the following essay, Durfee addresses the question of whether or not it is possible to be both fully Japanese and fully Christian, and examines the ways in which Endō handles the seeming par... Read more

In the following essay, Wills explores the role of Christ and the theme of suffering in Endō's works. In his book A Life of Jesus Shusaku Endo talks of Jesus' compassion for those... Read more

In the following essay, Gessel attempts to expand Endō's literary significance beyond his reputation as a Japanese Catholic writer. It is no simple matter to define the position which En... Read more

In the following essay, Burkman addresses Endō's artistic handling of the incompatibility of Western religion with Japanese culture. The National Christian Council of Japan in 1991 publi... Read more

[In the following interview Endo and Johnston discuss the relationship between Buddhism and Christianity.] [Shusaku Endo:] Are you still interested in Buddhism, Father? [William Johnston, S.J.:] Yes, ... Read more

[In the following essay, Page gives a brief overview of Endo's career and the themes that consumed his work.] Shusaku Endo, a leading Japanese novelist who wrote about faith and faithlessness, ... Read more

[In the following review, Garber discusses how Endo works out his themes of sinners struggling with morality in the form of a short story before developing them into a novel. Garber uses the short sto... Read more

[In the following review, the critic discusses the universal truth in Endo's Foreign Studies.] Elegantly divided into three sections, this 1965 novel by the celebrated Japanese author of Scanda... Read more

[In the following review, Breslin discusses the relationship between East and West as seen in Endo's Silence and Foreign Studies.] I had just finished teaching Shusaku Endo's novel Silen... Read more

[In the following review, Baldauf discusses how Endo's Foreign Studies makes valid points about the tension between two cultures in its three stories of Japanese Christians.] When Portuguese mi... Read more

[In the following review, Beverly asserts that Endo's Foreign Studies is about what she calls "the tyranny of our incarnation" in which we are born into one existence and yearn to... Read more

[In the following review, the critic points out the autobiographical nature of the stories in Endo's The Final Martyrs.] Somber, haunting stories that resonate with compassion, eloquence, and m... Read more

[In the following review, the critic discusses the different topics covered in Endo's short story collection The Final Martyrs.] In a calm, delicate, unobtrusive manner, several of these 11 dec... Read more

[In the following review, Tuohy recommends reading Endo's The Girl I Left Behind, but asserts that Deep River will disappoint Endo's devotees.] With a dozen or so of his books translated... Read more

[In the following review, O'Connell asserts that in Endo's Deep River and his The Final Martyrs the author is reiterating, although sometimes expanding on his major theme: the struggle t... Read more

[In the following review, Coles discusses the psychological aspects of Endo's Deep River.] With the epigraph to his latest novel the Japanese writer Shusaku Endo not only signals his story�... Read more

[In the following review, the critic asserts that while Endo's The Girl I Left Behind is a "simplistic apprentice work," there are some redeeming qualities to the novel.] In a fra... Read more

[In the following review, Schenk admits that there are some fascinating aspects to Endo's Deep River, but complains that "a faint air of absurdity hovers over the entire enterprise.�... Read more