SOURCE: A review of The Girl I Left Behind, in Kirkus Reviews, Vol. LXII, No. 19, October 1, 1995, p. 1380.

[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 frank afterword, the eminent Japanese author (of Deep River, etc.) concedes that this early novel—written "some thirty-five years ago"—appears by contemporary standards both politically incorrect and technically immature. It's a bit better than that. In tracing the almost lifelong relationship between Yoshioka Tsutomu, a thoughtless salesman, and Mitsu, the credulous village girl whom he seduces and abandons—and whose path continues to cross his long years afterward—Endo makes clear that rejecting the selfless and generous Mitsu was tantamount to denying Christ, and that such is not done lightly. This unfortunately simplistic apprentice work is thus redeemed both by...