Soon to be a major motion picture directed by Martin Scorsese In this powerful psychological drama set in the 17th century, Portuguese missionary Father Rodrigues arrives in Japan to find the small Christian community there practicing their faith in secret amid brutal persecution by the Edo government. Soon, Father Rodrigues’s faith will be tested to the breaking point as he is faced with an … breaking point as he is faced with an unbearable moral dilemma: renounce his faith, or watch his followers be tortured and put to death one by one.
At once an emotionally intense drama and a piercing exploration of belief, Silence is a haunting novel of profound insight into the true meaning of faith and courage from Nobel-prize nominated writer Shusaku Endo, one of Japan’s most revered novelists.
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An amazing book that I am struggling to review. Excuse my broken writing, but it is the best way to review this novel; a series of stream of consciousness points:
Based on historical facts, in the 1600’s the Jesuits were sending missionaries to Japan. When the new emperor came to power, Christians were no longer welcome and were persecuted.
Silence-the silence of god amid the suffering of his converts and priests.
Judas- what was his real mission in the death of Christ? Why did Christ tell Judas to do what he was to do? People were told to apostatize as were priests. Would Christ have allowed the torture of his followers, if he could end their suffering with a simple statement of disbelief? Has a priest apostatized, if he only does so to save people from inhuman torture? Why is God silent amidst all this suffering? Who is Kichijiro?
Endo has been called the Graham Greene of the Japanese?
Can a Japanese person really be converted to western Christianity? Does the Japanese concept of god, so differ from the western concept that true conversion cannot happen? Why is God silent?
This is an enjoyable, well-written, thought-provoking book.
The movie is out but in limited release, and I doubt that it could tell the real story of this book.
A work crafted to perfection.
I am reading this now. I issue a challenge!!! Let’s see how many of us can read this before the movie comes out January 6! We can compare notes on the book and the movie!
Mind-blowing, epic, sweeping, intimate. I loved this book and the movie. I spent a lot of time in Kagoshima, Shimabara, Amakusa Island, (incl. hiking on Mount Unzen) and parts of Kyushu where the events of this book took place. There is so much richness to unpack in this novel. And of course the Inquisition was raging in Portugal, Macau, and Goa while theses persecutions took place.
In 1600s Japan, Christianity is being suppressed after a rebellion. Two Portuguese priests travel there secretly to try to rekindle the faith, with the help of a possible Japanese Chistian who is the epitome of the coolest weakness. They also search for their old mentor, a man who has supposedly apostacized after being tortured.
This book was written by a Japanese Christian man struggling with his faith. I was angry at the book at first–the arrogance of these two priests is pretty stomach turning–but came to appreciate the real stakes for the character and apparently the writer. It depicts a real crisis of faith in all its brutal ugliness. I was satisfied with the ending, which also surprised me.
I came to my own conclusions about faith some time ago, but I can imagine for people still struggling, this might be more than a bit too painful to read.
This book is beautiful. Literary and deep, Silence explores what faith looks like in the face of insurmountable pressure. Endo’s writing is easy-to-read but astonishing in its poetry and human feeling.
This is a book every person who considers themselves “spiritual” should read. It is a wonderful novel about a part of history about which most people in the West aren’t knowledgable. I learned a lot, the characters are amazing, and the events and dilemmas haunted me for 32 years. When the movie came out, I found it to be a pretty good parallel to the book