Deep River is more an examination of the interior states of its characters as they confront modernity and their own suffering.Įndo almost seems to be asking here whether any of the suffering explored in Silence and Kiku’s Prayer has been worth it, or why the sacrifice of so many martyrs has borne little obvious fruit. That book was almost a documentary about the persecution of Japanese Christians in the late 19th century.
In terms of style and structure, this is very different from Kiku’s Prayer. Mitsuko is trying to find herself, while Otsu is trying more and more to submerge himself into the Man of Sorrows. The main characters are Otsu, a Japanese Catholic who becomes a priest, and Mitsuko, an acquaintance from college who wrestles with alternative impulses to destroy and understand him. Kugachi is a WW2 veteran still trying to make sense of his and his fellow veterans’ experiences. Isobe is a representative of the traditional Japanese salary man who realized he never fully appreciated or loved his recently deceased wife.
Numada, like Endo, is an author who never quite got over the divorce of his parents, and has suffered from significant health problems later in life. The three older men, Numada, Kugachi and Isobe, are to some degree biographical sketches of Endo or the men of his generation. The two main characters are a Japanese man and woman engaged in a spiritual duel of sorts lasting several decades. Three of them are elderly Japanese men coming to terms with suffering. This is a longish review, and includes details that may spoil the story in case you prefer to read it first.ĭeep River follows parts of the lives of five different people leading up to their meeting on a trip to India in 1984. Alternatively, it may be of interest to those who ponder why the faith seems to have flourished in some parts of the world, but not taken root in places like Japan. Endo’s controversial novel Silence has also been getting more attention lately due to the Martin Scorsese film adaptation currently playing in theaters.ĭeep River may be interesting for those readers who read or saw Silence, and are looking for more from Endo, or are simply trying understand his point of view. I started reading Endo recently, and reviewed his Kiku’s Prayer a few months ago. This is a review and analysis of Shusaku Endos’s 1994 novel Deep River, his last.
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