Shusaku Endo's Silence

SILENCE by Shusaku Endo is a moving (and grueling) fictional account of a fragment of world history that occurred in 17th century Nagasaki in Japan. Failure, defeat, resignation, pain, remorse, guilt, despair, misery, anger, horror, grief, …, faith, hope, absolution, redemption…. What else? All these and the silence of God are central to Endo’s narrative on the persecution that Christians in Japan were facing during that time.

Endo makes masterful and effective use of shifting narrative approaches (from prologue to the last chapter) in his description of the painful exploits of the two (or three) of the main characters in the book as the main protagonist (Father Rodrigues) tries zealously in dealing with the persecution of Christianity and the suffering of the Japanese converts, the weakness of some converts and of Portuguese priests who gave in to public apostasy, the unexplained ‘schizophrenia’ of the Shoguns who were once converts, the troubling reflections on the validity of his faith, and the silence of God in the midst of so much grief and unbearable suffering. These approaches include a few chapters which actually consist of the letters of the main protagonist (Father Rodrigues) to Portugal, the entries in the diary of a Dutch trader, and the omniscient narrative of a third person. The theology of pain and the personification of weakness (which can be thought of being parallel to Judas) are well placed to force Father Rodrigues into an unbearable ordeal.

This novel certainly does not promise any hint of feel-good aftertaste. However, it is so powerful that, ironically, it resounds on me an inexplicably uplifting feeling.

This is highly recommended. {February 17, 2009}

By the way …

Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood, Gangs of New York, The Age of Innocence and My Left Foot) and Benicio Del Toro (Che, The Usual Suspects, Traffic and Fearless) agreed to star in the film adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s SILENCE to be directed and co-financed by Martin Scorsese and Stephen King, respectively. Gael Garcia Bernal (Amores Perros, The Crime of Padre Amaro, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Blindness and Babel) is also a possibility for the project. The shooting starts late this year in New Zealand. The film is set for distribution in 2010.