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Jul 03, 2018milirick rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
I watched the movie adaptation first and it made me borrow the novel from the library. It is a very readable book although lengthy. No doubt it being a translation made it more accessible because it is free from lofty prose and sticks to plain language which is all that is required for a book so character driven. Although this is a novel about finding and understanding faith there is this deep sadness entwined throughout that rings of despair. Maybe it is because the author is expressing his alienation from his own culture because he has adopted a religion which is considered foreign. The foreigners in the novel adopt the manners and customs of their new home with more resignation than love. It is adapt or die for them and Endo's description of this struggle is at the heart of this story. Although Endo tries to steer the conversation to favor the foreigners he describes events in such an even handed way we still have room to decide for ourselves if Japan was right to persecute outsiders to preserve their indigenous culture.