> Part of year long read of Endo's works on LibraryThing
> Originally Published in 1994
> Japanese author
> Interesting that a Japanese author would select an Negro Spiritual as his epigraph, and likely the title, "Deep River"......
> Epigraph: "Deep river, Lord: I want to cross over into campground". I know the melody and it is beautiful....I have a Barbra Streisand version on CD "Higher Ground"
> Characters: Isobe (loses his wife, Keiko, to cancer, not before she tells him she will be reincarnated and he must search for her), Mitsuko (hospice volunteer for Keiko, has a history of competition with man, Otsu, for his allegiance to God), Numada (long history of revealing his inner self only to animals and birds), Kiguchi (survived starvation death march in Burma during WWII, friend, Tsukada, saved them, but suffered a lifetime over guilt for having eaten meat of fellow soldiers to survive), Gaston ( mysterious missionary in the tubercular ward with Tsukada, takes much abuse, then vanishes after helping him)
> I still have cultural bias which makes me think the Japanese reticence to demonstrate affection, even as simple as holding his own wife's hand, is incomprehensible
> Hindu belief regarding death: "...the soul is in limbo for seven days, then slips into the conjoined bodies of a man and a woman and are reborn as a new existence." This repeats every seven days until they are reincarnated, no later than the 49th day.
> p. 28..."The sacred river Ganges purifies the he art....".
> p.42....Interesting that the author references the age of persecution of Christians, which was the topic of his previous novel, "Silence".
> I suppose that Mitsuko's effort to seduce Otsu away from "that man", Jesus, is a metaphor for what many Japanese experienced regarding their Christian beliefs.....although it is Mitsuko who goes on to desert her husband on their honeymoon to "search out the darkness in her own heart" and seek Otsu at the seminary
> p.66...As he did in "Silence", Endo refers to the search for a "form of Christianity that suits the Japanese mind."
> p.77..."There was no question that this bird with the odd face was as big an annoyance and nuisance to Numada's wife, who had to tend to the house, as Jesus had been to the rabbis of his day"...Endo refers to paintings by Roualt of Pierrots....I still think this was a bizarre sentence to introduce out of the blue.
> I went and looked at prints of Roualt's paintings......many have Christ and/or the Crucifixion as the subject
> Numada's forced separation from his beloved Pierrot seems to be another Endo example of the
pain of being separated from that which is precious
> p. 109...The image as the tourists approach Varanasi....."Just as those who have had brushes with near-death experiences have claimed to see a dot of light at the end of a black tunnel at the far end of the darkness a brilliance like the light of a firefly gradually grew larger."
> Repeated references to the French novel "Therese Desqueyroux"....a nod to Endo's love for France or more
> p.119..."The thing we are most lacking in our modern word is love; love is the thing no one believes in any more; love is what everyone mockingly laughs at - and that is why someone like me wants to follow my Onion with dumb sincerity." - Otsu
> Otsu to Mitsuko: the Onion is within you, "I don't think God exists exclusively in the churches and chapels of Europe. I think he is also among the Jews and the Buddhists and the Hindus."
> p.128 ....Isobe's speech to young married couple, "A wife should be just like air to her husband. If you have no air, you're in trouble. But air is invisible to the eye. It never intrudes in your life. If the woman can become like air, they'll never have problems as husband and wife.".........LOL
> Hindu belief that the place where two rivers flow together is sacred.....I like that
> Repeated references to the notion of goddesses embodying love and brutality
> Interesting choice to have the story impacted by the death of Indira Ghandi, one of the many Chrst like characters in this story, vilified for trying to unify people
> Chamunda, Asian Mother Goddess contrasted to the Holy Mother of Europe
> Otsu: an outcast from his own religious group, indirectly killed by fellow countryman....Christlike reference, he also carried bodies of the dead and dying on his back as Christ carried the cross
> p.191 - "There are many different religions, but they are merely various paths leading to the same place. What difference does it make which of those separate paths we walk, so long as they all arrive at the identical destination?"....sums up the book
> p.211 - "What I can believe in now is the sight of all these people, each carrying his or her own individual burdens, praying at this deep river....I believe that the river embraces these people and carries them away. A river of humanity. The sorrows of this deep river of humanity. And I am a part of it."
>LibraryThing Review: This is the second Shusaku Endo novel I have read as part of a year long read of Endo's works on LibraryThing.com. Once again, Endo addresses the theme of religious belief. In this novel, a group of Japanese tourists travel to India, several of whom seek answers to their individual inner darkness. A grieving widow seeks his wife's reincarnated soul, a WWII veteran seeks peace for the soul of a friend, a fable writing animal lover seeks to right an old wrong, and a woman seeks answers from "The Onion"/Jesus/her nemesis, Otsu. Intrigued yet? Endo addresses the nature of humankind and its need for a religious belief system that encompasses all of humanity in its many forms. Chunanda, the ancient mother goddess who offers breast milk to all despite her ancient age and many years of suffering, seems to exemplify the nature of the River Ganges, the sacred site for the dead, the dying, and those seeking purification, regardless of who they have been during their lives. Endo weaves a fascinating story and tries to answer profound questions which at one time or another occur to most people. Does he offer an acceptable answer? I think you must decide for yourself!
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