About this title: A novel of faith and doubt set in medieval Japan. Endo relates the history of the Japanese Christians who were persecuted after the rise to power of the samurai in the 17th century, and in particular the plight of Japanese priests who were forced to choose between their identity as Christians and as Japanese.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Taplinger Publishing Company
ISBN-13:9780800871864ISBN:0800871863
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Taplinger Publishing Company
Date Published: 1980-02-15
ISBN-13:9780800871864ISBN:0800871863
Description: Good. Tight, bright, creased spine, pages clear and bright, shelf and edge wear, corners bumped, hole punched thru price on back cover, page corners creased, coffee stain on page edges, number written on inside front cover, a good copy for a class, ships in a box with delivery confirmation on all U.S. orders. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Taplinger Pub Co, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780800871864ISBN:0800871863
Description: Good. Book is clean except for a marker line on outside page edge, binding tight and pages slightly yellowed. Cover has light wear. read more
Binding: Quality Paperback
Publisher: Taplinger Publishing, New York
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780800871864ISBN:0800871863
Description: Very Good Condition. 5x8 Inches. This novel tells the story of a seventeenth century Portugese priest in Japan. This softcover book from 1980 is in Very Good Condition. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Kodansha, London
Date Published: 1982
ISBN-13:9784770010148ISBN:4770010141
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Text in English. 306p.; 19 cm. Originally published: London: Charles E. Tuttle, 1969. Excellent copy, appears unread. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Taplinger Publishing Company
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780800871864ISBN:0800871863
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Parkwest Pubns
Date Published: 1980-02-01
ISBN-13:9780800871864ISBN:0800871863
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780800871864. read more
"This books offers a fair historical background of Japanese treatment of early Christians...the hunting, humiliation, and torture. Specifically it follows Father Rodriguez who travels to Japan in the name of the church, but really with the intention to find his mentor who was rumored to have apostatized (or at least answers to his questions of his mentor). Once there, Rodriguez finds that his own understanding and faith are being tried in the same way as his mentor's had been. Thematically, there are questions about faith and the "silence of God", among other theological questions that could be problematic to a church who regards grace alone as all that is needed for salvation...rather than works with grace. The failing point of the novel in my opinion is the complete lack of sympathy that I felt with the characters. They were written with such flat thoughts and personality. Even when Rodriguez comes face to face with his long lost mentor...the scene is written with a total disregard to emotion. Although Kichijiro was a lowly and disgusting character, I found that I liked him better than Rodriguez because he was a bit complicated and dynamic. Nevertheless, this is a good discussion book."
"Very good meditation on human nature through the lens of Christian faith. I'm not a Christian, but Endo is so searching and fearless in his examination of his own belief system that I couldn't help but become fascinated by the questions that seem to consume him - Jesus' feelings towards Judas' betrayal, the weakness or strength of faith and human resolve in the face of persecution and torture, the silence of God in the face of atrocity. My understanding is that Endo was a committed Catholic, but the novel gave me a sense that he arrived at his faith through a wholly individual process."
"The more I read Japanese novels, the more I appreciate the sparse, direct prose style used by the writers. There certainly seems to be a cultural bent toward this type of writing.
Endo's novel is no different. His compact lines tell the story of a 17th century Portuguese priest who traveled to Japan to try and serve the small communities of Christians who still survive after the Shogun outlawed their religion several years earlier. It is a perilous trip because anyone caught practicing Christianity will be tortured until they recant.
The novel is partly about why Christianity failed in Japan (there is still only a small percentage of Christians there today). Endo also tries to draw parallels between the life of this priest and Christ itself. This is where the novel trips over itself as the author tries to hard to connect the dots.
"Based on true events, Silence is a devastating novel in which a Portuguese priest suffers a crisis of faith trying to spread Catholicism in feudal Japan, where Christianity is outlawed and the faithful are tortured and killed.
This novel is an utterly fascinating look at how Catholicism came to Japan in the 16th Century, briefly flourished, and then was brutally stamped out by the Japanese government during their "closed country" policy of the 17th and 18th centuries. Through the character of the priest, Endo (who was a Japanese Catholic himself) portrays the vulnerable and tentative saplings of Christianity starting to prosper in Japan at the time, and the horrific attempts of the Japanese government to stamp it out, mostly out of fear that the Japanese people would become more beholden to those Western outsiders than to their own government.
Endo is careful, though, not to turn his novel into an easy screed against totalitarianism or torture. He equally depicts the presumptuousness of the European missionaries at the time in thinking that they could (and should) press their own Western concept of religion onto a people who had happily cultivated their own very different Eastern views on religion over the past 1000s of years. The priest ultimately suffers a spiritual breakdown when he realizes that his religion is an imperfect fit for the Japanese Christians he is trying to encourage, and yet witnesses their willingness to undergo torture and death to keep their religious freedom. Through this conundrum Endo deftly explores the ever-present religious quandary of how a living, compassionate God can remain silent in the face of innocent suffering.
While the novel is rich in historical insight and tackles important cultural and religious themes with elegant, moving prose, the narrative structure could have been stronger, for which I knocked a star off of my rating. Specifically, I thought Endo needlessly repeated certain story elements, such as the multiple "surprise" appearances of Kichijiro, the priest's constant musings of what other missionaries had experienced before him, and his unending questioning of God's unwillingness to intercede in the horrors confronting him. I also thought the characterizations of the Japanese converts could have been fleshed out a little more, which would have lent more power to their tragic fates.
Scorese is turning this book into a film to open in 2010. I will be first in line."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
