Deep River

Deep River is an authentic and rewarding story that peers directly into the heart and mind of one of Japan's really great writers. I opened it and could not close it until I had finished it.This short (200 page) novel packs more emotional punch and character depth is a paragraph than most books do in a chapter. I was quickly taken in on Endo's portraiture of the main characters. Isobe grieving for his recently deceased wife is captured so well - the classic suffering in silence of a late middle age salaryman suddenly and for the first time unable to suppress feelings and emotions. There is Kiguchi. Endo deftly uses spare but gripping language to describe the desperation of the Japanese soldiers of WWII retreating through Burma at the tail end WWII. It's both a physical and mental hardship which plays on Kiguchi even 40 years later.Then there is the intriguing interplay between Mitsuko, 20 years removed from the beguilingly smart and beautiful college student who is now in middle age, divorced and still bothered by Otsu, a student at the same time as she, who is committed to Christianity but is insecure and inarticulate about his faith and position in life. She sees him as weak and yet cannot quite convince herself as she herself looks for something to commit to in her own life.These and others cross paths on a seemingly innocent group tour heading to India. Using the backdrop of 1980's India and the deep spirituality of the people coming to the Ganges in pilgrimage provokes something in each of our characters to lead them further on the path of life. The story ends with some characters finding what they were looking for and for others there remains lots of ambiguity.For me this was a deeply satisfying snapshot of men and women of various stages of life confronting emotional and spiritual needs.This is a well paced story with universal themes, empathetic characters and full of provocative challenges to the meaning of faith or friendship or alienation. It's done earnestly and intelligently.Equally I liked the very Japanese manner and tone. Endo questions the materialism creeping into modern Japan by then. He shows the growing generation gaps between characters of different ages. And he clearly has doubts about Christianity's role in Japan or Asia. He is willing to express where others may have only been thinking or burying deep within them. In Japan those are rare traits and because of that this is a gem.

This novel is about a few Japanese tourists visiting India, especially Varanasi. I chose to read the novel originally because Varanasi is probably the most amazing place to which I have traveled, a holy Hindu city on the Ganges in India (also known as Benaras). So this novel would probably appeal most to people who have either visited or would want to visit Varanasi or an exotic place of spiritual importance like Varanasi.On the other hand, the novel is more about the characters of the individual Japanese: a man grieving over the death of his wife and hoping to find her reincarnated, another who has haunting memories of wartime in Burma, two rather shallow (but not atypical) tourists, a couple, one of whom just wants to take pictures without any real interest in the culture and his wife who wishes she were in Europe where everything is neater and cleaner, and a woman who is partly cynical about everything but who also gets drawn into elements of Indian spirituality.The novel would appeal to people interested in spirituality generally. The author seems to have a cosmopolitan view of spirituality, but the novel also has a Christian element. One of the characters, not mentioned in the previous paragraph, could be thought of as a Christ figure. Many will find him the most powerful figure of all.I enjoyed the novel and found the characters interesting. I don't know Japanese, but it seemed well translated or, I should say. written quite well in English.In sum, this is a good novel even if not an example of the greatest literature.

I absolutely loved this book. It was a requirement for my Japanese Literature course and I'm very glad I got to read it. It's very interesting, especially because you along with the characters have no idea where it's all headed. I wouldn't describe it as 'eventful', but rather it goes through the book introducing various Japanese characters that are very unlike each other and how they all come together in the Ganges of India, each one searching for their own sense of understanding or closure in their lives. If you're familiar with Indian or Japanese culture, this may be of interest to you. I am personally interested in both, so I was pleased to see a lot of cultural blend. The author of this book, Endo Shusaku, was a Japanese Christian and struggled with that identity, trying to make sense of it, which does reveal itself in the pages of this book. It offers interesting perspectives and I would recommend to read with an open and thoughtful mind.

This novel by Shusaku Endo follows several Japanese tourists from their homeland to India and the holy waters of the Ganges river. The characters each face spiritual and moral crises in the course of the book. The author does an excellent job at intertwining the multiple story lines and setting the tone. Endo is also the author of Silence, and given the recent movie by Martin Scorcese, some may feel a need to reach that first. But it seems to me that both books, though similar in style and tone are stand alone books, one set in feudal Japan and this set in contemporary Japan and India. Highly recommended.

I found it deep. Not sure that the translate is up to the original. Perhaps a new translation could reveal a truly profound Work.

I found this book engaging from the first page. Several character's stories are unfolded in parallel, all leading to an experience on a tour of India around the Ganges River. This is a compelling story witnessing the revelations of these different characters, and also provides an interesting view of Indian Culture on the Ganges river.Prior to this, I read Endo's Silence. I think I enjoyed Deep River even more.

This story has been presented from the perspective of a non-Hindu Asian in a soul-searching manner and offers interesting insights into the one of the oldest traditions of death...

I liked it a lot. It is a book from several points of view. Each person has a story to tell. Each of them has something good/bad we can think about.It is really good book to think about ourselves and about the people around us.

Read this book for the possibilities of what it could have been. Not for what it is. This work really does have a masterpiece hidden within it, like a sculpture in marble, but the final form is missing. Many of the conversations are just not that realistic or engaging while the plot appears somewhat contrived at times. The character of Gaston, for example, appears to have been simply 'transplanted' from 'Wonderful Fool', although it does serve the purpose of echoing the self-sacrifice of Otsu and acts as a counterpoint to Mitsuko's motivation for working in a Hospital. While the book purports to be about a group of Japanese tourists the focus eventually turns to the fate of Otsu, a Catholic priest of sorts. On the one hand, Otsu's failings are, at times, a projection of Endo himself (with his troubles of reconciling Western thought with Eastern traditions) while the sacrifices Otsu makes clearly cast him as a Christ-like figure. Underlying 'Deep River' is the beautiful idea of redemption. The Classical writers directed Western thought to believe that life, in all its guises, is a quest for immortality whether it be through fame, deeds or our own children. In 'Deep River', Endo portrays life not as a quest for immortality (a little surprising given the religious scope of the work), nor as the pursuit of happiness, but as a searching for fulfillment. A disparate group of Japanese tourists each seek an answer to their troubles. Only the minor characters of Sanjo and his wife seem to be 'typical' tourists unburdened with life's troubles being simply swept along by materialism. In a place where two rivers meet, Endo tried to reconcile the East -West dichotomy in his own thinking. He doesn't quite get there. 'Deep River' is a good read but lacks the philosophical weight and credibility of 'Silence'. Endo requested to be buried with two of his books. One of these was 'Deep River', which he believed to be his masterpiece, but which is flawed. The other was 'Silence', which is his masterpiece, and one of the greatest works of the twentieth century.

Really good book and brilliantly translated. There are similarities in terms of theme with another book by Endo: Silence. I really liked the setting of India and the "back stories" of the main characters in this book. Very readable and highly recommended.

The book has a spiritual, even religious, heart that sees life through the eyes of one committed to the starting point of Jesus, yet it sees that life, warts and all. There are the usual story themes here but they come from a Japanese perspective, which translates most beautifully into deeper and clearer Western perception. There is hope in ihe novel that filters through from surprising sources.