Books: Five by Endo

My wife has recently introduced me to a luxury I stayed away from normally, as a kid. It is a wonderful place that is serenely quiet, has a wealth on information, and more importantly, you can borrow anything in it for free. Yes, I am talking about the library. I used to try to stay away from them as much as I could. I have found lately that I rather enjoy borrowing books, rather than buying them and finding out that they are terrible.

Sara, R3, and I all went to the library this past Sunday. It was a very nice time. Sara and I found the books we were looking for and let R3 play in the children's activity center. And behold, it was quiet. With all of today's electronic doo-dads, it's nice to have a small retreat away form the norm. Which brings me to my book.

Five by Endo: written by Shusaku Endo. A break from the norm is one way to describe this book. I have already read Silence and The Samurai. Both were great books. The Samurai felt a little long winded at times, but it was a good book overall. Five by Endo is actually a collection of five stories. Unzen: a story of a writer researching a martyrs dieing place. Fifty-year-old Man: a story about a man dealing with death. Japanese in Warsaw: a story about a business man having a strange encounter. The Box: in which a photo album and postcards tell a story. The end of the book is actually the first chapter to a book called Deep River where Japanese tourists go to bathe in the mystic river of Ganges. I have read the first story, and I can already tell it is Shusaku's work. Unzen is an offshoot of Silence, which by the way is one of my all time favorite books. It follows a writer visiting Unzen and viewing the natural hot springs where Christians were tortured for their faith during the anti-Christian movement in the 1800's in Japan. The writer is researching the area for a book and has come to see the area described in letters and books from that period. As a Catholic writer he is seeing what some of the latter Christian martyrs had to endure. The odd thing is, he starts to identify himself closer to the "spineless" Kichijiro. In other words, in a romantic view of one's self, we would normally say that we could endure all, even death, to say that we are a Christian. We did not live in those times of yesteryear, however. In those times the torture didn't always stop with the believer. Sometimes the killing or torture would be directed at loved ones, family, or even the very people they were trying to save. He starts to realize that faced with such torturous surroundings, he himself may very well have apostatized (publicly denied Christ as lord and savior).

Endo's books are very trying. I have often found myself feeling both relieved to know that many others have internal conflicts as I do. On the other hand, it has also turned my stomach to read about some of the things that people have endured, that in a worldly view, led nowhere. Most of his books end with failure of the protagonist. They often, however, stress forgiveness, and through forgiveness, an ultimate sense of peace and deeper understanding of the very faith they tried to cling to. Either way, it helps to illustrate the loving forgiveness our heavenly father has for us, even though we will never be perfect. Because we aren't.

All that's just from the first 13 pages....