赤パンの本棚 home

タグ: English reviews

  • [EN] “Deep River” Shusaku Endo, 1996 Review | Embracing life and death >>

    ★★★★★ A group of strangers joins a tour to India, to Benares, a sacred place, a place of death. It asks the question, what is a religion, what is a life itself? They face Mother Ganga who embraces all deaths and lives, of all people. A masterpiece.


    🔽 log 🔽
    Deep River
    Shusaku Endo, 1993
    Read in 2020.02


    🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

    Endo Shusaku is now even more known for his more clearly religious book, Silence, since Scorsese directed the movie.

    This is a story about a group of strangers who joined a same packaged tour to visit temples in India.
    They all had regrets and disappointments in life, with fragile hope in their hearts, they head towards Ganges River.

    Benares, Varanasi, is a sacred place, a place of death.
    There they face their inner selves and the extreme poverty in a boy who trust absolute power of gods.
    It asks the question, what is a religion, what is a death or a life itself?
    There they face Mother Ganga who embraces all deaths and lives, of all people.

    Endo, a Catholic, was 70 years old when it was written, it was a way for him to look back at his own life to once again ponder his eternal question “what does it mean to be a Japanese and a Christian”
    A masterpiece.

    🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

    ●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

    Deep River

    ●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
    Deep River: Shusaku Endo (Pushkin Press Classics) 

    ●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●

  • [EN] “White Man, Yellow Man” Shusaku Endo, 1955 Review | Between the races >>

    [EN] “White Man, Yellow Man” Shusaku Endo, 1955 Review | Between the races >>

    ★★★★★ Christianity and evil. It’s the evil that overflows out of the moral of White Man, of Christianity in which you believe in the one absolute God, or not. / A resignation from good or bad, believe or not-believe, it’s the lightness of living without a sin.


    🔽 log 🔽
    White Man, Yellow Man
    Shusaku Endo, 1955
    Read in 2020.01


    🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

    Christianity and evil.

    White Man
    The protagonist understands his ugliness, and he fantasises his superiority because of it.
    Evil is universal, it’s political but above all it’s so powerful that you can destroy the others.
    Crushing his friend means crushing all hypocrites, and violating this girl means violating all virgins.
    It’s the evil that overflows out of the moral of White Man, the moral that’s cultivated in Christianity where you believe in the one absolute God.
    It’s whether you tolerate it, or you reject to tolerate the absolute good and become evil itself.

    Yellow Man
    In a way this is harsher.
    It’s close to the author’s personal yet eternal struggle of “Being a Christian even if I am Japanese”
    During the war, a Christian Japanese young man was exhausted.
    Us yellow people actually do not truly believe the God you white people fear.
    Us yellow people actually do not have Original sin like you, any way Mother Mary is not in this country.

    An ex-priest who betrayed his God finally realises that the truth is in the tired eyes of the yellow people.
    They don’t fear death or life, they have no sins, they don’t believe in the God, his absoluteness, and in this country even the criminals are saved as they are.
    Can we, the men with white hands, come close to these yellow people?
    It’s a liberation or rather resignation from good or bad, believe or not-believe, it’s the lightness of living without a sin.

    🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

    ●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

    White Man, Yellow Man: Two Novellas

    ●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
    White Man, Yellow Man: Two Novellas

    ●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
    ーー

  • [EN] “Sea of Poppies” Amitav Ghosh, 2008 Review | Leading up to Opium War >>

    [EN] “Sea of Poppies” Amitav Ghosh, 2008 Review | Leading up to Opium War >>

    ★★★★★ In India, under British, Opium farming leading up to the Opium War. That’s already enough for me to like the book even without even opening it. Then, you meet some interesting strong characters. It’s gripping, a grand storytelling.

    🔽 log 🔽
    Sea of Poppies 
    Amitav Ghosh, 2008
    559 pages
    Read in 2025.12
    🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

    I'd heard of it for a while and finally, finally started and instantly it was obvious, this is one if those great books.

    In India, under British, Opium farming leading up to the Opium War.
    That's already enough for me to like the book even without even opening it.

    And immediately you meet some interesting strong characters.
    Deeti who had a miserable married life, Paulette and Jodu and their unique friendship, a delicate Raja, Zachary who leads us into the mesmerising journeys.
    They all meet on Ibis the slaving ship, all carrying their own destinies - it's as intense as it sounds.
    Some of detailed descriptions of ship and sailing are hard for me to follow but that doesn't stop me from getting excited at every page.

    It's a trilogy so there are 2 more books to go to give the full view on the story but so far, it's gripping, grand storytelling.
    Need to read 2 and 3 soon.
    🔽 Related pages 🔽
    tag インド/India

    🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Sea of Poppies

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Sea of Poppies: Ibis Trilogy Book 1 Kindle Edition

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Sea of Poppies: Ibis Trilogy Book 1 (English)