Five by Endo: (New Directions Bibelots) - Softcover

Endo, Shusaku

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811214397 ISBN 13: 9780811214391

Publisher: New Directions, 2000

Synopsis

Five wonderful stories by the Japanese master. Winner of every major Japanese literary prize, his work translated around the globe, Shusaku Endo (1923-1996) is a great and unique figure in the literature of the twentient century. "Irrevocably enmeshed in Japanese culture, he is by virtue of his religion [Endo was Roman Catholic] irrevocably alienated from it" (Geoffrey O'Brian, Village Voice). It is this aspect that has made Endo so particularly intriguing to his readership at home and abroad. Now gathered in a New Directions Bibelot edition are five of Endo's supreme short stories exemplifying his style and his interests, presenting, as it were, Endo in a nutshell. "Unzen," the opening story, touches on the subject of Silence Endo's most famous novel -- that is the torture and martyrdom of Christians in seventeenth-century Japan. Next comes "A Fifty-year-old Man" in which Mr. Chiba takes up ballroom dancing and faces the imminent death of his brother and his dog Whitey. In "Japanese in Warsaw" a business man has a strange encounter; in "The Box," an old photo album and a few postcards have a tale to reveal. Finally included is "The Case of Isobe," the opening chapter of Endo's novel Deep River in which Isobe, a member of a tour group, hopes to find in India the reincarnation of the wife he took so much for granted.

About this title

About the Author

Shusaku Endo (1923–1996) is widely regarded as one of the most important Japanese authors of the late twentieth century. He won many major literary awards and was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times. His novel Silence was recently made into a major film directed by Martin Scorsese. 

Van C. Gessel has published six translations of works by Endo. 

Van C. Gessel has published six translations of works by Endo. 

From Publishers Weekly

Not as well known in the West as Mishima or Kawabata, the late Endo is one of Japan's most revered novelists, his most famous work being Silence, in which the Roman Catholic author deals with the torture and martyrdom of Christians in 17th-century Japan. That theme carries over into the first two of these finely crafted and engaging stories. "Unzen" tells of a Japanese history student who visits the Valley of Hell, where Christians were tortured in the hot springs on Mt. Unzen. Mired in his own "spiritual slovenliness," the student struggles to understand why they embraced martyrdom. "Why had they been so indomitable?" he asks. "Japanese in Warsaw" is a moving and merciless story of 10 Japanese businessmen who visit Warsaw mainly for the impoverished, beautiful prostitutes. The tourists mock the city and are uninterested in its history, but their trip takes on an unexpected resonance when they learn that Warsaw residents associate the Japanese men with a noble Polish priest, Father Kolbe, who once lived in Nagasaki, and who was killed at Auschwitz. This story ends with an eerie revelation, and there is an eerieness, too, to "The Box," in which a collection of letters and postcards delineate the life of a French/Japanese woman who may have been a spy during WWII. In "A Fifty-year-old Man," Mr. Chiba, feeling his mortality, takes up ballroom dancing as he deals with his brother's illness and the death of his faithful dog. The final story is the opening chapter of Endo's novel Deep River, in which Isobe's dying wife sets the plot in motion by saying to him, "... I'll be reborn somewhere in this world. Look for me... find me... promise... promise!" Endo's sentences are as ephemeral (and as beautiful) as mist, yet they evoke sights, sounds, tastes and smells to make the ordinary exquisite. Like a mouthwatering appetizer, this small sampler will stimulate a hunger for more of Endo's work. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0811214397
• ISBN 13: 9780811214391
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96