Silence: A Novel (Picador Classics) Paperback – January 5, 2016

Note: This review contains spoilers since the ending is an important part of understanding the novel.We Christians, like many of different faiths, love to play the martyr. Catholics make the martyrs saints, starting with the very first saint, St. Stephen (although the Holy Innocents are often called saints even though they knew not why there were being killed). The martyrs are those who face death instead of renouncing their faith, showing their belief in God’s word and promise of resurrection.Shusaku Endo uses this concept as the basis for Silence, an outstanding novel that will make any Christian uncomfortable and let non-Christians in on the depth of faith for most believers. The story is set in 17th century Japan and the persecution of the Kakure Kirishitan (Hidden Christians). We follow the story, partly by letters, of a Portuguese Jesuit priest, Sebastiao Rodrigues (based on the real-life Giuseppe di Chiara) who travels with another priest (Franciso Garrpe) in search of Father Ferreira. Once their beloved teacher, Ferreira is believed to have committed apostasy and the priests want to find him and serve the persecuted Christians of Japan.For a while, the two priests hide together in a hut but eventually are taken to an island and opt to split up so they have a better chance to succeed in their mission. We follow Rodrigues as he travels a short time before being captured. Much of his time is spent in a prison where he is allowed to offer support to other Christians in jail, but all the time he is wondering when he will be taken to the “pit,” a gruesome torture that is said to have causes Ferreira to renounce his faith.At one point Rodrigues is taken to a location where he sees Garrpe and other Christians being readied to be taken out to sea and drowned. They are wrapped up so they cannot move and will be dropped into the sea. Rodrigues is told that Garrpe can save the others if he renounces his faith. If he does not, they all die. Endo has changed the martyr narrative from one of giving your life for your faith to sacrificing others for your faith.“‘Apostatize! Apostatize!’ He shouted out the words in his heart to Garrpe who was listening to the officials” (143). Rodrigues continues to silently encourage Garrpe to do this as all are put out to sea and drowned. Garrpe is now a martyr, but so are three others he could have saved.Rodrigues’ faith, far from wavering, becomes stronger through this whole ordeal. He is routinely “interrogated” but only in the sense that they try to show him how his faith is either false or at least not one that will work in Japan. Instead, he begins to see Christ heading to the cross or crying tears of blood as he too felt abandoned. He realizes Christ is with him and has suffered as much as he can.Rodrigues is at last brought to see Ferreira who indeed did apostatize and is now essentially a prisoner of the government. He has been given a house, a Japanese name, and a wife, whether he wants one or not. It is also announced that he is writing a book denouncing Christianity. The fact that he is kept under guard and not allowed to travel signals that even the Japanese believe he has not truly renounced his faith, although he is good to use as an example to others. Rodrigues does not seem to believe that Ferreira has truly renounced his faith, but he does not understand why he lives as he does.Finally, Rodriques is taken to a urine-soaked cell where his willingness to die for his faith only increases. Indeed, he looks forward to the opportunity and refuses to renounce his faith to his interrogators. Finally, Ferreira is sent to talk with him and Rodrigues discovers the noise he is hearing outside his cell are the moans of those hanging in the pit where they are slowly bled to death. “Why must they suffer like this? And while this goes on, you do nothing for them. And God — he does nothing either” Ferreira tells him (179).It is the silence of the title. The silence of God when his followers suffer, the silence of a God who does not answer prayers. Should Rodrigues match this silence and suffer a martyr’s death at the expense of three other people suffering? Finally, like Ferreira, he chooses not to let them suffer for his faith and he apostatizes.He will continue to wrestle with if he made the right choice. “Lord, you alone know that I did not renounce my faith…I thought that if I apostatized those miserable peasants would be saved…I wonder if all this talk about love is not, after all, just an excuse to justify my own weakness”(186).Or, perhaps, God is not so silent. It reminds me of the old joke about the man who was on the roof of his house during a flood and when a boat came to save him he sent them off saying God would save him. He sends away another boat and then a helicopter — and then drowns. When he gets to heaven he asks God why he didn’t save him. God responds that he sent him two boats and a helicopter, so what more could he do?Perhaps Ferreira and Rodrigues have been truer to their faith then Garrpe, who died a martyr’s death. They now live as an embarrassment to their faith, rejected by their own faith community, and forever imprisoned to serve as an example of the weakness of their faith to the Japanese. But what Rodrigues does learn as he continues to see the suffering Christ is that God may not relieve suffering, but we do not suffer alone. Endo does not provide any easy answers but he challenges those who follow his faith, as he was a Catholic in a modern Japanese culture where his faith was at time persecuted.The novel has been made into a film three times. First, Masahiro Shinoda Masahiro Shinoda made Silence in 1971. Director Joao Mario Griolo’s Os Olhos da Ásia in 1996 used the novel as a starting point. Finally, Martin Scorsese made a version of the film, also titled Silence, in 2016. I have not seen any of the films, so I offer no recommendations for them. But I highly recommend this incredible novel for everyone.

A very interesting compendium of christianity and, in the end, the acceptance that faith and belief is a personal and location understandingThe dilemma is clearly and rationally debated and the conclusion might be (in this 21st century) to pay attention to the happenings in Rome….

Shusaki Endo's masterpiece, Silence, tells the tale of a 17th c Portuguese priest, a Father Rodrigues, who goes to Japan to ease the suffering of Japanese Catholics, who at this point in history were being run underground and killed by the government, and to investigate the supposed apostasy of another priest, a Father Ferreira, a real-life historic figure.Fr Rodrigues is a man of strong faith, as demonstrated by the hardship he suffers on his voyage to Japan. Despite the difficult journey, he is anxious to provide succor to the faithful there, and in fact goes on with the final leg of the journey despite being begged not to by the rector of the Catholic college in Macao, who warns Rodrigues and his traveling companion, Father Garrpe, of the dangers awaiting them. But much of the book tests that faith.Upon arrival, the pair immediately discovers a Christian village, thanks to the help of a Japanese Catholic they found at Macao, named Kichijiro. They are pleased with this quick luck and see it as a sign of God's blessing for their mission. But they soon become disillusioned because they can only practice their faith in symbolic bits and pieces so as not to alert the vigilant samurais always on the lookout for Catholics. They spend almost all their time in a shack high up on a mountain overlooking the village, disappointed and anxious to help, until their presence causes trouble for the village and they are forced to flee. The two priests split up at this point to lessen the chance of both of them being captured, and we only see Garrpe in one more, horrific scene.Meanwhile, Rodrigues continues to run into trouble, often at the hand of the Judas-like Kichijiro. Throughout, his faith seems to dwindle as he sees more and more Christian suffering at the hands of the Japanese officials. The title of the book comes from Rodrigues's frustration at God's silence while all the suffering occurs in His name. The Japanese authorities used torture to force Christians to perform fumie, or the ritual trampling of Christ's image, to prove that they weren't Christians. In Rodrigues's presence however, this practice is turned on its head as they force him to choose between the cessation of the suffering and his own faith. They bleed him slowly, torturing him without having to physically do so.Silence is rightfully called Endo's masterpiece, and one of the best novels of the last century. I felt the book started a little slow, but once it got going, it really got going. At first, Endo uses letters from Rodrigues to relate the story, and I think that contributed to its slow start. But later, after we reach a point where the writing of letters probably couldn't have happened, he switches to 3rd person. He also shifts from past to present tense to further dramatize certain scenes, and I found this more effective. The coda of the book is in the form of diary written by a Dutch clerk. (Anyone who has read David Mitchell's fantastic "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet will know all about the Dutch in Japan at this point in history.)Of most importance to this work are the moral dilemmas we discover. There are of course the many crises of faith the Rodrigues endures, and the dissonance of faith for a God who seems absent. But in a dramatic moment, towards the end of the aforementioned horrific scene, a Japanese interpreter unleashes on the priest: "Father, have you thought of the suffering you have inflicted on so many peasants just because of your dream, just because you want to impose your selfish dream on Japan." The interpreter flips the perspective both on Rodrigues and the reader, who will feel unsure for a moment who the bad guy is here. It's a momentary sensation, but it will come and go throughout the remainder of the book, especially when Fr Ferriera finally enters the stage. It is masterful work by Endo.

Silence is not an easy read; it demands emotional and intellectual engagement. It challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about faith, colonialism, and the human capacity for endurance. Endō, himself a Catholic in predominantly Buddhist Japan, brings a unique perspective to these themes, making the novel both deeply personal and universally resonant