A review by cantordustbunnies
Silence by Shūsaku Endō

4.0

Just like how a character within the story compares Japan to a kind of swamp that absorbs and changes the ideas that come into it, I found that reading this book was a little bit like trudging through a swamp that absorbs, transforms, and ultimately nullifies the reader's sense of morality. Although it is a historical fiction about a particular time and place, I feel as though the broader message is one of how life itself has a way of stamping upon one's most cherished ideals and forces the average person into complacency. An even worse question is...what if one's most cherished ideals aren't even real or worth fighting for? The whole story is steeped in a sense of pessimistic pre-destination and doom. It also came across at times that perhaps the author has some degree of resentment towards his own culture and is overly critical in portraying it in as menacing a light as he does. The author implies there is something uniquely immoral or unsalvageable about the Japanese, which is a somewhat melodramatic and angry critique of any society. That being said, I think there are valuable historical and cultural insights to be had within this book and that it will leave you pondering it and trying to make sense out of how you feel about it long after you have completed it.