Deep River

by Shūsaku Endō, Van C. Gessel (Translator)

In this moving novel, a group of Japanese tourists, each of whom is wrestling with his or her own demons, travels to the River Ganges on a pilgrimage of grace.

Genres: Fiction, Japan, Japanese Literature, Religion, Literature, Asia, India

216 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1993

About the author

Shusaku Endo (遠藤周作), born in Tokyo in 1923, was raised by his mother and an aunt in Kobe where he converted to Roman Catholicism at the age of eleven. At Tokyo's Keio University he majored in French literature, graduating BA in 1949, before furthering his studies in French Catholic literature at the University of Lyon in France between 1950 and 1953. A major theme running through his books, which have been translated into many languages, including English, French, Russian and Swedish, is the failure of Japanese soil to nurture the growth of Christianity. Before his death in 1996, Endo was the recipient of a number of outstanding Japanese literary awards: the Akutagawa Prize, Mainichi Cultural Prize, Shincho Prize, and Tanizaki Prize.
(from the backcover of Volcano).

Reviews

[K.D. Absolutely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Deep River is like having a sugar rush. It is too much sweet. Right after the book, I just thought of having an edgy book. Maybe one that is dark and sad. I thought I’d like to neutralize the taste and get rid of the sweetness. Maybe a dark and strong coffee or some salty corn chips. Maybe just brush my teeth and I would be fine again.

Had I read this in high school when I was still a naïve young man, I would have rated this with 5 stars outright. It talks about pantheism or a belief that God and material world are one and the same thing and that God is present in everything. It talks about One God. The God was there at the beginning but men had different ideas of worshipping Him so they created different religions. No religion is perfect since men are not perfect. It tackles the beliefs of three religions: Buddism, Catholicism and Hinduism. The setting starts with the characters in Japan and as they search for something, they all end up in India particularly at the Ganges River. This river is the most sacred river to the Hindus. They believe that the river is holy because its water comes from a confluence of many small streams and thus it has its cleansing effect. They believe that when you bathe in it, your soul is purified and you are reborn. They also scatter the ashes of their dead people believing that they will have a peaceful journey to reincarnation. So, even carcasses of dead animals can be seen floating on it. So, they submerge themselves there, swim and even rinse their mouths, unmindful of the fact that the water is ranked among the top 5 most polluted rivers in the world in 2007 due to high levels of fecal coliform bacteria.

The storytelling is wonderful though. The plot is thicker than say Paolo Coelho’s The Alchemist and the characters are multi-dimensional. Each of the four Japanese tourists has his/her own interesting story. The story of Isobe was the one that struck me most. The opening scene of him being told that his wife for 35 years had cancer and would only have 4 months to live was so moving it made me glued to the book and ignored the 2 buddy books I was expected to read for our book club. The other equally brilliant story was that of the soldier Kiguchi and I was entralled by the twist. I did not see it coming. The death of his friend and the way Endo made it intersect with the life of atheist nurse Mitsuko were nicely crafted. Endo chose not to incorporate fantasy or supernatural elements to make himself believable. This is my first time to read a Japanese novel with religion as the main theme. I’ve read 8 books by Haruki Murakami and one book each by Banana Yoshimoto, Yukio Mishima and Kenzaburo Oe. They all did not dwell anything on religion and all use gimmicks (talking river, apparition, surrealism, falling leaches, talking cat, etc). So, this book got me interested since I found it refreshing and beguiling.

Yet, after reading, the sweet taste was there. Motherhood statement like All religions are equal. Scenes that seemed like pan in the sky: the Japanese priest carries the dead Hindus imitating Jesus Christ; the nuns belonging to the congregation of Mother Theresa (may the Lord bless her soul) helping the sick and the needy; and the nurse realizes that she needs God in her life after all. They were too positive that my head was swirling and my heart was palpitating from sugar rush. Quite timely because this was the season of Lent but I just did not expect the book to be like a Religion101 prescribed-book in high school.

But then, maybe I am an old man and my eyes are jaded already. I better have my blood sugar checked and my eyes refracted one of these days.

[Dhanaraj Rajan · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Declaration: This book is my new favourite. And it has made it to the list of my all time favourites.

The Reasons:

The book answers many questions or tries to answer many questions. These questions are obviously the themes very close to my heart.

Some of the Questions:

1. What is humanity? Is suffering part of humanity? Why can life be only of happiness? (Answer is primarily tried in the episode relating to Hindu Goddess Chamunda. And parts of the answer are also scattered in the other chapters).

2. The differences. Do they add to the value of human kind? What are the negative sides to them? Do we bond together because of the hatred we have for the other? For instance, do I bond with my fellow compatriots because we are united in hating my enemy nation? Is the enmity the reason for our bonding or the love? Can differences be brought together under one unifying umbrella? If yes, at what expense? (Answer partially tried in the episode relating Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination).

3. What is a true religion? Is it Catholicism/Christianity or Hinduism or Buddhism or Shintoism? Can one religion claim superiority over other religions? Can one religion claim full authority for God's revelation? Why are there many religions? The answers are tried in the episodes relating the encounters between a Japanese Catholic Priest (Otsu) and Mitsuko (the girl who seduced Otsu in his school days). These episodes are my favourites too. The present day hot theological discussions on Religious Pluralism are expressed in a wonderful manner by Endo. Implicit in these arguments are also the tensions between the understanding of spirituality in the East and in the West. Superb analysis. (Disclaimer: It will appeal to the people in the East and for the people in West it may not appeal immediately. But it might help in clarifying the positions of the people in the East).

4. Reincarnation. Can a person be reincarnated after his/her death? I loved the answer. One gets reborn in one's memory.

5. Can good exist in bad? And can life and death be together? Can sin which results in separation from God also act as the source of redemption? Again, the answer is lovely.

6. Who is Jesus? What is the River Ganges? What does the Amida Sutra (Buddhist religious text) say? You will love the answers as you read the pages in the book.

7. How does a person cope with the loss of the beloved/hope? How does one deal with the grief? How does one deal with his/her inability to love?

Finally: Endo had brought to the conclusion of his own heart's search for many answers in this novel (Endo's last novel). If he had time left, he could have written another five or six novels each for the each question mentioned. Anyway, he did well in encapsulating everything in a succinct manner and weaving them in a superb story.

Postscript: In this novel, Shusaku Endo recommends, using the characters as his mouthpieces, two French novels. I will have to read them. The recommendations are: Moira by Julien Green and Therese by Francois Mauriac.

[B0nnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deep River is a rich story which jumps around in time, in place, in ideas. So off we go, to Japan, Washington DC, France, Manchuria, Burma and India. We catch glimpses of the gods Chamunda and Kali, the Burma Highway of Death, yakiimo, reincarnation, a Ginko tree, a stray dog, Buddhist holy spots such as Lumbini Kapilavastu, Buddh-Gaya and Sarnath, the caste system called varna jati, the Andes Survivors, Shirley Maclaine, Indira Gandhi - and - sins of the flesh. Pierrot appears as a man, and as a bird. There is the quintessential ugly American, who happens to be Japanese this time.

One of the characters studies the works of François Mauriac, Georges Bernanos, and Julien Green at University (as Endo himself did). Their novels become a blueprint of her life.

Endo has stated in an essay that characters in a novel are free and cannot be coerced. He, like other great Christian writers (Charlotte Bronte, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Waugh, Greene, Tolkien, Flannery O’Connor, to name a few), reveals much about his characters through their relationship with God - but they act freely and have a will of their own.

The title and the epigraph reference an old negro spiritual called Deep River. However, the river in question here is the Ganges, sacred to Hindus. On its shores, in the year 1984, the characters search for spiritual meaning in their lives. They are pilgrims who do not know what they seek - it's not really the Buddist temples they are touring. Endo sees them as "cases", and there is a chapter for each.

The case of Otsu is central. A failed Catholic priest, he is a type of Prince Myshkin, a bumbling Christ like figure, full of goodness. Otsu has his onion, a name he uses for God. As in the parable of the onion told by Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov, the humble, earthy onion takes on a spiritual significance.

Another case is the woman Mitsuko. Acting out Moïra in Julien Green's novel, she seduced Otsu while they were students together, then spurns and despises him. Later on, in a loveless marriage she sees herself as Therese Desqueyroux.

Numada, who yearns for a connection with every living thing but finds it only with animals, has a back-story which could be its own novel, though that could be said of all these characters.

There's Kiguchi, a former soldier in Burma, with hellish memories,

I like this image of Chamunda too, Kiguchi unexpectedly announced with deep feeling. "On the battlefields in Burma, I always felt as though death was close at hand, and when I look at this gaunt statue now, I remember all the soldiers who died in the rain. The war was - horrible. And all those soldiers - they looked just like this."

Isobe, recently widowed, searches for his lost wife, yet the search is more inward than he knows.

Enami, the tour guide, has issues of his own and sees Chamunda as his mother. And that figure of woman, whether goddess or virgin or human is a major theme in the story.

The ending is abrupt, although you can easily make your own conclusions. I just wanted more. Also, some expressions in the translation seemed a bit clichéd. So, a heaping 4.5 stars and a handful of stardust too.

[Mariel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Do you know that scene in Billy Madison when (this is a major spoiler if you haven't seen Billy Madison and still mean to) Bradley Whitford's character is asked to explain the difference between ethics and morals? And he whips out a gun instead? (It's on youtube.Here it is anyway. It must be wrong to post links to Adam Sandler movies. What can I say? I'm a heathen.) Deep River is apparently beloved by ethics students all over goodreads and amazon. I guess it is loved in Japan too, if ejaculatory book jacket quotes are to be believed (why would they falsely present information?). I really didn't love it. I'm probably the only person who pretty much hates this book. I don't know what the heck it had to do with ethics anyway. If I had a gun I'd whip it out instead of answering the big questions about which religion is more valid than the other. I don't care about any of them. So what does that have to do with ethics (or morals)? If anyone trembles in face of the gun than maybe any of these characters was anything more than a platform for Endo's religious posturing.

What Shusaku Endo tried to do with his novel is something I can appreciate in a "That's a nice message" kind of way. Like a bumper sticker in traffic. I don't want to stare at that same bumper sticker for hours during a traffic jam. World peace! Yeah, let's get that. Am I going to be stuck here all day? Look, there's a horrific car accident. Or a billboard. Yawn. Looking for a face in crowds that don't have any. The answer was spiritual. Was it? The make up was different. Hinduism, Buddhism or Christianity. Sure, all religions should get along and are as valid as any other. It seems to me that if you are going to believe in any outside of what you were raised into it would come from living rather than theorizing and talking a whole lot. That bumper sticker solved all my problems!

The characters were fighting the great gnawing hunger in the stomach that's dread of nothing to look forward to. The not even knowing why you don't feel anything. The characters were not characters but faceless subjects for Endo to easiest fit the expressions of the serene gods. If they had looked in each other... If there was an other to look to... One husband took his wife for granted while she was alive and follows her last words about reincarnation because he doesn't know what else to do. It's a feeling she had. But we don't know her! She was the stereotype of the doormat Japanese wife. Where was the belated passion? Doing what someone said or ignoring them is still frictionless. Another guy is dying. So is everyone else. The furthest into the void is Mitsuko and her quest to "win" over God/Jesus when she has premarital sex with a fellow student, Otsu. Yeah, because people who are dying to preach to you about what big Christians they are never whore it up. Riiiight. Since he threatened to kill her when she dumped him I'd say he wasn't taking the basics to heart. She gets the idea from your basic idiot guys having fun because they instinctively scorn someone who doesn't know how to fake the same normal. Not exactly groundbreaking insights here. There could have been something in the mutual emptiness if only. Endo pretty much writes that she feels empty and wants to be chosen over God by a man who doesn't know if he believes in the first place. Because he's as boring as she is, I thought. She'd have better luck with unsmiling Russian guards. If there's a pitch black version of empty it is these two. Too empty for me to give a fuck.

That's not even the worst of it. Deep River is your basic hollow travel guide story. Yep. They go to India (what a load of crock their tour guide was! The Japanese are so shocked by the presence of the lower castes. Because Japan doesn't have that? Are you fucking kidding me, Endo? What about the burakumin? See what I mean? Like American tourists who are shocked by the starving and don't notice the homeless on their own streets. But there are poor people living amongst the rich!) Who needs real characters when you have an exotic backdrop and temples and pictures of virgin Marys and goddesses of suffering. The characters can talk about how they question their beliefs and then you can tack on an ending about relating to the gods that represent and never have any real personal feeling with those who really do live around you. That's better than a hug. But they were in India and anything can happen if you distract readers with the comings and goings.

Are there ethics about not getting away with not writing a real book because you tacked on a religious answer? Or is that a moral dilemma? I hate this book, anyway. I look for answers in art. Can't expressing being the expression? Does it gotta get stuck that way?

[William2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second reading. Isobe is a middle-aged, Japanese businessman whose wife is dying of cancer. Before she dies she comes out of a coma long enough to whisper to her husband: ‘I know for sure...I’ll be reborn somewhere in this world. Look for me...find me...promise... promise!’ He is stricken by her loss. Whereas he hardly ever thought about her during her life, now he thinks about her all the time. He has never loved her as he does in death.

Ms. Naruse is a young hospital volunteer who sometimes sits with Mrs. Isobe. Back in college she was friends with a bullying group of young men, a few of whom she screwed without pleasure. The men want her to seduce Mr Ōtsu, a young student enrolled in the college's divinity program. Ms. Naruse despises everyone around her--especially Ōtsu--because doing so allows her to feel superior to them. She is in fact quite lost. She competes with Ōtsu’s god. She tries to break his faith. She is a cruel woman utterly lacking a spiritual life and devoid of compassion.

Numada makes his living writing stories about children and animals. He grew up in Japanese-occupied Manchuria (“Manchukuo”). His emotional connections in life have all been with animals. Things are going along quite well for Mr. Numada and his raucous family, he is alone even when surrounded by them, when he develops a serious lung condition. He’s in the hospital for two years and barely survives his final surgery. A myna bird his wife has brought him for company in the hospital, he believes, dies in his stead.

Kiguchi and Tsukada were both soldiers during WW II who traveled the Burmese Highway of Death. British and colonial-Indian troops chased their unit through inhospitable terrain during the rainy season until starvation and illness set in. It is thanks to Tsukada that Kiguchi is still alive. At one point he had brought Kiguchi meat he identified as that of a dead cow. Both survive. Thirty years later back in Japan Tsukada has the misfortune to meet the wife and daughter of the man whose flesh he ate. He drinks himself to death as a result.

All these characters,who respond to suffering in different ways, join a tour group going to India to see the Buddhist holy sites. Mr. Isobe to search for his reborn wife. Why India? This question is never addressed. Ms. Naruse goes to follow the troubled Ōtsu because, despite his misfortunes, he’s found meaning in life that she hasn’t. Numada wants to make an offering in thanksgiving for his survival. Kiguchi wants to undertake a Buddhist ceremony of remembrance for Tsukada and the soldiers who traveled the Highway of Death. At some point they all end up standing before the ghats on the River Ganges.

Varanasi, a Hindu holy city, is a place of extraordinary contrasts. Living and dying is everywhere, one right next to the other. The place is teeming, pestilential, filthy. Old and infirm Hindus from all over India travel here to die so their cremated remains --a free service supplied by outcasts-- can be scattered on the River Ganges. For only in this way, they believe, will their karmic slate be wiped clean. Only in this way can they proceed to the next life unfettered by mistakes made in the one they’re leaving.

In reading Endo’s earlier novels I often bridled at his particularly cloying form of Christian storytelling. In Deep River however something entirely new happens. Ōtsu is an outcast among his Catholic brethren because he will not adopt the view that Catholicism is the one true faith. In India he finally breaks with the Church and finds a welcome from a group of local saddhus, Hindu mendicants. It is his belief that every religion has validity, that every faith moves the supplicant toward salvation. For this view he is damned by his pious, dogmatic teachers and fellow students.

Deep River, Endo’s last novel, represents a fundamental shift for him in his subject matter and possibly in his world view. The book’s strength is its religious pluralism, its ecumenicism, nowhere evident in the doctrinaire earlier novels I have read. His narrative is without clutter and full of pungent Indian street scenes. The characters' humanity or lack thereof is convincing and movingly rendered. This is my favorite Endo novel without question. Highly recommended.

[Fabian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, those forlorn and disparate spirits do not rest! But they do manage to come together, and what they find there, at the fated nucleus, fountainhead, existential monolith is exactly what moves the reader towards the epic end. The Ganges has never before been characterized in such a raw, personified way...

Asians in the Holy Lands. Japanese tourists in India...

There is something about the P.O.V. of Japanese tourists... mystical figures all their own. I will definitely abstain from saying anything about Japanese tourists in Las Vegas. Or Los Angeles. Or the beaches of Mexico. So the psychologies of these very Eastern characters is like mana from heaven, we unaccustomed to such unabashed neosemiEuropean repression. Unique, sad. But I cannot altogether subscribe to such fickle ways of reality...

[Sơn Lương · Rating 4 out of 5]

Những câu chuyện từng đọc đâu đó về Sông Hằng, nơi người ta vừa đốt xác thả trôi sông vừa đắm mình, tắm gội, thậm chí uống nước thánh bất chấp sự ô nhiễm của nó, ùa về đầy đủ khi chính chúng được mô tả rõ nét, nhiều lần trong .. Đó cũng là cái nền để tác giả Shusaku Endo luận về khác biệt trong quan niệm về tâm linh và tôn giáo giữa người cùng quốc gia dân tộc, và giữa người thuộc các chủng tộc, nền văn hóa khác nhau.

Bên dòng sông Hằng là câu chuyện về 4 du khách Nhật cùng tham gia một tour đến Ấn Độ, mỗi người chọn điểm đến này với một mục đích riêng. Độc giả sẽ được kể cho nghe về từng trường hợp một, để hiểu rằng họ là Isobe - một người đàn ông góa bụa đến Ấn Độ tìm bóng hình người vợ quá cố, được cho rằng đã tái sinh trong hình hài một bé gái; một cựu binh muốn chữa lành nỗi day dứt từ chiến tranh và cầu nguyện cho các chiến sĩ trận vong, một người muốn tạ ơn đời vì được ‘chết đi sống lại’, và Mitsuko - một người phụ nữ muốn tìm kiếm một hình bóng dù chẳng rõ để làm gì.

Sông Hằng có gì hay để thu hút những du khách, hay đúng hơn là khiến họ sốc? “Tín đồ Ấn gió coi nơi các dòng sông giao nhau là thánh địa. Kẻ giàu đi xe lửa, xe hơi, người nghèo lội bộ, chen chúc nhau đi hành hương tới thành phố này; Họ tin là một khi được dầm mình trong dòng sông Hằng linh thiêng, thì sẽ được rửa sạch mọi tội lỗi và nghiệp chướng, và khi chết rồi, nếu tro người chết được đem rải xuống cho trôi, họ sẽ được giải thoát khỏi vòng luân hồi".

Bốn người, bốn câu chuyện, bốn quan điểm về tâm linh và đức tin. Họ sẽ được dẫn dắt bởi Enami - một hướng dẫn viên người Nhật từng học tại Ấn và yêu nước Ấn. Anh sẽ là đại diện cho một cách nhìn trong câu chuyện đức tin: với một người không cùng lý tưởng về niềm tin và tín ngưỡng, ta sẽ tôn trọng họ hay khinh khỉnh sự “vô minh” của người đó?

Nếu người hướng dẫn viên Enami chọn cách nghĩ thứ hai, thì một nhân vật khác sẽ hoàn toàn đối nghịch với anh. Ootsu, người từ nhỏ đã kính chúa, sau theo học cả thần học để làm linh mục, nhưng cởi mở trong cách nghĩ, rằng Chúa có thể là bất kỳ ai, và ta có thể gọi ngài là Củ Hành cũng được, miễn là có đức tin. “Nhưng dẫu sao đi nữa, Củ Hành không phải chỉ hiện hữu trong Kitô giáo Tây phương, mà còn hiện hữu cả trong Ấn giáo, Phật giáo. Và không phải chỉ tin mà thôi, tôi đã chọn một lối sống chứng minh cho niềm tin đó". Ootsu đã sống như thế, để rồi bị cho là “rối đạo”, chẳng trường đại học, thần học viện hay tu viện nào chấp nhận anh.

Những quan điểm trái ngược nhau sẽ còn tiếp diễn. Chuyện tái sinh thì sao? Ông Isobe, cho đến trước khi vợ qua đời, hoàn toàn chẳng quan tâm gì đến chuyện kiếp sau. Nhưng vì lời trăn trối của vợ, hãy tìm em ở kiếp sau, mà bắt đầu tìm hiểu và dấn thân vào cuộc hành trình tìm tái sinh của vợ. Nhưng với Mitsuko, tái sinh không có thì tốt hơn: "Nghĩ chết là hết sẽ thoải mái hơn, còn hơn là phải è vai ra gánh lấy quá khứ và tái sinh ở kiếp sau".

Chuyện người Hindu "ngâm mình và súc miệng ở chính nơi người ta, sau khi thiêu xác chết, thả tro cho trôi" là dơ bẩn đáng ghê tởm hay linh thiêng? Enami, người từng du học và yêu đất nước Ấn Độ cũng những mâu thuẫn tồn tại trong đất nước này, khẳng định: “Không có dơ gì cả. Một khi đã chọn đi Ấn...là tự đưa mình vào một thế giới hoàn toàn khác biệt với u châu (...) ở một chiều không gian khác (...) Chúng ta từ giờ sẽ đi và một thế giới khác mà chúng ta đã đánh mất".

Mình thích câu chuyện của Mitsuko và Ootsu, và đó cũng là câu chuyện được dành nhiều đất nhất trong sách. Một người không tin vào Chúa, quyết tâm quấy phá một người ngoan đạo và còn buộc anh phải từ bỏ người, để rồi cuối cùng mải miết đi tìm anh. "Cô không hiểu rõ tại sao xưa cũng như nay cô lại cứ bận tâm bận trí về anh ta. Cuộc đời của Ootsu, như xác côn trùng sa lưới nhện, cứ dai dẳng treo ở một nơi nào đó trong lòng cô. Mình không nhất thiết phải gặp. Cô không biết bao lần đã tự nhủ lòng như thế. Dù có đi Varanasi đi nữa, mình cũng chẳng tìm con người ấy mà làm gì".

Bên dòng sông Hằng được viết từ góc nhìn của một người Công giáo, nhắc đến cả Phật giáo và Ấn giáo. Còn mình đọc với tư cách một người vô thần. Tôn giáo, như nhiều người có tín ngưỡng mà mình từng tiếp xúc, họ nói rằng trải qua biến cố trong đời rồi mới còn tôn giáo cứu giúp, có một cái để họ tin và dựa vào.

Ông Isobe khi vợ mất mới bắt đầu thử tin vào tâm linh. Mitsuko không phải là người duy nhất vô thần, mà còn có cặp vợ chồng mới cưới chọn trăng mật ở Ấn Độ thay vì đi châu Âu.

Với mình Bên dòng sông Hằng là quyển sách đáng đọc. Mình thích cái cách những người xa lạ buộc phải gắn bó với nhau trong thời gian ngắn trong những chuyến đi. Thích cách tác giả đưa ra những va chạm về đức tin và tín ngưỡng. Và thích nhất một câu đâu đó trong sách, “Trong cuộc đời của chúng ta đều có cái gì đó, dù đã chấm dứt nhưng không mất hẳn.”

[Celia · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Endo has successfully dramatized the discovery that the sacred river of humanity flows within ourselves."--National Catholic Reporter

That description has really grabbed me.

Book is now both heard and read. I listened to the crisp voice of David Holt while I followed the text in a library paperback.

The book is written by a Japanese author but is primarily about India. A group of Japanese tourists are led through various parts of India as they seek spiritual re-birth. The experience of seeing the Ganges is central to their re-awakening.

The characters are very well drawn out.

There is Isobe, recently widowed and searching for his re-incarnated wife,
Kiguchi, a war veteran haunted by memories of Burma,
Numada, a writer recovering from a serious illness, and
Mitsuko, a cynical nurse searching for a heretical priest she knew in her youth.

I look forward to my next Shusaku Endo: Silence.

5 stars

[Nguyên Trang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Đọc xong câu chuyện chỉ cho mình thấy một điều: đó là ở đời này, chỉ có đau đớn là thứ tồn tại thật sự và có ý nghĩa. Hạnh phúc thì lúc nào cũng vậy, hời hợt, thoáng qua. Ở đời, ai có nỗi đau lớn lao là một may mắn; còn không, hãy cúi mình xuống hứng nỗi đau nhân gian ;)) anw điều này cũng không có gì mới mẻ.

Truyện viết ok nhưng không đặc biệt quá. Giống như Ấn Độ, nó pha trộn rất nhiều thứ lại với nhau. Tuy nhiên, mình không thấy nó chạm được tới nơi tới chốn chỗ cần tới. Là truyện đáng đọc nhưng không phải truyện nhất thiết phải đọc.

[Inderjit Sanghera · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel begins with the beautiful-yet haunting-image of a man who, upon finding out that his wife has cancer, also hears the vulgar reverberations of a street pedlar selling his wares, his wife's death  forever associated with the pedlar's voice in his mind.  In many ways this passage comes to symbolise the feelings of the various characters who inhabit the novel, who are seeking a sense of fulfilment in India as their inner lives have become dominated by a sense of loss and ennui.

Endo explores the motivations of his characters with patience and understanding, building empathy for his characters. So the spiritually empty Mitsuko seeks to the vacuity which has overtaken her life with mockery; firstly for the conventions of bourgeois Japanese society and secondly for religion via her cruel treatment towards the pathetic Otsu. The writer Numada is unable to replicate the empathy he shares with animals in his relationship with people, whereas Kiguchi is haunted by his time as a soldier during the Second World War. Finally we come to Isobe, the character whose wife dies of cancer and is seeking for a sense of passion and love for her which didn't exist when she was alive.

Whilst, like most Endo's stories, the novel is highly moralistic, it does this in way which isn't cloying or sententious, or in a way that all of the character reach a moral apotheosis at the end of the novel. Instead Endo focuses on the human condition, with the stories acting as snapshots at a certain point in time of the characters lives, who demonstrated both frailty and strength, selfishness and selflessness and who are merely seeking a sense of belonging in a world which they cannot seem to make sense of. 

[Nocturnalux · Rating 3 out of 5]

Endou is at his best when dissecting Japanese society, and tends to lose me when he goes into speechifying mode. So this one is pretty much hit and miss.

[Curtis R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really a remarkable book; my review will NOT do it justice.

This sat on my shelf for awhile because I was intimidated by the topic. Shusaku Endo is one of my favorite authors, but his tone and themes typically take a much more melancholy look at life than many other authors. Perhaps you've seen the movie Silence, directed by the great Martin Scosese, with Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield, and Adam Driver. This is based on a book by the same author, and its friggin sweet as well.

Endo is a Japanese Catholic author, which is a rare and unique combination. Fittingly, one of his major themes in most of his works and this one as well, is the ability for Japanese society to authentically and naturally accommodate and integrate the Christian religion (without all of its additional western trappings). In many of his earlier works, he seems to believe in the possibility , while narrating the deep cultural and psychological difficulties of actually engaging the reality of it. His characters are never heroes, but individuals, people with problems deep set in their psyches from past trauma, current despair, relationship setbacks or personal failings. The advantage is a novel that is meaningful, insightful and relatable; the downside is that they can feel discouraging (because very often, life is). His portrayals of the Christian perspective on life are not glossy, easy or typical of the American idea. Apostasy, abandonment, cross-cultural confusion, historical impact on truth-claims, addiction, personal pride...these ingredients pepper the Christian existence for the faithful follower of Christ, who, in Endo's eyes, is typified by this verse more than any other: "[Jesus] was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem." With this as a central thrust, Endo emphasizes the themes of rejection, servanthood and sacrifice, and universal compassion as his character come to understand and align themselves with Christian ideas in a very complex and antagonistic world. (Like seriously, think about that verse just one minute. How different would American Christianity - or Roman Christianity, or YOUR Christianity - be, if that was the verse you always came back to, and judged everything else by? What if that verse represented the Church more than any other? What if I had the commitment to pursue that lifestyle above all else? yeesh, right?)

This book was his last, and is particularly interesting to me. From a literary perspective, he is a master storyteller and effortlessly weaves four or five plotlines of important characters throughout the novel - together, a group of Japanese tourists travel to the Ganges in India. Although none are particularly religious, each is seeking some sort of emotional and existential relief from the burdens of life. Most of them are quite taken aback when they come to realize that the primary religion surrounding them in India is not their own Buddhism, but Hinduism. The stories are special and sad, and we care deeply for the characters while we observe their search for self-understanding and some sense of freedom from pain. There are some unique plot-twists and overlaps and it moves at a very steady pace for so serious a book.

The Hindu religion and the Ganges provide a suitable context for the novel's thematic excursions, but also as a peek behind the curtain at Endo's own ideas. As the characters travel to a distant land with different religions ideas and socioeconomic dividers, they experience personal enlightenment in unexpected ways.

In all of his writings, Endo considers the compatibility between his Japanese cultural identity and his Christian theological persuasion, and it seems that his convictions have developed as well. As the main character Otsu is constantly kicked out of seminaries because of his eastern-leaning beliefs (tending towards pantheism or a religiously functional relativism), we see glimpses of Endo's own struggles to successfully assimilate the western-influenced ideas of Christianity into his own more open eastern mindset. Many other reviewers have concluded that he may've abandoned his original Christian convictions, but I think that Endo, as always, has not necessarily arrived to any conclusions, but has merely expanded his understanding of God's involvement in the world and has taken a more global vision. Otsu remains loyal to his own spiritual connection while acknowledging God's presence in traditions that are not his own (he finds community with Hindu monks and takes part in their traditional practices of caring for the destitute caste in India). In similar fashion, I wonder if Endo also recognizes the active engagement of the Christian God through other traditions - keeping in mind the close knit relationship religion, culture and history play together, which has plagued and provoked his thought in the past.

If you are interested in the inward journey of individuals as they navigate through particularly challenging, lonely, and even shattering situations, this book may offer a lot of validation and insight for you. I am a Christian, but I am also often conflicted by the reality of infinite perspectives and possibilities (seriously, what is anything? is anything anything?). I am also acutely aware of how one's own personal upbringing and cultural conception of reality colors everything, and this makes me wonder if true change is possible at any level of one's being. This book, while offering no attempts at answers or answers themselves, allowed me to embrace others on that same journey of self-realization and redemption and reconsider my own activities, existence and aims.

If you want to read a book with a lot of action scenes or obvious answers, I would not recommend this at all.

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I believe that the river embraces these people and carries them away. A river of humanity. The sorrows of this deep river of humanity. And I am part of it." (275)

I read Shūsaku Endō's novel When I Whistle years ago and really appreciated it; for some reason, it took me a long time to pick something else out of the sizeable Endō stack that I have managed to accumulate. Deep River is a poignant and occasionally profound novel, even if it is a bit on-the-nose—particularly with the religious elements and the explanations given by Endō about the characters' motivations, which would have been clear with more subtle commentary—and slightly repetitive at times. But, after all, the river—life—flows monotonously, repeating its motions, immersing us and moving us along, oblivious to our desires and despairs, our gentleness and violence.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Three words for Otsu: Church of England. You can believe whatever the fuck you like and they'll let you be a bishop. Don't some of them not even believe in the literal truth of any of the Bible?

Two words for all of the other characters: Let's communicate!

Endo's created a host of emotionally inarticulate characters that are incapable of open and frank relationships, taken us through all of their problems and then left us grasping at spiritual solutions.

It's very ethnocentric, I know, but I would recommend that they work on their emotional articulacy and establishing open and frank relationships. Sure, go to India if you like. But communicating honestly with your life partner is probably much more helpful.

[Karson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel about different streams towards God and how there is a deep river that runs deep enough to handle all the craziness that goes on down here. I learned some really beautiful things about some other religions that I didn't know before I read this book. One of the most beautiful things that stuck with me is the symbolism of The Ganges river in India. People bring death there (they sprinkle loved ones ashes in there), but the also come to this river for ritual cleasings. It takes it all. Nothing is too ugly for the Ganges. It accepts all of reality death and life. This is also a theme in one of my other favorite novels called "My Name is Asher Lev" by Chaim Potok where Asher Lev (a little jewish boy) is drawn to art, but he finds himself wanted to draw the ugly things in the world as much as the beautiful things. He sees beauty in both death and life.

[Bên Phía Nhà Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

cuon sach vat minh tu nam ngoai sang nam nay, doc rat xuc dong. va edge cua windows khong cho go tieng Viet =))

[booklady]

After reading my friend Dhanaraj Rajan's review of this book I knew I wanted to read this.

[Thiên Di · Rating 5 out of 5]

một cuốn sách Người đã gửi tới cho tôi để trả lời cho câu hỏi mà tôi luôn canh cánh trong lòng và luôn hỏi Người. và hệt như cách nghĩ khi đó ai hỏi tôi vì sao tôi yêu Người: bởi vì Người là một người đau khổ, đau khổ hơn tất cả chúng ta, và đau khổ như thế nhưng Người luôn yêu tôi.
cuốn sách hay ở chỗ tác giả kết nối mọi nền văn hóa với một tình yêu thương bàng bạc xuyên thấm, khiến ta xúc động
"...Ngài không duyên dáng, không oai vệ
Ngài bị khinh khi, và là đồ phế bỏ của người đời,
con người đớn đau và những ốm o xo bại,
như một kẻ có gặp chúng tôi thì lo giấu mặt
bị khinh khi, và chúng tôi đã chẳng đếm xỉa
Trái lại, chính các bệnh tật của chúng tôi, Ngài đã mang
chính các đau khổ của chúng tôi, Ngài đã vác..."
(Isaiah 53:2-4)

[S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's been reported in literary papers or sections that an unofficial "twenty-year rule" applies to the Nobel Prize in Literature-- that is, every twenty years or so (unless it was every twenty-five years, and I'm misremembering), the Nobel Literature Prize committee "has" to award the prize to a Japanese writer. such would not be unvelieable. if I remember the WP entry on the NPL correctly, the first twenty years of the prize were entirely Sweden or Sweden-Norway specific, until the realization slowly dawned that the entire world was watching what was then the only true international prize, and a large cash bonus to boot. Japan is 10% of the world economy and possibly that percentage of major world literature in sales, and perhaps more importantly to the publishing world at large, it highly respects copyright and will even invest in projects requiring half of all royalties be sent abroad.

the first big postwar duel apparently erupted between YASUNARI KAWABATA (the master of elegiac, short little pieces capturing Japanese uniqueness and intricate social minueting) and his protégée YUKIO MISHIMA (who wrote longer, more ambitious plot-filled novels about grief and longing). literary scholars, after decades of scholarship on both, probabliy feel the Prize was mis-awarded-- MISHIMA, despite his vainglorious death, is more highly referenced and influential; more writers fifty years on list him as "influence," whereas Kawabata, while known to the entire community, is more the origami-expert of the intricate fold.

today of course the central Nobel story is HARUKI MURAKAMI vs. HARUKI MURAKAMI. as in, will the Nobel Prize award the medal to HM or will it fail to act in time. no other name is seriously floated in contention.

the 1980s battle is interesting on a different level. both KENZABURO OE (the eventual winner) and ENDO SHUSAKU are a bit less read today and considered a step down from the KAWABATA-MISHIMA showdown. OE represented secular sociality and ENDO heretical Christianity. but aside from this issue, there is the overall sense of aesthetics in each's work, and of course the philosophy.

this is a book about five Japanese pilgrims to the Ganges and the "case" of each, describing the spiritual concerns and life events that bring them all to India for a brief trip. it begins "on the airplane" and then explores the background and history of each.

endo's other work I've read although a 3/5 non-fiction/fiction piece (literary analysis and just literature), always inspires rounds of conversation in artistic dinners.

this work is more just a very solid 5/5 lit work

[Huy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mình là một người không tin vào Tôn giáo, không tin vào những đấng linh thiêng hay tối cao. Và mình lúc nào cũng thấy thắc mắc khi gặp những người sùng đạo và tin tưởng vào những bậc cao hơn, và mãi không bao giờ hiểu được, một người vô thần như mình đọc những cuốn sách kiểu này, dĩ nhiên là sẽ không thấy thích.

[R.L.S.D · Rating 3 out of 5]

A disparate group of Japanese tourists manage their guilt, grief, angst and fear on a guided trip to religious sites in India. Endo is, as always, observant, honest, and humane, but this book made me wince in ways that Silence and the Samurai did not. If Endo had presented his ideas as a set of philosophical propositions, I would have balked. A narrative, however, is much more capacious than a narrow list of propositions - often more than the author intends. As such, there was room for me as the reader to engage in meaningful dialogue with the text.

I am struck by two things. The unique beauty of Christ for each culture is not the same as the 'appropriation' of Christ to support the values of my culture. I think the breakdown of dialogue between the Otsu the Japanese priest and the European Catholic church is due largely to both parties' efforts to appropriate Christ, and not a straightforward matter of heresy.

Second, it occurs to me that this would be a good book for a Christian missiology class. Not for the purpose of calling into question a student's hope and confidence, but as a way of reminding the hopeful and confident that they are simply not equal to the task of reconciling the world to Christ. Whatever truth they have miraculously apprehended is not theirs to possess or wield with pat answers that dismiss the uncomfortable reality of millions of human beings they will never know, bathing in a river they will never see for reasons they will fundamentally never understand. We do not possess Truth and dole it out to fix everyone else's errors. Truth possesses us and to Truth we submit. What I consistently love about Endo is that he presents a very different picture of what it means to "be ready to give an answer" - a submissive, clownish, embarrassing picture that resembles the humiliation of the ugly dead man who haunts our imaginations and doesn't abandon us.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. An original, intelligent, character based novel about Japanese tourists undergoing varieties of life crisis, visiting the river Ganges, at Varanasi, India, during the week of the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister. All the characters seek reconciliation, self acceptance or fulfillment.

One character is a World War 2 veteran haunted by memories of his experiences in Burma, another, Isobe, is coming to terms with his wife’s death from cancer and her comments on reincarnation. Otsu, a Japanese Catholic, never fully accepted by the church elders, has followed his faith in God, to India. Misuko is a woman seeking forgiveness for once seducing Otsu in a frivolous attempt to undermine his faith when she was a student.

This book was first published in 1993.

[David Rush · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5

Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles 1 Corinthians 1:22-25

I wonder at the faith and Christianity of Shusaku Endo a thoughtful, reflectfull Japanese Christian. Did he feel as at odds with his faith and heritage as the central character, Otso, of Deep Rivet?Did he feel himself as outcast as Otsu who identified with the lowest caste of India?

I will draw a conclusion that Endo found the essence of Christ in the suffering sacrifice rather that the victorious resurrected champion of the prosperity gospel. I think Endo saw “true” Christianity in the comfort of the poor and meek.

I think more people would NOT like this book than do. In Endo's world the avenues of success only bring a hollow happiness. In my (American) world the general feel I get is that the Christianity brings a victorious uplifting life full of prosperity. Endo would have none of that. For him you only get to the truth by embracing the poor and outcast.

So....do you think this life is a project of empirical pluses and minuses and the point is to end up with a positive when you die? And the “authentic” life is one that discounts anything that is not measurable, and religion is at best an illusion and at worst the bane of humanity?

If so, this book will be nonsense to you.

Are your religions beliefs secure and do they provide reason and stability that explains everything? If so, this book will be nonsense to you.

There are a number of “themes” involving connecting with something. First, for Otsu, is the notion that Christ is found most clearly in the rejected. Which leads him, as a Catholic priest, to be shunned by his order and end up adopting the clothes of a Hindu untouchable who's only task is to carry other discarded, poor, and dying people to the river Ganges just before they die.

And then there is this idea that our existence is actually a river of humanity and we are all trying to connect with it. I think Endo is saying we use most of our energy avoiding the very things that really do give us the connection to everything else we need.

For Miss Naruse she wants to experience actual love, not the kind that is actually a role that people adopt with enthusiasm.

For Mr Kiguchi it is honoring his fellow Japanese soldiers who suffered a burtal retreat in WWII in Burma.

For Mr Numada it is a mystical connection with nature embodied by a Myna bird.

And finally for Mr Isobe, he is only recognizing his connection with his wife after she dies after telling him to look for her to be reborn somewhere in the world.

If I were to write a high school report about it I think I would come up with something about the Deep River of the the Ganges is much like life itself. And that the road of death Mr. Kiguchi was on is also much like life itself. In that we will all die sometime.

If you are sure of yourself, in your belief or non-belief...then you will think this book is nonsense. But for those of us you inexplicably think what the world tells us about itself is most likely wrong...well, you might end up loving this book.

Quotes...
After living nearly five years in a foreign country, I can't help but be struck by the clarity and logic of the way Europeans think, but it seems to me as an Asian that there's something they have lost sight of with their excessive clarity and their over abundance of logic, and I just can't go along with it....in the final analysis, the faith of the Europeans is conscious and rational, and these people reject anything they cannot slice into categories with their rationality. Pg117

But an Asian like me just can't make sharp distinctions and pass judgment on everything the way they do. Pg118

Every time I look at the River Ganges, I think of my Onion (Christ). The Ganges swallows up the ashes of every personas it flows along, rejecting neither the beggar woman who stretches out her finger-less hands for the murdered prime minister Gandhi. The river of love that is my Onion flows past, accepting all, rejecting neither the ugliest of men nor the filthiest. Pg 185

The Onion had died many long years ago, but he had been reborn in the lives of other people. Even after nearly two thousand years had passed, he had been reborn in those nuns, and had been reborn in Otsu. And just as Otsu had been taken off to a hospital on a litter, the nuns likewise disappeared in the river of people. Pg 215

[Chinook · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a short book, Deep River covers a lot. It’s interesting to be gazing through a window at the lives of these Japanese men and women as they themselves gaze through a window at Europeans (mostly French) and Indians. The main themes of the book are religion and grief - characters contemplate rebirth, Japanese Buddhism, the differences between Japanese Christianity and European Christianity, Hinduism and a few personal constructions, like the man who thinks of God as being in communion with nature and a woman who eventually decides that humanity is all connected in their river of sorrows.

But the book also touches on the horrors of war, on marriage, of generational gaps in Japan, on sex and love, on work and its discontents, on travel and being respectful of new cultures. It is heavily influenced by two books, Moira and Thérèse Desqueyroux, which influence and mirror one woman’s choices.

Japanese novels tend, for me, to be somewhat hard to understand at a fundamental level - there always seems to be something presented as a universal feeling or action that baffles me. In this novel it’s the bullying of Otsu, which seems to the students to be inevitable and amusing. The tour guide later takes a similar attitude towards the tourists, one of wanting to have revenge against them for no reason that makes sense to me. It’s also sometimes hard to wrap my mind around the male-female relationships presented in Japanese novels.

[Tereza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moje první seznámení s Endóem (paradoxně s jeho poslední knihou) a hned láska na první začtení. Příběh o ztrátách a hledání, pošetilých tužbách srdce, o pomíjivosti času - to všechno na pozadí uměřeného Japonska, pořádkumilovné Francie a barevné, nespoutané a neuchopitelné Indie. Přečtěte si ji!

[Nguyet Minh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sông Hằng - một dòng sông linh thiêng của người Ấn giáo, là nơi mà dòng chảy của nó đón nhận tất cả những sinh mệnh bất kể đẳng cấp hay địa vị, là nơi mà dù xa đến đâu, dù bằng nhiều phương tiện khác nhau, người Ấn giáo nhất định phải tìm về để chết, để chờ chết hoặc để ngụp lặn tắm rửa trong đó với niềm tin sâu sắc rằng dòng nước thiêng ấy sẽ rửa sạch mọi tội lỗi và nghiệp chướng, tro của người qua đời được rải xuống sông sẽ giúp họ thoát khỏi kiếp luân hồi.

Nhóm du khách Nhật với những nghề nghiệp, hoàn cảnh và câu chuyện khác nhau cùng tham gia một tour du lịch đến Ấn Độ với những mục đích riêng nhưng có vẻ như đều liên quan đến việc kiếm tìm. Đó là ông Isobe mất đi người vợ và lời trăn trối của vợ về việc sẽ tái sinh và mong muốn ông hãy đi tìm bà. Đó là Mitsuko, nữ hộ lý vô thần dù đã kết hôn nhưng chưa bao giờ tìm thấy cảm xúc hoặc tình yêu đích thực của đời mình, cô là người đàn bà mà “ngọn lửa ân ái chẳng bao giờ cháy lên được.” Trong sự trống rỗng đó, cô luôn nghĩ đến Ootsu, một người bạn cũ với đức tin to lớn với Chúa và chỉ mong trở thành linh mục để tận hiến cho đức tin ấy. Cô đi tìm anh tại một tu viện ở Vasanari. Đó là ông Numata, một người chuyên viết chuyện đồng thoại, thế giới đồng thoại ông tạo ra sẽ dẫn ông thoát khỏi những mâu thuẫn và sự tàn bạo của cuộc sống với bệnh tật và mất mát. Đó là ông Kiguchi - một cựu chiến binh ở chiến trường Miến Điện năm xưa với ám ảnh khôn nguôi về đồng đội đã chết, về việc chứng kiến cảnh ăn thịt người của nhau để tồn tại và có sức giúp kẻ khác. Và đó là cặp vợ chồng nhiếp ảnh gia Sajou, tiêu biểu cho lớp trẻ chuộng chủ nghĩa thực dụng. Họ chỉ đơn giản đến Ấn Độ vì tò mò và mua sắm vài thứ kỷ niệm với thái độ khinh miệt nền văn hoá này.

Trưởng đoàn là anh chàng hướng dẫn viên Enami, người gắn bó với Ấn Độ nhiều năm và am hiểu văn hoá của nó đủ để bảo vệ nó khỏi sự khinh miệt từ khách Nhật. Anh có một khái niệm lạ lùng về thiên nhiên Ấn Độ, đó là vẻ “dâm tính” của nó, luôn “có cái gì đó cứ kích thích dục tính, âm ỉ trong cái không khí nóng bức của xứ Ấn”, xứ mà thiên nhiên mang hai mặt: sáng tạo và phá hủy. Khi sống lâu trong một nền văn hoá nào đó, người ta dễ trở nên sùng bái nó và định kiến với những quan điểm khác.

Tất cả họ tìm đến Vasanari, một thành phố rất Ấn Độ trong lòng Ấn Độ để trải nghiệm không gian thánh địa linh thiêng, nơi các dòng chảy giao nhau nhưng cũng là nơi mà tín ngưỡng và thực tế tạo thành những mảng đối lập của sạch sẽ và dơ dáy, từ bi và tàn nhẫn. Người ta tìm về Ấn Độ bởi hy vọng khám phá khởi nguồn của Phật giáo nguyên thuỷ nhưng những âm hưởng và tàn dư còn sót lại đã bị che lấp bởi Ấn giáo khổng lồ. Vậy nên, những vị khách ấy đã trở nên thất vọng và thờ ơ. Ông Isobe không ngừng thầm g��i vợ trong niềm mong mỏi gặp lại “tái sinh” của bà dọc bờ sông Hằng. Mitsuko vô tình gặp lại anh bạn linh mục trong một hình hài khác như một người Ấn giáo thực thụ với những xác chết vác trên vai đưa họ về dòng sông Ấn giáo, về với Chúa trong tâm thức của riêng anh. Những đám người ăn xin bị bệnh phong cùi, những xác động vật trôi sông, sự nóng bức ngột ngạt từ những giàn thiêu lộ thiên cùng mùi người sống, mùi tử khí tạo nên một bức tranh hỗn độn không thể tìm được ở nơi nào khác trên thế giới khi mà sự trật tự và ngăn nắp đã trở thành tiêu chuẩn.

Ông Numata chưa bao giờ cho rằng thiên nhiên là tàn bạo, ngược lại nó hẳn là cầu nối sự sống và con người. Ông đi tìm mua một con nhồng hoang để phóng sinh nó trở về với tự nhiên, là cách ông trả ơn cho việc giữ được sinh mệnh của mình qua bệnh hiểm nghèo. Còn Kiguchi chỉ mong mỏi tìm đến một ngôi chùa để cầu siêu cho các chiến sĩ tử trận năm xưa. Với tín đồ Ấn giáo, hữu ngạn sông Hằng mới chính là nơi linh thiêng nhất, còn tả ngạn biểu tượng cho sự dơ dáy.

Xuyên suốt câu truyện là những quan điểm tôn giáo và trăn trở về thần học trái ngược nhau của những người cùng dân tộc. Trong đó có cả Kito giáo, Phật giáo, Ấn giáo và cả vô thần. Đức tin như một tấm thảm được trải ra cho tất cả mọi người. Có kẻ chọn đi lên nó, có kẻ thích đi ở bên ngoài bằng đôi chân trần của mình. Niềm yêu kính một tôn giáo là thứ tình cảm tự nguyện và bền chặt của một cá nhân với đức tin đó, còn kẻ vô thần là một vị khách đứng bên ngoài quan sát bằng đôi mắt khách quan. Cũng có lúc, khi cuộc sống vắng bóng tâm tình hay chẳng còn gì để bấu víu vào nữa, người ta định hướng lại lối sống, chọn cách quay về với nơi họ từng thờ ơ, để tìm những kết nối tâm linh lấp đầy lại cảm giác cô đơn trống rỗng.

Cuộc đời đã sắp xếp sẵn mọi việc một cách thứ tự mà người sống trong đó chẳng thể biết trước được. Người rời bỏ thế gian sẽ không bao giờ có cơ hội được biết người còn sống sẽ phải đối diện với điều gì. Ý vị thâm sâu của đời sống chỉ có thể đến khi có nhiều đánh đổi và mất mát. Chỉ tình yêu son sắt mới khiến người ta chôn sâu ước nguyện được tái sinh để gặp lại người thương, để tiếp tục tha thiết và gắn bó.

Dọc bờ sông Hằng, họ ném đi ảo ảnh và tìm thấy thực tế chồng chất lên nhau, “tái sinh” hay hoàn toàn biến mất đều là thứ trực cảm tâm linh nằm trong sâu thẳm mỗi người. Vợ chồng nhiếp ảnh gia Sajou không đại diện cho bất cứ hình thức tâm linh nào, bất chấp mất mát đau buồn của người khác để thỏa mãn cho những đòi hỏi tầm thường của bản thân, vô tình đưa chàng linh mục Ootsu cận kề cái chết khi vừa phải bảo vệ sự trong sạch cho người chết đến thói hám danh của kẻ sống. Cuối truyện là sự kiện bà tổng thống Indira Gandhi bị ám sát đẩy niềm tin tôn giáo lẫn thực tế xã hội với bất đồng, bất bình đẳng lên đỉnh điểm. Dẫu là người đàn bà ăn xin rụng hết ngón tay hay bà thủ tướng bị ám sát cũng đều trở về với dòng sông Hằng, nơi đón nhận cả điều tốt đẹp lẫn nhơ bẩn.

Và hành trình tìm kiếm của nhóm khách Nhật ấy cũng khép lại. Điều họ tìm thấy chính là việc phải tiếp tục tồn tại với một tâm thế khác.

[Emilia P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dang, yo.
Shusaku Endo wrote this book I read called SILENCE. It's about Catholic missionaries to Japan in like the 1600s and it's kinda boring and pretty one-note but also well written and about an important culture clash. Shusaku Endo, a Japanese Catholic, is an intriguing character himself, and so one is impelled to read more of his work. Especially since it's featured in Season 6 of Lost. And with good reason.

Silence was written in the 60s and Deep River was written in the 90s. The openness and full-heartedness of the latter belies a man with the wisdom and sadness and understanding of a whole life between these books - but it's still very clearly the same dude -- a person who cares about faith and the soul, in a way that is very Japanese and un-Japanese at the same time.

I tried to explain this to my cooly-Japanophile husband - to say this book was about how Japanese people are so focused on appearing calm and collected on the surface but are tumultuous and sad and beautiful underneath, and that perhaps that calm exterior itself signals, hints at, a profundity of soul which we openly emotional Westerners can only dream about. So that's what I thought this book captured really well -- everyone suffers, and here is a story about how four or five (or six or seven!) emphatically Japanese people suffered, in their own cultural context, mostly in silence and bitterness, and how they dealt with it by tapping into the life-force which connects us across cultures, ages, faiths (there's a Japanese Catholic priest who dresses up like a Hindu to carry bodies to the creamation grounds, to wit) , etc, while on a trip to the Ganges, the river of rebirth, in India. It sounds hippy-dippy, but it isn't. It's about how big our small little lives are -- it's a character study above all, no big sweeping things happen in it, in the end. It's about accepting and bearing suffering, and trying to love. It's kind of sad. But it's sweet.

There's a quote on the back about how Endo is unsentimental, yet sympathetic, and that's a mark of great writing. I have to agree. This is a wonderful book. Read it, yo.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A group of Japanese tourists travel to India to visit historic sites from the life of the Buddha, without realizing that there are few modern Buddhists there. They wind up in Varanasi, by the side of the sacred, polluted Ganges, where people go to die. The group includes Isobe, who is looking for his reincarnated wife, who he ignored when she was alive and Mitsuko, who has found emptiness in a series of personae: hedonistic student, wife, volunteer at a hospital. Least affecting is Numada, a author of children's books and haunted by the fate of animals. Kiguchi's story is riveting, as he struggles not just with the memories of surviving the war in Burma, but of the soldier who sacrificed everything to save him. A thoughtful, meditative book, focussed on the struggle to define what truly matters, but not without a sly humor, as the fastidious Japanese try and mostly fail to cope with the overwhelming mass of humanity that is India, along with the comic foils, a pair of married tourists, her wishing to be in France, he trying to establish himself as a photographer. A book that lingers in the mind.

[A.K. Kulshreshth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great work. I listened to the audio book and will also read the print version.

Four very diverse characters, all Japanese, end up on a visit to the holy city of Varanasi, on the banks of the sacred river Ganga. Each of them has a different motive. In my interpretation, they get what they wanted to varying degrees, with none of them finding easy answers.

This is a book that works at many levels - from its range of settings in India, Japan, France, Burma and Manchuria, to its chronicling of events from Second World War Burma to Indira Gandhi's assassination and its characters and story arch. Two of its characters - Mitsuke and Otsu - are particularly fascinating.

It is necessary to mention that there are plenty of bloopers in this work. For example, the harmonium is not similar to a harmonica, contrary to Mr. Endo's assertion (assuming the translator is not to blame). In the audio book, Ganga is pronounced Gaan-Jaa. That is wrong, which is bad enough, but Gaanjaa also has a meaning. It means Opium in Hindi (and in other Indian languages)...

I put down the bloopers to poor quality control, and still rate this work highly because of its many strengths.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is death. Yet, there is also life. There are long emotionally dead passages. Yet, there are also moments so charged with feeling they consume all in their path, carry them along for a bit and then leave behind ones willing to do anything to catch up. You have the search for reincarnated love ones, the search for emotional fulfillment, the search to reconcile death with life, the search for atonement, each person ever searching for something omnipresent in its never clearly defined state. And on it goes, this one period of time accepting all parts of life into its midst; the river mentioned in the pages embodies this, and will take everything in without spitting out any straightforward conclusions of its own. This is definitely a novel that won't get very far with a reader without some interpretation on their part; it is only fully enjoyed if one can see their own life experiences within the pages, and leave with a new understanding of just what it means to exist.