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Article: Japan's novelist Endo wrote of faith, endured. (Shusaku Endo a writer of novels with Christian themes)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- October 25, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Japanese novelist Shusaka Endo, who died last month at age 73, was often compared to Graham Greene, Francois Mauriac and even Georges Bernanos. To these associations might be added Dostoyevski (whose "buffoon" for Christ in The Idiot is matched by Endo's Gaston Bonaparte in Wonderful Fool) and perhaps sixth century B.C. Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, who wrote:
Nothing is weaker than water,
But when it attacks something hard
Or resistant, then nothing withstands
it,
And nothing will alter its way.
Everyone knows this, that weakness