Book Review: SCANDAL by Shusaku Endo

Scandal by Shūsaku Endō
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"A true religion should be able to respond to the dark melodies, the faulty and hideous sounds that echo from the hearts of men."

My fifth Shusaku Endo book is the one I liked least. The Observer's blurb at the back said it all: "Endo's superb novel offers only an unforgettable bafflement for an answer."

Written in 1986, it was one of his last works, and it is definitely the most horrid one. I think it is autobiographical in nature, because the protagonist is an aging writer who learns of a doppelganger haunting the most seedy parts of Tokyo, doing all sorts of un-Christian, depraved things that shocked even this seasoned reader. Is his double a supernatural being, or does he have an alternate personality he doesn't know about? Or is he being lied to? Read SCANDAL to find out!

While previous Endo novels didn't shy away from the topic of sin, I think what makes SCANDAL unique is its unabashed examination of eros among the aged. I had to put the book down several times because some parts utterly disgusted me. But then, Endo would call me a hypocrite, one of those "who close their eyes to the darkest depths of the human heart and try to cover it up."

I WILL say this, though. None of what he wrote came off as gratuitous nor sensationalized. The unsavory parts were, for all intents and purposes, necessary.

"The most important thing is to write about humanity," Endo wrote, and that includes sin -- which, Endo argues, is different from Evil.

What is the connection with sensuality and Catholicism? All the sense are acknowledged and utilized in the Catholic tradition. Unlike other brother/sister faiths, which shy away from certain types of music or interior decoration, Catholicism understands that there are many ways to transcendence. The eye beholds the majesty and glory of art, which points to the majesty and glory of Divinity. The ear rejoices in Mozart's masses. Scents of incense and the tactile sensation of singing as one community in worship. All these things CAN be good, as our senses are God's gifts to us with which to see the beauty of His world.

Quoting Baudelaire, "in the eyes of Thou who knowest why we exist and why we were created - are we monsters?" Endo would argue that there is beauty in ugliness, and that art's purpose is to reveal it.

While I do not find this book beautiful, I have found beauty in Endo's other works. And so I shall remain on the lookout for this Catholic writer who writes like no other.

In our book club's discussion earlier, we got to talking about Japanese authors in general and how complex some of them are.

Endo offers this framework in this novel:

1) Writers who essentially prefer harmony in their lives - "a well-constructed unity" (Mushanokoji and Yamamoto Yuzo)

2) Biophilous authors who love life (Goethe)

3) Necrophilous, self-destructive authors: those more absorbed with darkness and the past than with a neatly ordered future (Dozai Osamu)

I wonder which category Endo would place himself under? Because there are elements in his work that make him an arguable representative for all three.

For convenience's sake, I mentally file him with Graham Greene under "Catholic literature," but with a Japanese's lived experience permeating his work: the experience of belonging to a minority, inwardly.

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