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Wonderful Fool, by Shusaku Endo


The wonderful fool of this novel is an ungainly, horse-faced Frenchman called Gaston Boanparte who comes to Japan for the first time with a love and trust in people is as simple-minded and foolish as a child’s. The foreigner, as he is often referred to, sticks out like a sore thumb; physically, he constantly has to bend his head low to walk through tiny Japanese-sized corridors, squeeze through fences, and manoeuvre his longs legs to fit in Japanese-styled trains, sleeping and eating mats, as if his brand of large expansive love and trust just does not quite fit in shrewd and uptight Japan.

But he is determined to remain in Japan, and just as inexplicably, he changes the people around him, either aiding or thwarting the plans of those he comes into contact with. A pragmatic professional, an irresponsible care-free bachelor, a fortune teller, a prostitute and thief, a murderer, even a lame old dog — all these characters are somehow changed by coming into his wandering path.

He is dull-witted, barely grasping the nuances of what people say; he thinks himself a failure; he is ridiculously dressed; he does not command respect. In a way, he is practically the opposite of John Irving’s intelligent, dominating and opinionated Owen Meany, yet both Owen and Gaston have a spark of the divine.

The style of writing in this novel is more descriptive and rich compared with the bleak, stark writing in Silence. As in Silence, Shusaku Endo uses a lot of dialogue, but the dialogue in Wonderful Fool is wittier and more textured. It is a humorous novel and very enjoyable to read.

I am dying to compare this novel with Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, but I can’t remember The Idiot well enough, shucks. I’m going to have to read The Idiot again, but it is such a thick and difficult-to-read book!
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Blogger wanker said...

I've read about 10 works of Endo, some more than once, but this one seems to be my favorite. Endo seems to be able to say more in a few words than say Dostoevsky says in The Idiot.  

8:17 AM   


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