Mr. Endo, a Roman Catholic, has often been called "the Japanese Graham Greene."
In this novel he continues his examination of "mudswamp Japan" - his phrase for the Japanese inner world of moral apathy and insensitivity to God and sin -as it interacts and contrasts with the world of the Christian West. Wonderful Fool is Endo's first novel to suggest a way out of the swamp. It is also his first to give full play to his extraordinary sense of humor and his gift for narrative.
