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The Sea and Poison (New Directions Paperbook)
 
 
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The Sea and Poison (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Michael Gallagher (Translator)
Key Phrases: second surgery, electric scalpel, chief nurse, Old Man, Chief Nurse Oba, First Surgery (more...)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Against the backdrop of World War II, Japanese writer Endo ( Scandal ) explores the nature of morality. In this novel, originally published in Japan in 1958, the author examines the inner lives of three characters in the central drama, a grisly vivisection of an American prisoner of war, in an attempt to understand what conscience, or lack of conscience, allowed them to participate in such an atrocity. Through the character of Suguro, an unsophisticated medical intern from the country bullied into acquiescence in the crime by his colleague, Toda, the cynical son of a wealthy doctor, we see how pangs of conscience are not enough to save one from the consequences of participation--even as only an observer--in an unethical act. Endo's finely wrought descriptions of place and the monotonous routine of daily life in a hospital subtly but powerfully evoke the despair and terror of a people at war. He presents here a decidedly postmodern world, where individuals exist in a state of disconnected anomie. Despite its bleakness, the novel is compulsively readable. We are fascinated even as we are repelled by these characters' moral corruption and their slow, inevitable decline.

Copyright 1992 Cahners Business Information, Inc.



Language Notes

Text: English (translation)

Product Details

  • Paperback: 167 pages
  • Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation (April 1992)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0811211983
  • ISBN-13: 978-0811211987
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #254,085 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Shusaku Endo
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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Info on Film Version, July 14, 2001
By A Customer
My compliments to the reviewers who have contributed to the further publicity of this harrowing and psychologically complex novel, an exploration of those who have denounced their spirituality in exchange for social acceptance, and the consequences they have to suffer. I would like to just add one side note. There is an excellent film adaptation of SEA AND POISON, directed by Kumai Kei in 1986. Because of the controversial subject matter, no major studio would finance the film and it took Kumai years to finish it. (It would certainly not be made in today's Japan, considering the strength of revisionists and glorifiers of the imperial past) This movie has also been nearly completely neglected in the US, no doubt due to its unflinching realism, thoroughly unexotic visuals and political content, something we do not expect from the country mostly known to us through bubblehead animation, Power Rangers and Godzilla. Please do seek it out, if you have wherewithal to do so, and show it to as many Americans (and Chinese, etc.) as you can. I believe the US distrubtor in 1987 was Gates Films.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An Indictment of Japan's Prewar Nihilism, July 10, 1999
By A Customer
Endo creates a haunting portrait of characters caught up in the vivisection of an American prisoner of war during the latter days of the Pacific War and their reactions to their crime. Through the separate narrations of each character, we see how the nihilism that swept Japan's prewar intelligentsia prepared each character for his or her role in the vivisection. Evocative of the understatement in Camus's "The Stranger," Endo's characters relate their stories in straight line, cinematic narrations which reveal the desensitivity to life and suffering that Japan's prewar society had conditioned them to, and in doing so Endo offers readers a sober warning of the dangers of living in a moral vacuum.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Crime and Punishment, May 9, 2000
By A Customer
Obedience to authority and power leads people to harm others, and not being able to resist authority of someone higher is human weakenss. It seems that the Intern named Toda is the one Endo wanted to emphasize upon. The charactor of Toda remainds me of Albert Camus's "The Stranger," and Dostoevsky's "Devils," and it can also be related to other charactors Endo draws in his other novels. Can people feel guilty without punishment of the society? What is morality? What is "right" and "wrong" in such an absurd world like today?

There is a sequel to The Sea and Poison. I do not believe that it is published in the United States, but it is about Dr. Suguro's later life. People judge him and punish him under the name of "democracy" and its "justice." Dr. Suguro ends up hanging himself. Can people judge and punish others? If judging and blaming are the meaning of justice, how does it differ from what is unjust?

I am Japanese, and I personally think that Endo is the best writer from our country. I strongly recommend all his work to Americans.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The Living Dead
"The Sea and the Poison" is a low-key but very powerful novel set in Japan in World War II. In fewer than 200 pages of lean prose, the book explores the moral dynamics of group... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Reader

5.0 out of 5 stars Highest Recommendation
Without once making specific or explicit reference to Catholicism, Shusaku Endo's membership in the Mystical Body of Christ is as clear as mountain water. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Athanasius

5.0 out of 5 stars READS LIKE A HAIKU
SEA AND POISON by Shusaku Endo

Reading Shusaku Endo's Sea and Poison was such a delightful experience I was reluctant to close the book. Read more
Published on June 18, 2007 by Neil bezaire

5.0 out of 5 stars The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil
Edmund Burke would have agreed with Endo's novel "The Sea and Poison". Although a short novel, it is one that delves into some very deep issues about morality and the ethics of... Read more
Published on June 1, 2006 by Bu-chan

5.0 out of 5 stars War - what is it good for?
This short, dark, psychologically gripping novel is an indictment of militarism and its corrupting effect on the individual and society. Read more
Published on November 21, 2004 by Kevin Monahan

5.0 out of 5 stars The sea and poison
Condition of human hearts is so fragile yet too stubbon. This is a fiction losely based on what happened in Unit 731 (Japanese Imperial Army) in Manchuria where live vivisection... Read more
Published on April 3, 2000 by Mihoko Tokoro

5.0 out of 5 stars A commentary on morality.
Although the characters and setting of the story are fictional, the incident involved (ie. performing experiments on POW's) actually occurred. Read more
Published on September 30, 1998 by Nathan V. Bak

5.0 out of 5 stars A horror story about the "Culture of Death"
When the sanctity of life is not honored, no one is safe, as the characters keep saying -- "Today everybody's on the way out. ... Read more
Published on May 3, 1998

5.0 out of 5 stars An exquisite analysis of the death of goodness....
This dark novel by Endo explores the anguished feelings of various doctors and nurses in a fictional Japanese hospital during the second World War. Read more
Published on May 23, 1996

5.0 out of 5 stars An exquisite analysis of the death of goodness....
This dark novel by Endo explores the anguished feelings of various doctors and nurses in a fictional Japanese hospital during the second World War. Read more
Published on May 22, 1996

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