Gaston Bonaparte, a physically large simplistic and seemingly naive visitor, wanders the city befriending prostitutes, a stray dog, a fortune teller and ultimately a dangerous gangster. This novel charts his misadventures with sharp irony, satire, and objectivity. Wonderful Fool is the story of Gaston Bonoparte, a young Frenchman who visits Tokyo to stay with his pen-friend Takamori. Wonderful Fool is a remarkable parable of a simple man who suddenly appears in the lives of a brother and sister who are residents of Tokyo. He spends his time not sightseeing but making friends with street children, stray dogs, prostitutes, and gangsters. Read archived reviews of Japanese classics at jtimes.jp/essential. He is a trusting person with a simple love for others, and he continues to trust even after they have demonstrated deceit and betrayal. But Endo makes things more complex by adding a satirical commentary on the materialism and spiritual emptiness of 1950s Japan, which is so incisive that it still resonates today. Endo playfully uses his own name in the novel when Gaston is kidnapped by a gangster out for revenge who is also named Endo.Ĭhristian themes underpin the plot - which is to be expected from Endo, whose Roman Catholic leanings shine through in other works such as "Silence" and "Deep River" - but they are never obtrusive.Įndo's message in "Wonderful Fool" seems deceptively simple: With "everyone out to get the other fellow," being "a saint or a man of too good a nature" is foolish.
He wreaks havoc at first, but his simple love for others and. This wry, touching tale of humanity explores the themes of the self and "the other " haves and have-nots revenge and mercy. Gaston Bonaparte, a young Frenchman, visits Tokyo to stay with. The comically ungainly Gaston possesses simplicity and innocence he is the fool of the title. Much to the disappointment of Takamori and his sister, Gaston is not at all the glamorous foreigner they expected. Throughout the novel, Endo illustrates Gaston’s pilgrimage in Japan and highlights his Christ-like. Obaka-san, Japan, 1959, translation by Francis Mathy published as Wonderful Fool, Harper (New York, NY), 1983. In the novel, a young Frenchman named Gaston Bonaparte visits Tokyo to meet his former pen-pal, Takamori. Explore Gaston as a Christ-like figure in Shusaku Endo’s Wonderful Fool In the novel Wonderful Fool, Shusaku Endo draws a clear parallel between Jesus Christ in the Bible and Gaston Bonaparte, the protagonist. Owen (London, England), 1978, Taplinger, 1980. Wonderful Fool, by Shusaku Endo, Translated by Francis Mathy.
0 kommentar(er)
