- Hardcover: 167 pages
- Publisher: Peter Owen Ltd (June 1972)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0720601320
- ISBN-13: 978-0720601329
- Product Dimensions: 18.5 x 12.7 x 1.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
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.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Info on Film Version,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Sea and Poison (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Crime and Punishment,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Sea and Poison (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The sea and poison,
By Mihoko Tokoro (US) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Sea and Poison (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)
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 and human experimentation were performed for development of biological weapon. Doctors were young, innocent and ambitious then and commited henious sins on POWs sometimes willingly but somtimes under pressure. This type of internal human battle does not stop here, it's in every hearts in every countries. Endo is a devoted chatholic and he looks into human hearts from an angle where we don't want God to see.
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