Reading this novel by Shusaku Endo was a great experience, a spiritual experience to be precise. It is like a pilgrimage to the holy river Ganges which Christians should consider pagan and unchristian. Besides, the filth, pollution and the unhygienic surroundings are all there. But there is a surrounding aura of love, peace and regeneration. Ganges, the Mother of India despite all filth, is a mother with plenitude and gentleness. This novel is the story of a group of Japanese tourists to India. The various characters are brought to light in the background of the teeming life and activity around Ganges in the city of Varanasi. Each character has a past that is heavy on the person. The river Ganges called 'the river of humanity' and 'the river of love' has a great depth of meaning for each one of them. It is indeed a deep river from which they all gain consolation, liberation and a new birth. The characters like Isobe, Kiguchi, Numanda, Mitsuko and Otsu vary in their backgrounds and interests. Most of them do not have much in common except for Mitsuko and Otsu. Each of them has a story and their lives do not cross much. The plot of the novel in this respect is most unusual. All of them converge on the banks of river Ganges in pursuit of rejuvenation.
India, where the ancient civilization flowered on the banks of the great river Indus, serves as the backdrop for the novel. Most of the events take place in Varanasi, on the banks of the river Ganges in the months of October-November 1984. The dark forests, the natural environment, the peaceful temples with their gods and godesses, the lively idols of Kali and Chamunda, the crowded city of Varanasi, the various river ghats of Ganges with all the droppings of dogs and cows and the filth, the cremation ground with the smell of burning flesh, the river itself with milky tea-colored water, and the dusty isolated villages with communal wells become very lively to the reader. The band of scrawny children crying out for Bakshish, the snake charmer with the cobra and the mongoose, the sadhoos and godmen giving blessings to the devotees, the wedding procession of the rich couple in the holy city are fit to create strong impressions in the mind. The political background of the time, such as the assassination of Indira Gandhi the prime minister and the subsequent riots in New Delhi, the funeral and the immersion of her ashes in the river Yamuna are clearly brought out. Endo has a deep knowledge of India, its people and their ways of thinking.
Shusaku Endo is known as the Graham Greene of the East. But, though his novels can be considered Catholic, they are controversial. His deep knowledge of Christianity in the West and in the East makes it easy for him to write very powerfully. His earlier novels dealt with problems of faith and God, of sin and betrayal, of martyrdom and apostacy in Japan. The present novel seems to focus mainly on the depth of the spirituality of the East which the western mind fails to comprehend. The pictures he paints of the gods and goddesses and the river are often disgusting and disturbing. It is these that offer consolation to the seminarian who is disappointed with the western Christianity, to the non believer like Mitsuko and to a host of others tormented by their own personal problems.