Book: When I Whistle by Shusaku Endo

In all the years I've owned this book, I never noticed the face on the cover until now!!  I read When I Whistle once, years ago, I don't even remember when, so I decided to read it again.  It's written by the same Japanese author who wrote Silence, which was recently made into a movie that I would like to see but haven't had a chance to yet.  When I Whistle is a completely different kind of book than Silence though, except that they both take place in Japan.  Silence is generally about Christianity in Japan in the 1600s.  When I Whistle is not about Christianity at all, but is a story focused on one man and his son and the differences in their life experiences.

The book takes place both during World War II and in the 1970s.  It's the story of a middle aged man reflecting back on his teenage and young adult years during World War II, so the story switches back and forth between his current life and his reminiscences of the past, as well as his son's current life.

Themes include the father-son relationship, generational differences, war-time life, the draft, death, illness, nostalgia, friendship, connections from the past, dreams and ambition (or lack thereof), "modern" dating relationships, medical ethics, and the doctor-patient relationship.  Even though I remembered what happened as I was reading the story for the second time, I still feel kind of thrown off by this book, like I understand what it's getting at, the meaning the author was going for....but if I were to sit in the minds of the characters more, if I had read it more slowly....  I don't know, it leaves me feeling as if I missed something more, something deeper.  But I can also imagine it's supposed to feel that way, because of the nature of the father-son relationship in the book.  If anyone decides to read it, I'd be curious what you think!  And that goes for any book we've both read. =)