Volcano

This is a rather short novel about three different entities dealing with their retiring years. One of the entities is the director of a provencial Japanese weather station who is the local expert on a dormant volcano. Another is an apostate Catholic Priest who senses that his life ceased its' meaning when he ceased his calling. The last entity is the volcano itself. Although we don't sense a personality to the volcano, it is a metaphor to the other two; is there life left in it or has it spent all it had already. There is a good deal of reflection by the two human characters about their lives. The director discovers that his obsession with the volcano cost him the love of his family. The apostate priest is "tolerated" in his declining years. He is obsessed with proving his theory that Japanese culture is incompatable with Christianity. He bases this on his theory that Japanese do not sense guilt as Western cultures do. Thus Christ's death on the cross loses its' meaning. We read on in hopes for an epiphany of sorts that would allow the two men to resurrect their lives. In the end we are left only wondering about the future of one of the entities.