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José Saramago: Blindness

Jillean

New Member
I am curious to hear other peoples views on this book. I found this story of "the white blindness" enthralling. People were stripped down to there most basic human instincts, equalized by this unknown plague. I enjoyed the feeling of blindness the author gave to the reader by keeping the characters nameless, sometimes you were unsure of who was speaking. This book is high on my list of all time favorites.
Also I have not read anything else by this author and would like to hear any reccomendations.:D
 
I thought it was absolutely fantastic. An adult horror story in the true sense of the word. Which as a great plus, had echoes of one of my favorite childhood scares The Day of the Triffids.
Like you I went after other books by Saramago, however I would put in a word of caution. In my V.limited opinion Blindness is by far his most accessible work. I tried The Stone Raft and could barely make a dent in it and while almost all his books seem to have a great concept behind them I am going to be careful when coming back to him. I suggest having a good read of one of his books in the shop before you buy again. This'll definitely be my plan. :)
 
Thankyou J-D, sounds like a long browse through the pages in the book store will be in order.
I think what scares me the most in this story is that it is so easy to put yourself in the situation. The fear doesn't come from some unimaginable monster or creature but from losing something most of us take for granted.
Thanks for sharing.
 
I read "Blindness a couple of months ago". I find it wonderful and enthralling and terrifying. Scary to see how low a human being can sink.

Once you get used to his looong paragraphs with almost no dots, Saramago is wonderful to read.

I can also recommend "Baltazar and Blimunda". A fantastic fairy tale.

I have "All the names" sitting on my book shelf. I have yet to read that.

Hobitten
 
Coincidence has it that I just finished this book today, and I absolutely loved it. It was sheer magnificence. As Hobitten said, at first the long paragraphs, and the lack of punctuation can be a bit intimidating, but once you get through that, hold on to your hats! You're in for a stormy ride.

Totally awesome. I'll be sure to write a review on it, for this site, soon.

As for other books by him: at the end of 'Blindness' were some ads for some other novels by him and the title 'Tale of the Unknown Island' sounds like it could be very interesting, but I haven't a clue as to what it's about. It's just the title that caught my eye.

Cheers, Martin :D
 
Got the blurb for 'The Tale of the Unknown Island' here, by the way:

"A man went to knock at the king's door and said to him, Give me a boat. The king's house had many other doors, but this was the door for petitions. Since the king spent all his time sitting by the door for favors (favors being done to the king, you understand), whenever he heard someone knocking on the door for petitions, he would pretend not to hear . . ." Why the petitioner required a boat, where he was bound for, and who volunteered to crew for him the reader will discover as this short narrative unfolds. And at the end it will be clear that if we thought we were reading a children's fable we were wrong-we have been reading a love story and a philosophical tale worthy of Voltaire or Swift."
Still sounds rather interesting, doesn't it?

Cheers, Martin :D
 
Interesting, so many have recommended this book but this is the only discussion thread I found for it. I'm over halfway thru right now and am enthralled. He reveals his characters' flaws without condemning them for it.
 
What a coincidence! I just happen to be reading it now too. :D

I'm 40 pages from the end, and like it very much. I do wish he had gone into more background detail on the villain characters though.


RaVeN
 
I really want to get around to reading this one. This one and about 2 billion other ones. Can I have more than one life please? There just isn't enough time :mad:
 
Jillean said:
I am curious to hear other peoples views on this book. I found this story of "the white blindness" enthralling. People were stripped down to there most basic human instincts, equalized by this unknown plague. I enjoyed the feeling of blindness the author gave to the reader by keeping the characters nameless, sometimes you were unsure of who was speaking. This book is high on my list of all time favorites.
Also I have not read anything else by this author and would like to hear any reccomendations.:D

Because I raved so much about this author and 'Blindness', I was given two of his other books 'The Double' and 'The Cave' at Christmas :) Still not read them yet! as trying to wade though my to read list...
But Blindness was FANTASTIC!
 
I'll post the review I wrote right after I read it:

***

With Blindness, the amazing Portuguese writer Jose Saramago, a former winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, has created a compelling tale, translated by Giovanni Pontiero who, sadly, passed away as he was correcting the proofs. Saramago's stories do not tend to be dark, but this one - despite the frightening whiteness around which this novel is built up - is by far the most nightmarish.


The premise is unbelievably simple, and therefore all the more scary - what would happen if an epidemic of blindness broke out? And that's exactly what happens in this brilliant novel. To avert the escalation of this strange phenomenon, the handful of people who have contracted this socalled white sickness are rounded up and quarantined in an empty mental hospital. There are two wings, separated by a kind of no-man's land, each wing with a courtyard and three wards. There's a core group of characters, and the book never lets them out of sight (pun, I must admit, intended). These "seven pilgrims" consist of the first blind man, his wife, the doctor who examined the first blind man, the doctor's wife, and three of the doctor's patients. The extraordinary thing is, this (descriptions as above) is all the reader will know them by - no name is ever mentioned.


Blindness is stitched together with long sentences - the dialogues often separated only by commas, so that even the most attentive reader may stumble and have some doubt as to who is speaking. At first this may seem troublesome and irritating, but, in a book about the loss of sight or perspective, the stylistic devices Saramago uses only enhance your experience of the predicament the characters are in - a brilliant find.


All in all, this is a compelling read - the quality literally drips from the pages, and you will not be able to put this down until you know what will happen to these people, people you don't even know the names of.


Buy this, read this, now.

***

Cheers
 
I recently bought Saramago's The Double, which I'm yet to read.

Let me know what you think of the ones you got.

Cheers
 
i have read "the gospel according to jesus christ" which its really god and "ensayo sobre la lucidez" (i dont think its yet on english, its a sequel to blindness) but i really dont recomend this one, its not that bad but quite disapointing in the awe of blindness
 
Was quite impressed, it's difficult to create a modern allegory that has relevance and meaning. The nameless characters in a nameless city are haunting despite being undefined, as each is the stand in for a human response. We as readers slip in and out of their heads easily, which is one advantage of the strange style.

It takes an unflinching look at both the best and worst of human nature.

I wish I could read it in the original language. I'm sure I'm missing something by reading it in translation, despite the fact that the language is beautiful without being overly poetic.
 
Martin said:
I recently bought Saramago's The Double, which I'm yet to read.

Let me know what you think of the ones you got.

Cheers

If I read mine before you will do...failing that then please Let me know what you think of 'The Double'
:)
 
Probably one of the most gut-wrenching books I've read in awhile. I liked the way Saramago stripped away the veneer of social niceties to expose the basest of human nature. Yet he also managed to show there is a higher, nobler side (most evidenced in the sighted, doctor's wife) that always tries to break through even in the most dire of circumstances.

As Martin mentioned, I found the lack of punctuation, sentence and paragraph structure, jarring at first, but got used to it faster than I'd have thought. It really added to the effect of disorientation that must have been felt by the blind.

It's one of those books that had me wondering what I would have done, how I would have reacted in the same situation.
 
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