Blindness - Jose Saramago

I bought the copy with the movie tie-in cover. The book was recommended to me by a close personal friend, and was well worth the read.

ISBN: 9780156035583

format: Trade Paperback

pages: 352

publisher: Harcourt Trade Publishers

pub. date: 2008-08-15

started reading: 2008-12-21

finished reading: 2008-12-17

The first thing I noticed upon starting Blindness was that there is no significant amount of punctuation. No quotes, few paragraph breaks, and in general appears to be one long unbroken paragraph of text on the page. For someone who reads a lot, and as a result, relies heavily on the ability to skim read text and pick up the content, being faced with page after page of unbroken text provided a serious impediment to my reading of the book. The first day I picked it up in fact, I read only 4 or 5 pages before giving up in defeat and wondering if I really wanted to read this book or not. In the end, I thought to myself, Sure, why not? After all, it was recommended by someone whose opinion I trusted. Though I was left wondering afterward if this would prove to be a sign that our tastes in this regard were anything but similar. Even so, the next day provided me with a significant amount of downtime that I didn't want to spend in front of the computer so I went back to the book. I can say that Saramago's writing style is in fact something that you get used to after a while. By the end of the book I was confidently skimming through it as I normally would, having picked up on the fact that conversations often had a larger than proportionate number of capital letters.

But the book iteself? It is an interesting insight into the break down of society and how quickly we return to more primal natures... at least, that is what the general reviews online say. Personally, I found something lacking in his view of how things degenerate, though I have been unable to put my finger on it. Perhaps it is that some of the scenarios seem contrived. Perhaps it is how long it takes for the doctor's wife to suffer a break with her persona and how complete it is once she does. Perhaps it is the odd mix of an almost lightheated storytelling voice mixed with darker imagery and messaging. Regardless, there is something to the book that I found to be lacking. More positively perhaps was how the story speaks of the love that persists and develops under those circumstances. And overall, the characters are carefully developed and I think most people who read the book will find a mix of those that they can relate to, love and hate. Also, in one particularily good scene, the doctor's wife finally breaks down in tears as she has the opportunity to finally find release. This stuck me as one of the truest moments in the book as it speaks to how she had to take on a completely different persona during the crisis... and the inevitable balancing of the scales that happens when those images of yourself need to recombine. This is how people get through crisis. They adopt a different image of themselves. For her, it was murderer, nurse, caregiver and much more. She condoned and lived through things that the normal persona of her would never have allowed. Moreover, not only lived through it, but endorsed it, and felt it. It is a great story highlighting how the actions and thoughts that one takes can direct our emotions and physiology.

There are many parts of the book that I feel I still missed out on, and some which may come across better in the original portuguese. The dog of tears for one seems to play an important role with how much it is mentioned, however the underlying meaning is lost on me. The flow of words, and Saramago's trademark style are a shock to an English reader, but I am left wondering if it is an intentional method lending itself to the confusion and decent into a deteriorating enviroment portrayed in the novel (though I suspect not since he uses the same style in his other novels), or if the style is something which would be less of a shock to someone native to his country.

The book was turned into a movie, as I alluded to by buying the tie-in cover. I have not seen the movie, and after reading the book, somewhat doubt that I will. Not only do I generally find that movies are shallow and pale reflections of the books they are inspired by, but in this particular case I can't see the movie being watchable. It would either be too grossly violent, disgusting and pornographic in some scenes to something I would willing force myself to watch - or - it would be watered down for commercial audiences to the point that the scene would lose all meaning and the context would be lost. Either way, I feel that a mainstream movies would not be able to adequately represent what was in the book.

Though it will not make my top list, for that intangible reason that I can't quite put my finger on, it is a worthwhile read and if you can get a copy, I would recommend it.