I am blown away by how deeply and completely he explores the topic at hand. He takes his chosen topic and applies it to every aspect of society: from language and habits to government and other institutions, from interpersonal relationships to the practicalities of everyday life. Saramago has a way of making me consider things I’d never thought about before. Both novels feature worlds much like our own, then go on to examine how these sweeping events impact that society. In Blindness, a mysterious blindness spreads through the population. In Death with Interruptions, death stopped happening.
I don’t know if all his books are this way, but the two I’ve read share several things in common: unnamed characters, a lack of traditional formatting (no quotes, for instance, just commas between different speakers’ words), and - my favorite - a premise that takes our own reality and adds one big twist. I struggled with Saramago’s writing style during my first of his novels, but Blindness was much easier to follow. I don’t have much to say about Blindness that hasn’t already been said somewhere, but I couldn’t let this one go without mentioning a few thoughts on it and on Saramago in general.īlindness is my second book by José Saramago my first was Death with Interruptions, which I read last year and adored. Half the fun of reading a book like Blindness is watching the story unfurl before you as you read! My Thoughts: How can it be contained? How can it be cured? What should be done with the afflicted? And how can humanity live in a world it cannot see? Faster than it can be combated, the white blindness spreads. In an unnamed country, an epidemic begins: As he waits at a stoplight, a man is struck blind. Blindness by José Saramago was a pick for my IRL book group a few months back.
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