Blindness (Harvest Book)
by Jose Saramago
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Book Reviews of Blindness (Harvest Book)
Book Review: Compelling and pricking, push to the edge of human tolerance
Summary: 5 Stars
Blindness is José Saramago's compelling novel of humanity under siege. White blindness created mayhem that relentlessly befalls the entire city and its inhabitants within just a matter of hours. In a bustling intersection, a man sitting in his car waiting for the lights suddenly turns blind-a sea of impermeable and luminous milkiness instead of the plunging darkness one usually expects. A "Good Samaritan" pedestrian offers to park his car for him (and steals it later) and takes him home. The thief then receives his comeuppance and is struck blind. The wife of the first blind man takes him to the ophthalmologist on a cab. Within a day, the cab driver, the ophthalmologist, the patients at the eye clinic and those whom the first blind man comes in contact with turn blind.The government responds to this unprecedented outbreak by sending the blind to a desolated mental asylum for quarantine. Under stern surveillance of soldiers, the internees have to abide by the regulations that push them to the edge of humanity-bury the dead among them, maintain strict isolation from the soldiers who bring in food thrice a say, remain indoor as any attempt to escape or any sign of a seditious movement will result in death. The ophthalmologist's wife seems to be the only one who has not succumbed to blindness. She becomes the eye of those who lost their eyesight. She becomes the one in whom the inmates find solace, comfort and encouragement that spur them on to living in the midst of great distress, pain, and anguish.
The book gets very difficult emotionally (in fact disturbing) as the mental asylum gets overcrowded and soldiers, who are seized by this formidable terror, overreacted and started opening fire at the inmates. While the army regrets having been forced to repress with weapons, the soldiers know that the commander seek to resolve the outbreak by physically wiping out the lot of the inmates. And the army has the effrontery to proclaim firing as an act for which the army is neither directly nor indirectly to blame. As food rations come sporadically and becomes meager, a group of blind hoodlums rob their fellow inmates of valuables in exchange for food.
At one point I am retching and completely grossed out. The quarantine system irreversibly deteriorates and collapses with it the hygiene and medications needed to treat diseases (as some inmates are stricken by influenza). Toilets clog and back-flush. Excrements pile and lay strewn on hallways. Smelling the fetid smell that comes from the lavatories in gusts makes the doctor's wife want to throw up. Her courage, which before has been so resolute, begins to crumble.
The novel cunningly and candidly exposes how frail human society can be. The entire banking system collapses, the traffic thwarted, the streets are strewn with corpses, the dogs tear off flesh from corpses... I put down the book and ask myself: how could human dignity be debased as such? Isn't it true that dignity has no price and life loses all meaning when one starts to make small concessions? Yet it sheds a ray of hope that one person's perseverance can make a difference.
Readers will find nameless characters in this novel (the first blind man, the first blind man's wife, the doctor, the doctor's wife, the thief, the girl with dark glasses, the boy with a squint, the old man with a black eye patch). The notion of name is not important in the book as the characters succumb to their blindness. All that remains are the voices and the memories of the past with which each person makes of his identity. I have to say that even they are nameless, they are not compromised in their depiction but are very etched and real characters. I think blindness forces the characters to come in grip with their fear, weakness, shame and demons that enslave them before they are stripped of eyesight.
Those who are not familiar with José Saramago's style might wish to practice a little patience with his embedded paragraphs and dialogues that are stripped of any punctuation marks. The prose can go on for pages without a break. In spite of the somehow difficult format, it constructs a sense of panic and tension as one read. It is for the very reason that this book is neither a quick read nor a page-turner. On a surface level, Blindness is a compelling tale of an unprecedented outbreak. In the core of the book stores a candid, relentless, but transcendental quintessence of humanity. 5.0 stars.
Book Review: "If you can look, observe"
Summary: 5 Stars
No matter what else it may be, José Saramago's story about a plague of blindness is compelling and difficult to put aside, even after finishing. Although the framework of the story is somewhat fantastic, the author's rigid attention to detail and insightful depictions of human behavior make it easy to suspend belief; and I thought his ability to create highly individual characters from generic faces in the crowd so potent that I became involved in the story to a degree I haven't encountered since reading 'Blood Meridian' a few years ago. Like the author of that work, Mr. Saramago also has a distinctive style of writing, one that, while not as difficult as McCarthy's, will still alienate some readers and effectually cut them off from getting swept up in the narrative. I think it has much to do with differing temperaments, although those initially put off by Mr. Saramago's structure may benefit from keeping at it, as I did, because even as I came across sections I thought were unnecessarily convoluted, the overall thrust of the storyline dominated.
What's especially intriguing about that storyline is that it is a genre-inflected adventure, equal parts apocalyptic and speculative fiction, while at the same time rich in allegorical possibilities. For no known reason, a wave of absolute blindness has affected the citizens of an unnamed city, spreading like a disease. The first groups afflicted are herded into quarantine: Along with her doctor husband, one woman voluntarily accepts the conditions under which the blind are forced in order to assist her husband. Fearing the blind mob's potential demands, she does not reveal that she still has her eyesight. So it is mostly through her point of view that we see how conditions within the quarantined building rapidly deteriorate, both socially and in regards to hygiene, while at the same time the soldiers posted outside the building to enforce the confinement refuse to involve themselves in the inmates problems for fear of 'catching' blindness.
As I said, this story is rich in allegory - I think one has only to scratch the surface of 'Blindness' before coming up with the idea of just how fragile civilization can be; that its currency is dependent on conventions that nearly everyone takes for granted. In this way, the set circumstances in Mr. Saramago's tale are reminiscent of a 'Lord of the Flies' for adults. Here is where the author's skill at
detail really shines - there is nothing that happens in the hell of the quarantine that seems artificial or contrived. Factions within the community rise up, stronger groups dominate the weak, and in reaction to this new life, nearly every character is forced to see unflattering aspects of themselves to which they had previously been blind. Here then is also irony.
If one were only to take away the well-spun tale, the irony, and the fragility of culture, then 'Blindness' would be an unqualified success. I think there are deeper currents as well, such as the idea of physical blindness as a representation of a societal one, with the concomitant ideas raised in my mind of how a country or culture acts when it suffers from an unwillingness to accurately assess dangers that exist right before their eyes. Doubtless there are others things to take away from the work - most likely that will depend on what the reader is prepared to receive. Without stretching things too far, I think it could be distinctly considered a political work, a sort of warning - although it may be like preaching to the choir.
Mr. Saramago's sentence structure can be more than a bit elliptical, and another trait he shares with Cormac McCarthy is an unwillingness to use conventional punctuation. These idiosyncrasies do not seem overwhelming to me, but best that one should bring their previous experience with this kind of writing to bear in deciding whether or not Mr. Saramago is for you. This is the first novel of his that I've tried, and based on that, I'll be looking for more of his work soon. While 'Blindness' alone won't displace any of the classics, it is definitely one of the better books I've read from the last 25 years or so - both entertaining and thought provoking, and there is no doubt that Mr. Saramago is an important author. Highly recommended.
Book Review: Blindness
Summary: 4 Stars
BLINDNESS Blindness, an admired novel written by Jose Saramago, has been the landmark of Saramago's writing career. The novel is based on a society that is suddenly stricken by "white blindness" that seems to infect people simply by being in visual contact with one of the contaminated. The epidemic begins with a man driving his car when suddenly begins to shout out, "I'm blind." This horror, spreading quickly, causes the government to resort to decisive action and send all of the blind to an insane asylum where they are to be isolated from society until a cure is found. This book merely exemplifies the disorder of man with no authority. As the blind are left with no order and no leaders, it causes turmoil and complete disregard for law and order. Readers of all mature ages I believe would appreciate this book. It combines all the qualities of different styles of readers, such as action, interest, and intellect.
While reading this novel it is easy to come across the fact that Saramago is demonstrating. It applies the public's fear of blindness with the destruction of a society without order. Saramago uses his brilliant writing skills to depict human nature without order results in the barbaric state of rape and violence to others. Saramago delays you while reading to think, Will society ever recover from this epidemic? Or will people have to learn to live without the imperative effect of eyesight?
I came across this book, similar to most of the novels I have read, because it was my required reading book for school. Although being forced to read this book, I had also gotten word that it came to be quite and interesting novel. Therefore, I picked it up in August, and began to sit and read. Although the first fifty pages were slow moving, it immediately began to pick up and get interesting. It flowed nicely and ended just as I hoped. Overall I was pleased with the reading experience I received from Blindness.
A man in his car is suddenly struck by "white blindness." Citizens that hear the man's pleas come to help, not knowing that by being good Samaritans they would soon go blind. The blind man eventually goes to the eye doctor's office to see if there was any cure for his sudden blindness. The doctor tells him he will look into it and sends the blind man home with his wife. The next day everyone that came in visual contact with the blind man suddenly goes blind, including the doctor and all of his patients that were in the waiting room. This epidemic rapidly spreads and causes the government to send the contaminated and blind internees to an insane asylum where they are to be isolated until a cure may be found. While in this asylum many more join the first few blind until all the wards are completely filled. No mercy is shown to the blind and no order is upheld. This eventually leads to rape and murder. Eventually the blind internees burn down the asylum and escape only to realize that the whole country had gone blind. As said above, Will the country forever have to cope with blindness?
This novel, although not the best I have read was without a doubt, an interesting, well written book. Aside from the author delving into his own little world of description, which he did various times, the overall story that consisted was appealing and well written. It was not by all means the type of book that one cannot put down, but it still consisted of a strong plot, good characters, and a writing style that went well with the premise of the novel. My opinion may differ from others; although the idea I had assimilated from this novel was not that blind are mindless barbarians, but the idea that society left with no order causes destruction. I truly believe this and I compare the overall purpose of this novel to that of Lord of the Flies, a brilliant novel. In this case I believe the author demonstrated his point well and is well deserved of his wide audience and Nobel Prize for Literature. Overall, I recommend Blindness as a book to read in ones spare time, and it is almost assured that he or she that reads it will be satisfied.
Book Review: Didn't resonate with me for some reason.
Summary: 3 Stars
Blindness / 0-15-600775-4
I saw "Blindness" the movie before reading the book, and while I didn't care for the movie (for many of the same reasons I didn't care for the book), I have to at least give the movie credit for attempting to genuinely stick to the book as much as they did - a rarity these days, it would seem.
Let me start out by saying that I appreciate the point (or, rather, some of them - with a book this deep, I probably missed a point or two) that Saramago is making. And if I dinged the movie for credibility and realism, I can at least grant that back to the book on the grounds that its 'unrealism' (such as immediately tossing all the blind into an asylum to die, rather than attempting to study them, even from afar) seems to be almost a dreamy, magical un-realism - not unlike something Marquez or Gordimer would write. And I respect that, and enjoy that style of writing to a point.
There's a lot to appreciate here, in fact. Saramago has attempted to simulate the frustration and terrifying nature of being suddenly and helplessly struck blind with unorthodox writing choices - such as giving the characters no names, only descriptions that are meaningless to us because we cannot see them, and by failing to separate any of the dialogue out from the narrative - characters talk in run-on "conversations" with only commas separating the speakers. And while I appreciate this creative and clever attempt to confer onto the reader the same helplessness and frustration that the blind characters are experiencing, it is worth noting that this writing style will - at the end of the day - leave your reader feeling helpless and frustrated. And while this may be a minor point for some, I did find it irritating that I would often have to re-read large passages because I had lost track of who was saying what. I also do not much care for Saramago's propensity to interrupt the narrative with "Now, Dear Reader" didactic direct narrative, but that's a personal choice of mine.
Fundamentally, my problem with the novel is the same problem I ultimately had with the movie, which is thus: if the idea is to show the reader that, in the absence of societal controls and norms, we are all capable of murderous, rapacious, disloyal behavior (each according to various levels of opportunism, need, desire, and so on), then this point seemed to be somewhat undermined by the tight strictures that seem necessary in order to bring these events about. The 'bad' elements within the ward are given advantage after authorial advantage, while the 'good' elements are hampered with unrealistic constraints preventing them from fighting or fleeing their oppressors. On top of that, characters seem fundamentally passive because the story requires them to be - it seems unnatural to me that more of the 'good' blind people would not fight back, given their superior numbers, their repressed rage at the situation, and the fact that their chance of dying seems fairly low.
To my mind, this just isn't a Gordimer story ("Jump and Other Short Stories") where institutionalized racism leads inevitably to fenced communities and then to spikes on the gates and then to little boys tragically impaling themselves. Instead, the sequence of events in "Blindness" often feels forced and awkward - and as a general rule of mine if you have to bend or break rules of human nature in order to make a point about human nature, your point is somewhat undermined in the process.
I guess I should say that I appreciated this book from an artistic standpoint - the ideas are genuinely interesting, the result is truly frightening and alarming, the points are potentially valid. But the frustrating writing style and forced un-realism of the characters' actions and reactions undermined my enjoyment of the novel and I was grateful when it was finally time to set the book down and move on.
~ Ana Mardoll
Book Review: This Will Endure
Summary: 5 Stars
When it comes to giving a shock to the reader early on, no novelist can match the tactics of Jose Saramago. The Portuguese master has endless surprises up his sleeve: a whole peninsula gliding down the deep sea (THE STONE RAFT); a dead poet meting his living alter-ego in a hotel room (THE YEAR OF THE DEATH OF RICARDO REIS); or a strange machine flying high in the air, powered by `human will' (BALTASAR AND BLIMUNDA)! If these are not weird enough, Saramago has chosen to turn a whole nation blind in the novel BLINDNESS. Blindness is always a powerful literary metaphor, and in the hands of Saramago it dazzles, as he pries into its numerous connotations. In his Nobel Lecture the author proclaimed that he `wrote BLINDNESS to remind those who might read it, that we pervert reason when we humiliate life, that human dignity is insulted everyday by the powerful of the world, that the universal lie has replaced the plural truth, that man stopped respecting himself when he lost the respect due to his fellow-creatures.' The novel has a simple and realistic storyline. A man sitting in his car suddenly goes blind at a busy traffic inter-section. All who come in contact with the unfortunate man - the man who escorts him to his home, the eye doctor, and the patients who were with him at the clinic - lose their sights one by one. When the matter is reported to the authorities, all these blind people are huddled together and quarantined in a wretched building that was once a lunatic asylum. The eye doctor's wife, who is inexplicably spared her sight, also sneaks into the building pretending blindness. A life of untold misery is in store for them. Once the internees succeed in finding their way back to the outside world, they confront the same pandemonium and horror, as, by then, the whole nation had gone blind.
Despite its apparently simple and eventful exterior, the novel stirs up strong feelings and leaves a powerful impact in the reader's psyche. The reader can never escape from an ever-present sense of foreboding. As the story progresses, his worst fears come true, and he declares resignedly, `these are the workings of destiny, arcane mysteries' (p 117). The brutality of the armed soldiers guarding the inmates is more disturbing than the Orwellian images. The horror that surrounds the lives of the hapless inmates and the inhabitants of the doomed city, churns up the reader's innermost feelings violently. The vividness and the scale of squalor and waste inside the building and on the streets, conjure up visions of hell. The violent scenes inside the wards, created by the blind hoodlums, confound the reader's mind. This is murkier than the heart of darkness, despite one character's likening of his condition to `living inside a luminous halo' (p 90).
Can man's fall from grace be reversed? Saramago provides the answer in the character of the doctor's wife, the only person with her sight in tact. She is the beacon light in the middle of this melee, like a guardian angel she guides her charges through thick and thin. She epitomises human spirit, which emerges triumphant at the end. 'Here we are all guilty and innocent' (p 96) she declares and goes on to show that blindness is not just living `in a world where all hope is gone' (p 209).
The novel proves that appearances can be deceptive in the matters of human relationships, values, morality, and our social and political systems. Behind the veneer of civilisation lurks the animal instinct of man, always ready to pounce. In the struggle for survival, all the man-made systems go down like ninepins, leaving the individuals to fend for themselves.
BLINDNESS is a brilliant piece of work, born out of Saramago's profound compassion for fellow human-beings, his intimate knowledge of the social systems and a clear understanding of human values: all bye-products of a sagacity, which very few possess. The book will definitely endure.