The Cave
by Jose Saramago, Margaret Costa
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jose Saramago, Margaret CostaEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-10-15
ISBN: 0156028794
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Mariner Books
Book Reviews of The Cave
Book Review: Somewhat Unsatisfying
Summary: 2 Stars
As I have mentioned in my review of "The Double", Saramago is, to his credit as well as, in this particular case, his great detriment, not much for subtlety. Saramago is, in this respect, a veritable throwback, one who retains a dogged faith in literature's capacity to ennoble and edify. As such, his tales are studded with tangential aphorisms and moral propositions, all of which are expressed in his characteristically strident, eloquent style. One senses, throughout all of his fiction, a certain sagacity, and I mean this in the most literal sense possible- it is the literary voice of a wizened, temperate elder who has withstood and survived the tragedies of existence. This, perhaps, is what gives his prose its unmistakable cadence- at its purest Saramago's texts resemble epic songs, spoken parables that have as much melody as they do pedagogic value.
There are times, however, when the garrulous ramblings of this octagenarian oracle begin to have a soporific effect on the senses- "The Cave", for all of its fine intentions, feels both contrived and insubstantial. Beyond this, there is a certain lethargy to the prose that is entirely absent from his best work- lots of inconsequential asides (half-baked, flimsy excurses on language that have been better articulated in "The Double", "Seeing" etcetera) and tiresome details (I would venture to say that you will learn a good deal about pottery from this text) slow this book down to a plodding, somnambulistic pace. Compounding matters is the lachrymose sentimentality of it all- tears flood virtually every page of the novel, and while Saramago gives his protagonists license to bawl with abandon, seldom is the reader compelled to do the same.
All of this, of course, would be no cause for complaint had the central conceit of the novel been more intelligent. Beyond the fact that the novel feels a bit like a hackneyed take on the "country family" tune (think Steinbeck, Eliot's "Adam Bede", Hamsun's "Growth Of The Soil", Laxness' "Independent People"), the notion of the hegemonic state-cum-supermarket has been better handled by Ballard and Le Clezio. Saramago's parting shot- the comparison of life under the yoke of free-market capitalism to Plato's Cave, is so feeble that one wonders why Saramago had even bothered to weigh in for the joust. Yes, we are all bedazzled and benumbed by the pyrotechnics of mass marketing, yes, this kaleidoscope of simulacra has blurred the demarcations between fantasy and reality, magic realism has told us as much a million times over, but what solution does Saramago have to offer here?
Putting aside the fact that his 'concrete analysis of the concrete situation' (Saramago quotes Lenin himself early on in the novel) is disappointingly vacuous, Cipriano's remedy is equally useless- move away, flee, deterritorialize. The family evacuates to the outer frontiers, far away from the despotic reach of the Centre. Surely Saramago cannot renege on his original premise- that the Centre has colonized everything, that every corpuscule is subject to its command. There is nowhere left to go, and instead of inciting the Algors to conduct some sort of meaningful resistance, however miniscule, Saramago has them run headfirst into an uncertain future. I'm not sure it all holds together, and I have come away from this novel with the impression that, for once, this enormously gifted intellect has overreached himself by joining the anti-globalization fray. This comes as a great surprise, as "Seeing" demonstrates just how keen Saramago's eye can be when it tries to discern the nebulous contours of politics and ideology. It is hard to believe that this threadbare, weak-kneed tract was written by the same man who penned "Seeing", which I regard as a crucial salvo against liberal democracy, as well as essential reading for all leftist aspirants, alongside the contemporary philosophy of Badiou, Agamben, Nancy, Zizek, Hardt & Negri ("Seeing" being, effectively, the literary counterpart of H&N's concept of the 'multitude').
It breaks my heart to say this, for I am a great fan and forsworn disciple of this Portuguese master. To my mind, one would do better reading Zizek's brilliant analyses of the conjunction between psychoanalytic dream theory and capitalist ideology.
Summary of The Cave
Cipriano Algor, an elderly potter, lives with his daughter Marta and her husband Marçal in a small village on the outskirts of The Center, an imposing complex of shops, apartments, and offices to which Cipriano delivers his pots and jugs every month. On one such trip, he is told not to make any more deliveries. Unwilling to give up his craft, Cipriano tries his hand at making ceramic dolls. Astonishingly, The Center places an order for hundreds, and Cipriano and Marta set to work-until the order is cancelled and the three have to move from the village into The Center. When mysterious sounds of digging emerge from beneath their apartment, Cipriano and Marçal investigate, and what they find transforms the family's life. Filled with the depth, humor, and the extraordinary philosophical richness that marks each of Saramago's novels, The Cave is one of the essential books of our time.
José Saramago is a master at pacing. Readers unfamiliar with the work of this Portuguese Nobel Prize winner would do well to begin with The Cave, a novel of ideas, shaded with suspense. Spare and pensive, The Cave follows the fortunes of an aging potter, Cipriano Algor, beginning with his weekly delivery of plates to the Center, a high-walled, windowless shopping complex, residential community, and nerve center that dominates the region. What sells at the Center will sell everywhere else, and what the Center rejects can barely be given away in the surrounding towns and villages. The news for Cipriano that morning isn't good. Half of his regular pottery shipment is rejected, and he is told that the consumers now prefer plastic tableware. Over the next week, he and his grown daughter Marta grieve for their lost craft, but they gradually open their eyes to the strange bounty of their new condition: a stray dog adopts them, and a lovely widow enters Cipriano's life. When they are invited to live at the Center, it seems ungracious to refuse, but there are strange developments under the complex and a troubling increase in security, and Cipriano changes all their fates by deciding to investigate. In Saramago's able hands, what might have become a dry social allegory is a delicately elaborated story of individualism and unexpected love. --Regina Marler
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