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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
funny
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Защо, защо трябваше да свърши така? Вместо да ми даде отговори, сякаш ми постави още повече въпроси. Означава ли това, че честният, добрият човек, тръгнал на кръстоносен поход за защита на правата си всъщност няма права и избор? Означава ли това, че ако си различен не по своя собствена вина (а дори и по собствена да е) ти си моментално отритнат и заклеймен като виновен? И нима това наистина не е най-достоверната картинка на реалността, която сте чели? Тъжното е, че е вярно...
"Tanımadığınız birine ağlamaktan daha saygın bir şey olamaz."
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
It is the wet dream of every anarchist: a society without government, without coercion and repression, where everything runs by itself, where everyone knows his place and does his duty. In this book Saramago outlines such a situation in an unnamed capital. The city is completely abandoned by the government, in a panic reaction because in two successive elections the citizens had voted blank. The focus is not so much on the anarchist virtues, but on the cramped and especially cynical way in which the politicians and government leaders respond to this tacit popular uprising.
Saramago here unleashes his most fierce sarcastic talents, resulting in hilarious conversations between ministers of government, in which the world is turned upside down, showing how gruesome the exercise of power can be. Simply delicious! This part deserves at least 3 stars in my (harsh) rating system.
But after about 200 pages the author suddenly changes tack and turns the story into a sequel to his masterly novel [b:Blindness|40495148|Blindness|José Saramago|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1528481068l/40495148._SY75_.jpg|3213039]. Out of the blue a number of characters from that novel emerge again. It is not entirely clear to me what the point of this is, and what it adds to the story. In addition, Saramago gets lost in side intrigues about a at first stern, but then very conscentious police officer. No, this "Seeing" – apart from the absurd sarcasm in the first half of the novel – does not reach the level of the fabulous "Blindness". (rating 2.5 stars)
Saramago here unleashes his most fierce sarcastic talents, resulting in hilarious conversations between ministers of government, in which the world is turned upside down, showing how gruesome the exercise of power can be. Simply delicious! This part deserves at least 3 stars in my (harsh) rating system.
But after about 200 pages the author suddenly changes tack and turns the story into a sequel to his masterly novel [b:Blindness|40495148|Blindness|José Saramago|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1528481068l/40495148._SY75_.jpg|3213039]. Out of the blue a number of characters from that novel emerge again. It is not entirely clear to me what the point of this is, and what it adds to the story. In addition, Saramago gets lost in side intrigues about a at first stern, but then very conscentious police officer. No, this "Seeing" – apart from the absurd sarcasm in the first half of the novel – does not reach the level of the fabulous "Blindness". (rating 2.5 stars)
Two things first:
1) I was surprised to find a review of this book by Ursula LeGuin in the Guardian.
2) The novel has the best epigram:
Let's howl, said the dog
---- The Book of Voices
Writer of allegory, but super realist in regards to human nature. "...not only does the universe have its own laws, all of them indifferent to the contradictory dreams and desires of humanity, and in the formulation of which we contribute not one iota, apart, that is, from the words by which we clumsily name them..."
threat to the stability of the system; a brutal blow against the democratic normality.
what can't be cured must be endured
Like Thomas Bernhard and Roberto Bolano, Jose Saramago is one of the most distinguished distinguishable writer, mainly due to his distinctive use of syntax in narrative. When I was in my 20s, I read several novels of his, much to my liking, and his novel "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ," still lingers in my soul, the book more than any others that confirmed and supported my view on religion.
As can be seen from a similar cover, "Seeing" is a companion piece to "Blindness," his most well-known work. I read this in 2020, during the pandemic and racial turmoil due to police violence in the U.S.A. It was fortunately for me to have found this book at this very moment.
The author never reveals what caused this plague of blank ballot.
Scapegoat...
...that the proof will appear when it's needed...
...the voters, who are the supreme defenders of democracy. P. 6
...what is happening here could cross the border and spread like a modern-day black death... P. 51
...the simple right not to follow any consensually established opinion. P. 61
... the immediate removal of the government to another city, which will become the country's new capital, the withdrawal of all the armed forces still in place, and the withdrawal of all police forces, this radical action will mean that the rebel city will be left entirely to its own devices...
The most common occurrence in this world of ours, in these days of stumbling blindly forward, is to come across men and women mature in years and ripe in prosperity, who, at eighteen, were not just beaming beacons of style, but also, and perhaps above all, bold revolutionaries determined to bring down the system supported by their parents and to replace it, at last, with a fraternal paradise, but who are now equally firmly attached to convictions and practices which, having warmed up and flexed their muscles on any of the many available versions of moderate conservatism, become, in time, pure egotism of the most obscene and reactionary kind. P.99
It seemed that the police were, after all, not essential for the city's security, that the population itself, spontaneously and in a more or less organized manner, had taken over their work as vigilantes. P. 102
"Bring me results and I won't ask by what means you obtained them."
...That there are cases when the sentence has been handed down before the crime has even been committed... P. 229
...If there's no guilty party, we can't invent one... <-- Police superintendent.
...But it's not only when we have no eyes that we don't know where we're going...
...As I've learned in this job, not only are the people in government never put off by what we judge to be absurd, they make use of absurdities to dull consciences and to destroy reason... P. 268
...how often fears come to sour our life and prove, in the end, to have no foundation, no reason to exist. P. 300
...no doubt, of a professional criminal of the worst kind
...I can understand that necessity knows no law, that the ends justify the means.
Ending is too much.
1) I was surprised to find a review of this book by Ursula LeGuin in the Guardian.
2) The novel has the best epigram:
Let's howl, said the dog
---- The Book of Voices
Writer of allegory, but super realist in regards to human nature. "...not only does the universe have its own laws, all of them indifferent to the contradictory dreams and desires of humanity, and in the formulation of which we contribute not one iota, apart, that is, from the words by which we clumsily name them..."
threat to the stability of the system; a brutal blow against the democratic normality.
what can't be cured must be endured
Like Thomas Bernhard and Roberto Bolano, Jose Saramago is one of the most distinguished distinguishable writer, mainly due to his distinctive use of syntax in narrative. When I was in my 20s, I read several novels of his, much to my liking, and his novel "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ," still lingers in my soul, the book more than any others that confirmed and supported my view on religion.
As can be seen from a similar cover, "Seeing" is a companion piece to "Blindness," his most well-known work. I read this in 2020, during the pandemic and racial turmoil due to police violence in the U.S.A. It was fortunately for me to have found this book at this very moment.
The author never reveals what caused this plague of blank ballot.
Scapegoat...
...that the proof will appear when it's needed...
...the voters, who are the supreme defenders of democracy. P. 6
...what is happening here could cross the border and spread like a modern-day black death... P. 51
...the simple right not to follow any consensually established opinion. P. 61
... the immediate removal of the government to another city, which will become the country's new capital, the withdrawal of all the armed forces still in place, and the withdrawal of all police forces, this radical action will mean that the rebel city will be left entirely to its own devices...
The most common occurrence in this world of ours, in these days of stumbling blindly forward, is to come across men and women mature in years and ripe in prosperity, who, at eighteen, were not just beaming beacons of style, but also, and perhaps above all, bold revolutionaries determined to bring down the system supported by their parents and to replace it, at last, with a fraternal paradise, but who are now equally firmly attached to convictions and practices which, having warmed up and flexed their muscles on any of the many available versions of moderate conservatism, become, in time, pure egotism of the most obscene and reactionary kind. P.99
It seemed that the police were, after all, not essential for the city's security, that the population itself, spontaneously and in a more or less organized manner, had taken over their work as vigilantes. P. 102
"Bring me results and I won't ask by what means you obtained them."
...That there are cases when the sentence has been handed down before the crime has even been committed... P. 229
...If there's no guilty party, we can't invent one... <-- Police superintendent.
...But it's not only when we have no eyes that we don't know where we're going...
...As I've learned in this job, not only are the people in government never put off by what we judge to be absurd, they make use of absurdities to dull consciences and to destroy reason... P. 268
...how often fears come to sour our life and prove, in the end, to have no foundation, no reason to exist. P. 300
...no doubt, of a professional criminal of the worst kind
...I can understand that necessity knows no law, that the ends justify the means.
Ending is too much.
خیلی یاد ایران و کثافت بودن سیاست و ژورنالیست های نظام افتادم، خفه کردن صدای مردم و صدای هرکسی که متفاوته . سبک نوشتن سارامانگو برام عجیب و خیلی جالبه بود.