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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Takes place in the same world as "blindness" with some overlapping characters, although no one apart from Constant the dog of tears is named and there's no capitalization or proper nouns. I think this all gives a sense of generalization which might be why it feels like a weird fable (I think Jesse ball uses this trick too). The symbolic elements of the plot like having everybody get struck blind, or having pretty much a whole city en masse reject their rulers, are so blunt and so allegorical seeming that it's funny how much of the book remains mysterious and cryptic. Fables are didactic and this is didactic in a subtler slower way I guess. Having the city get along well on its own strikes so many anarchist chords it was a bit of a surprise to do my post-read wikipedia cruise and learn saramago was a pretty unreformed commie.
This fable is I guess supposed to be transferable to anywhere at any time like most fables but I gather it's also supposed to be Portugal, some time where saramago still lived there. For as corny as it can sometimes be to have cold war style censorship be a big bad monster a character has to fight against, I didn't realize western European countries were still banning books with anti Catholic sentiments as late as the 90s, and while I'm sure saramago didn't love that I imagine it must have been satisfying for a writer like that to still be able to provoke such a reaction.
The style is unmistakable, long long long sentences, dialogue which isn't broken up into sentences where a new speaker is indicated by capitalization and a comma, characters are given these pseudo-eloquent banal speeches which serve to characterize them really effectively. In spite of the wandering discursive chunks of text, it's crystal clear and satisfying to read, a testament to saramagos ability as a writer and also I imagine the translator, Margaret Jull Costa. At the beginning of the book I thought I might be impressed by it but would never in a million years care about it and I'll just say the end made me pretty damn sad
This fable is I guess supposed to be transferable to anywhere at any time like most fables but I gather it's also supposed to be Portugal, some time where saramago still lived there. For as corny as it can sometimes be to have cold war style censorship be a big bad monster a character has to fight against, I didn't realize western European countries were still banning books with anti Catholic sentiments as late as the 90s, and while I'm sure saramago didn't love that I imagine it must have been satisfying for a writer like that to still be able to provoke such a reaction.
The style is unmistakable, long long long sentences, dialogue which isn't broken up into sentences where a new speaker is indicated by capitalization and a comma, characters are given these pseudo-eloquent banal speeches which serve to characterize them really effectively. In spite of the wandering discursive chunks of text, it's crystal clear and satisfying to read, a testament to saramagos ability as a writer and also I imagine the translator, Margaret Jull Costa. At the beginning of the book I thought I might be impressed by it but would never in a million years care about it and I'll just say the end made me pretty damn sad
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
De nuevo, sin palabras y con la certeza de que necesitaré días, sino meses, para poder llegar a comprender realmente lo expuesto en "Ensayo sobre la lucidez". He disfrutado muchísimo del estilo narrativo, aunque en un principio puede ser difícil de seguir, para mí es lo que le da el toque realmente diferente. También me ha encantado la introducción del autor implícito y las referencias a "Ensayo sobre la ceguera".
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
estou satisfeito, mas soube um pouco a pouco
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
se eu leio mais um livro mid EU É QUE VOU ANDAR AOS TIROS
conceito? genial. escrita saramagueira-filosofeira? no ponto. a narrativa em concreto? uma desgraça….. o que é que acontece quando mais de metade de uma população vota em branco? temos caos! queremos fazer um comentário político! mas, na minha humilde opinião, o meu amigo saramago perdeu-se completamente. os momentos mais altos foram o início e as ligações finais com o ensaio sobre a cegueira, tirando isso, foi praticamente encher chouriças, até chegarmos a um final super apressado, que apesar de fazer sentido com o resto, aparece muito a correr para fechar esta história que tinha tanto potencial.
continuo curiosa com os outros livros dele epa mas passava muito bem sem ter lido este.
conceito? genial. escrita saramagueira-filosofeira? no ponto. a narrativa em concreto? uma desgraça….. o que é que acontece quando mais de metade de uma população vota em branco? temos caos! queremos fazer um comentário político! mas, na minha humilde opinião, o meu amigo saramago perdeu-se completamente. os momentos mais altos foram o início e as ligações finais com o ensaio sobre a cegueira, tirando isso, foi praticamente encher chouriças, até chegarmos a um final super apressado, que apesar de fazer sentido com o resto, aparece muito a correr para fechar esta história que tinha tanto potencial.
continuo curiosa com os outros livros dele epa mas passava muito bem sem ter lido este.