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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
I’m so sad I waisted money on this awful book. Saramago is an asshole.
I'm not sure how to describe this book. In some ways, it reminded me of Lord of the Flies with adults. It was the strangest dystopian novel without a world war or political collapse to cause the dystopia. The writing was brilliant and beautiful in describing the horror and terror of this world. About halfway through I discovered there is a movie treatment of this book from about 15 years ago, but I'm not sure I want to see it. Somehow not SEEING this book makes it more real. I am going to be thinking about this book for a long time.
This really was a challenging read! I have to say that it took me a while to read, because I tend to read late at night when I'm tired and need to relax, and there was nothing relaxing about this!
The style first: all those looong paragraphs and punctuation consisting solely of commas and very occasional full stops, with no quotation marks around speech, made it tiring to read. I thought it was a device to mimic the confusion of being blind and not being able to tell who was speaking. In which case it was effective. But apparently he does it in his other books as well. This would really put me off reading them. It was a huge relief to pick up the new Kate Atkinson and go back to proper sentences, paragraphs, and clear indications of who's saying what to whom!
Then the subject matter. It's truly, unremittingly gloomy -- Saramago doesn't spare you any detail of the breakdown of society after everyone goes blind. It's graphic and depressing. He clearly takes the Hobbesian view that life without government would be "nasty, brutish, and short". But it is very thought-provoking too. You can argue with him about whether the consequences of such a catastrophe would be as he describes, and you can wonder how you would behave in such circumstances. When no-one can see what you are doing, only your conscience dictates whether you act honestly or treat others fairly. As the only sighted person, the doctor's wife has a particular burden to bear -- the only one in a position to do many things, easily able to take advantage of others if she wants, but needing to protect herself as well. (Incidentally, I felt the only reason there was one sighted person was because the novel would have been very difficult to write otherwise!)
I thought the ending was a bit weak; it surprised me that it would be so "happy". And I wondered how society could be reconstructed after such a catastrophic breakdown. Apparently there's a sequel, but I'm not sure I can face reading it!
The style first: all those looong paragraphs and punctuation consisting solely of commas and very occasional full stops, with no quotation marks around speech, made it tiring to read. I thought it was a device to mimic the confusion of being blind and not being able to tell who was speaking. In which case it was effective. But apparently he does it in his other books as well. This would really put me off reading them. It was a huge relief to pick up the new Kate Atkinson and go back to proper sentences, paragraphs, and clear indications of who's saying what to whom!
Then the subject matter. It's truly, unremittingly gloomy -- Saramago doesn't spare you any detail of the breakdown of society after everyone goes blind. It's graphic and depressing. He clearly takes the Hobbesian view that life without government would be "nasty, brutish, and short". But it is very thought-provoking too. You can argue with him about whether the consequences of such a catastrophe would be as he describes, and you can wonder how you would behave in such circumstances. When no-one can see what you are doing, only your conscience dictates whether you act honestly or treat others fairly. As the only sighted person, the doctor's wife has a particular burden to bear -- the only one in a position to do many things, easily able to take advantage of others if she wants, but needing to protect herself as well. (Incidentally, I felt the only reason there was one sighted person was because the novel would have been very difficult to write otherwise!)
I thought the ending was a bit weak; it surprised me that it would be so "happy". And I wondered how society could be reconstructed after such a catastrophic breakdown. Apparently there's a sequel, but I'm not sure I can face reading it!
Mungkin dampak dari terjemahannya yang bikin saya tidak bisa memberi lebih dari 3 bintang buat buku ini.
Bleak. No one has names. Similar to The Road. I was always compelled to keep reading, also like the Road.
Also confusing at times. Maybe it was the translation?
Also confusing at times. Maybe it was the translation?
I have to admit - it took me quite a while to decide how I felt about this book. But in the end, once I got used to the writing style and philosophical rants, and once I was willing to let what I was reading simmer in my brain, I really appreciated the way it made me think. It is definitely more than just a story, and you'll only get out of it what you invest into reading it. (It could be read either as a sort of pompously told, horrifying apocalyptic tale, or a clever allegory about the dangers of cultural blindness.)
A difficult read, but well worth the effort. At times, I felt myself becoming emotionally and physically sick.
An interesting picture of human group behaviour and state of anarchy as the pilars of society crumble. The writing was good and the scenes were chosen well to describe the points Saramago wanted to make about human nature. Some of the scenes though were a little too lengthy and detailed and that's why the text felt a bit tedious for me in few places. Also, I never really understood why the blind would not use their names.. Why would blindness make names irrelevant?
3,5 stars.
3,5 stars.
The only reason I took off a star is because I'm probably too spazzy to really understand significant portions of the book, but overall, it destroyed me. In a good way.
I'll re-read it in a year and probably end up giving it the full 5.
I'll re-read it in a year and probably end up giving it the full 5.