Reviews

All the Names by José Saramago

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jess_mango's review

5.0

Loved.This.Book.

I fell in love with Saramago's writing when I read "Blindness". So, when it was my turn to pick the monthly selection for one of my book clubs, I eagerly picked "All the Names". The book definitely led to some interesting discussion.

"All the Names" engaged me immediately. The bizarre story of a mna's obsession made me want to keep reading to find out where things were going. It really reminded me of one of my favorite movies, "Brazil". The writing style was pure Saramago, with dialogs without quotation marks and not attributed to characters. The writing style may take a little getting used to for Saramago-newbies, but this very writing style is what has made him one of my favorite authors.

maddie_reads_stuff's review

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4.0

An ordinary clerk at the Central Registry is consumed by the search for an ordinary woman whose card happens to cross his desk.

Surreal, thoughtful, light on the punctuation...

"Strictly speaking, we do not make decisions, decisions make us. The proof can be found in the fact that, though life leads us to carry out the most diverse actions one after the other, we do not prelude each out with a period of reflection, evaluation, and calculation, and only then declare ourselves able to decide if we will go out to lunch or buy a newspaper or look for the unknown woman."

"So you were mulling over the decision, Or it was mulling over me"

strategineer's review

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4.0

Another Jose Saramago banger. In All The Names, we follow the story of Senhor José as he works in, navigates through, and subverts, the bureaucracy of the Central Registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths.

Every paragraph screams Saramago, if you know you know, if you're into that, you're into that.