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A review by hadeanstars
Blindness by José Saramago
4.0
So, you know when you start watching a genuinely creepy horror film and you’re not half way through yet it’s starting to make you feel uncomfortable and weird and your first thought is to abandon the viewing altogether? Experience however counsels that you have to finish the film to get the catharsis, otherwise you won’t sleep well! That’s exactly what this excellent novel requires. I wasn’t half way through and I found myself reading a scenario of such unremitting disgust and horror that I really thought I couldn’t carry on with it, and I very nearly gave up. I’m so glad I persevered.
In this story there is an epidemic of blindness which has soon infected the entirety of society. It deals very well with the wider implications of such a pandemic, but more excruciatingly, it really places you in the box seat to witness the true horrors of such a devastating scenario.
I chose this to read because I keep finding it in lists of the greatest sci-fi novels ever written, but it is not really science fiction, except that it imagines a specific unlikely catastrophe, albeit there is no attempt to explain the science. Neither is it set in the future. There are no technological solutions. It is much better described as post apocalyptic fiction, and on that qualification alone does it stray into the general avenues of sci-fi.
It is well written and extremely compelling, and you want to know what becomes of the central characters, however, be warned: it contains some extremely unpleasant and harrowing scenes! 7/10
In this story there is an epidemic of blindness which has soon infected the entirety of society. It deals very well with the wider implications of such a pandemic, but more excruciatingly, it really places you in the box seat to witness the true horrors of such a devastating scenario.
I chose this to read because I keep finding it in lists of the greatest sci-fi novels ever written, but it is not really science fiction, except that it imagines a specific unlikely catastrophe, albeit there is no attempt to explain the science. Neither is it set in the future. There are no technological solutions. It is much better described as post apocalyptic fiction, and on that qualification alone does it stray into the general avenues of sci-fi.
It is well written and extremely compelling, and you want to know what becomes of the central characters, however, be warned: it contains some extremely unpleasant and harrowing scenes! 7/10