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A review by blueyorkie
A Jangada de Pedra by José Saramago
4.0
The same year that Portugal and Spain joined the European Union, José Saramago imagined the physical and geographical detachment of the Iberian Peninsula from the old continent. It might sound like a pamphlet denouncing Europe's new stranglehold on the sovereignty and integrity of these two nations with flourishing histories. However, the story tends more towards farce, and this is not surprising when we learn about the taste of the Portuguese novelist's joke.
This fact describes the wanderings of five individuals and a dog on the peninsula adrift between Europe and the Americas. Nothing seems to link these characters except their sexual nature, male and female, and their vague common experience of singular telluric signs. They will try to agree on the few resources at their disposal. But they will also unite in a sort of immediate emergency.
We don't believe in this geological accident story, but that's not what matters. Saramago successfully transmits his love of words to us, and we feel his pleasure in telling us about a collective adventure that makes us grow through his deep respect for human nature.
This fact describes the wanderings of five individuals and a dog on the peninsula adrift between Europe and the Americas. Nothing seems to link these characters except their sexual nature, male and female, and their vague common experience of singular telluric signs. They will try to agree on the few resources at their disposal. But they will also unite in a sort of immediate emergency.
We don't believe in this geological accident story, but that's not what matters. Saramago successfully transmits his love of words to us, and we feel his pleasure in telling us about a collective adventure that makes us grow through his deep respect for human nature.