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A review by lizziekam
Blindness by José Saramago
3.0
If you look in the comments on this book, my friend Erin warns me about this book, and I am here to say, Erin, you were right.
One of my worst ideas to date was to read a book about a blindness plague during the coronavirus epidemic. I recently listened to the NYT Book Review podcast where the reviewers commented that they no longer wanted to consider books through the lens of the current pandemic shit show and, well, kudos to them but this book had it moments that hit waaaaaaaay to hard and honestly, how can one not consider a plague book while you are living through a literal plague?
So, this is a good book. So good in fact that despite how deeply upsetting it was, I finished it.
But.
I cannot recommend that anyone read this book at the moment. Trust me, it’s a bad idea.
In 20 years, this book will have readers who did not live through the coronavirus pandemic, and they can ask us which parts felt real and true (I’ll tell you - the parts when the government’s ineffective containment plans spectacularly failed, the parts where people were separated from their families to never see them again, the parts where the characters try to grapple with their reduced circumstances and try to find meaning in their relationships) and the parts that felt not true (um....the end).
But in the meantime, honestly, you don’t need to read this book. If you’ve ever had the thought, “what’s the worst that could happen,” this book answers it and the answers are terrible. The fact that our civil society hasn’t completely broken out into violent and exploitative chaos, that filth and starvation aren’t rampant doesn’t make me feel better about our present circumstances.
One of my worst ideas to date was to read a book about a blindness plague during the coronavirus epidemic. I recently listened to the NYT Book Review podcast where the reviewers commented that they no longer wanted to consider books through the lens of the current pandemic shit show and, well, kudos to them but this book had it moments that hit waaaaaaaay to hard and honestly, how can one not consider a plague book while you are living through a literal plague?
So, this is a good book. So good in fact that despite how deeply upsetting it was, I finished it.
But.
I cannot recommend that anyone read this book at the moment. Trust me, it’s a bad idea.
In 20 years, this book will have readers who did not live through the coronavirus pandemic, and they can ask us which parts felt real and true (I’ll tell you - the parts when the government’s ineffective containment plans spectacularly failed, the parts where people were separated from their families to never see them again, the parts where the characters try to grapple with their reduced circumstances and try to find meaning in their relationships) and the parts that felt not true (um....the end).
But in the meantime, honestly, you don’t need to read this book. If you’ve ever had the thought, “what’s the worst that could happen,” this book answers it and the answers are terrible. The fact that our civil society hasn’t completely broken out into violent and exploitative chaos, that filth and starvation aren’t rampant doesn’t make me feel better about our present circumstances.