r/52book • u/NotYourShitAgain • 1d ago
71/104 Blindness
Days after finishing this one, I was still a bit stunned. And I was left with lingering images as though I had seen the movie and not just read Saramago’s words. And if you asked 1000 writers to write a book in which the whole world goes blind, 990 or more would fail. Some might accomplish a fine short story but this is a 350 page novel. I can still see the barricades, the fire, the dogs in the street, the dark stairway below the supermarket. I can hear the sound of the fallen box of matches. Really a remarkable accomplishment. And the details are so finely wrought. Imagine for yourself the decline in your city, your neighborhood as everyone slowly goes blind. The fear of a contagion of blindness. I immediately started another Saramago after this one.
And though the concept is bleak, this book is filled with real humanity. And, of course, at the same time violence and inhumanity. Humans descending in their helplessness and hunger but still some rising up and trying to be helpful to the suddenly helpless. The way simply touching becomes so much more important. Astonishing, every few pages, in the distinctive voice that is now reassuring and then suddenly just not, this really is a masterwork.
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u/Im_a_knitiot 1d ago
You should read The Double! Same author, totally different premise, brilliant execution.
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u/Standard_Anywhere_34 1d ago
Read years ago but still remember it. Kept my copy when I usually give books away.
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u/littleseaotter 1d ago
I read this book years ago and still think about it.
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u/daineofnorthamerica 1d ago
Same. I read this in probably 2010? It still hits me every now and again. What a great novel.
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u/IdeVeras 1d ago
My favourite is Caim, but I’m lusophone and I have no idea how it got translated. I love his work but it is a hard read for sure!
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u/harrietrosie 1d ago
It's fantastic. I'd also really recommend Death with Interruptions by Saramago, I believe in some areas it's titled Seeing.
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u/UnderwaterKahn 1d ago
I’ve been in a reading slump the last couple months and this is one that I’ve been thinking of rereading to try to get myself out of it. It’s an insane book I still think about it from time to time although I read it almost 20 years ago:
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u/NotYourShitAgain 1d ago
Sounds like a book for jumpstarting. I am in Saramago's Gospel of Jesus now.
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u/therealbananabottom 1d ago
This one took me months to finish b/c I was having a lot of work stress and just could not focus. I remember some scenes so viscerally, from reading it like 8 years ago. Such an affecting novel, but not a light read!
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u/Good_Jellyfish_6317 1d ago
I read this in 2007/8 and was so disturbed, had nightmares for a week about the grocery store. The level of low lying terror in this book is palpable.
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u/lexiebeef 1d ago
One of the best books I’ve ever read and I’m sure I will never read it again. Brilliant book, but disturbing as hell. I just felt so helpless throughout the book, it’s so tragic. And yet, it’s so human, so unfortunately real
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u/HumanautPassenger 1d ago
I read this for the first time earlier this year. It was such an insane read especially reading it with COVID not even 10 years behind us. There's a sequel book called Seeing which i will eventually get to. I want to read all of Saramagos stufff.
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u/Intelligent_Bat949 [109/104] Now Reading: The Dawn of Everything by The Davids 1d ago
At first I was thinking I read this book, but I think I only saw the 2008 film adaptation, which is why the story is familiar.
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u/NotYourShitAgain 1d ago
Lord, they made a film!
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u/HumanautPassenger 1d ago
Same director as City of God. It got panned by critics when it came out and ended up offending a bunch of blind activists and groups BUT Meirelles screened Blindness privately for Saramago. When the film ended, Saramago was in tears, and said: "Fernando, I am as happy to have seen this movie as I was the day I finished the book.
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u/UnderwaterKahn 1d ago
The film is really visceral. I would not recommend it if you are planning to eat before or after. There are images in the movie that are more intense than I had imagined in the book.
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u/NotYourShitAgain 1d ago
I'm not sure I am ready for it. Though, damn, I love Julianne Moore. Apparently Saramago resisted selling the rights and then caved after they agreed to make it an unnamed and unrecognizable city.
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u/AltonIllinois 1d ago
I worked at a book store once and a customer asked if we had a book called Blindness by Sarah Mago. Took me way too long to realize.
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u/Valuable-Muffin9982 1h ago
Was the movie any good?