I like José Saramago.
For a Nobel Prize winner (1998), he kind of fades into the periphery of the literary field of vision. For what he lacks in public image, he surely makes up for in voice and confidence. "Blindness" is the third Saramago book I have read in some six or seven years, and I feel like I gained a lot of perspective on his allure. His style is powerful, he's patient, he's rhythmic, he evokes emotion in a prose devoid of it, and he convinces the reader that, as a writer, he's a nothing short of a pro.
I would have to characterize the literary "ism" José Saramago assumes through his work as "rational-humanistic neo-naturalism". (Ha! I made that up, of course) What I mean by that (if anything) is that a reader of "Blindness" gets the perspective of a sensitive but quotidian person that is faced with a brutal, bitter-sweet existence. The characters feel like real people that face unspeakably tragic circumstances (life). The characters are essentially human in the sense that they persevere and are resilient, but the contemporary world they find themselves in is sick and flat and somewhat pathetic. In this bleak world of of our collective making, individuals inject a trace of beauty and emotion, and that is our worth.
I initially saw the plot of this book as a bit hokey, since it revolves around a single plot device. Essentially, "Blindness" is the story of an unnamed city (or maybe country or even maybe the whole world; we don't know) that is struck by a sudden pandemic of "white blindness". Well, as you may have guessed, this means that the population suddenly loses their vision to a flood of white light. And as you may have also guessed, one character alone retains her vision and is tasked with "leading the blind". That is about as far as the assumptions will take you in this book.
Through a cadenced and flowing prose, Saramago follows a group of everyday people as they are struck by the blindness, as they are taken to an army quarantine and left to fend for themselves in a "Lord of the Flies" type of environment, and as they escape back into a post apocalyptic world of lost, wandering, filthy, and horrified blind people. The modern infrastructure and civilization devolves into a sh*t covered cement landscape of disease and hunger. Destination-less denizens wander in search of food, shelter, and lost pasts. With the lone seer as their guide and protector, a small group of unnamed main characters (they were the first to go blind and the government tried to isolate those infected with the "bacteria") cope with the partial existence they are left with. The story is part horror, part apocalypse, part realisism, and all allegory. I hope this sets the tone for you well enough to have piqued your interest. Trust me, there are some memorable scenes.
I saw so much of so many other literary works in this book, too. Primarily, the book is at once evocative of Hemingway, Kafka, and (Cormac) McCarthy. It is efficient and powerful, conversational (in a literary prose sense), and is such a pleasure to read. Like "The Road" by McCarthy (see below post), the book observes the human spirit in the face of utter destruction. Like Kafka (anything really, but specifically "The Castle"), the sentence and paragraph structures run on and on and on like the momentum of a giant lead ball. Like Hemingway, we feel the passion of existence in hearty verse. And I even felt like "Blindness" in some way mirrored another book of Saramago's, "The Cave". Similarly, a band of individuals is faced with a world of modern dread, and they even both discover the heart of evil in an underground room (neat, huh!). Even with the constant comparisons I was coming up with in my head, the book consistently stands on its own and is a worthy story.
Themes in this book are not limited to the following: parables and maxims ("sententious" is a word I learned in this book), civilization, chaos, communism, the power of language, morality, filth/waste, wandering, the fragility of our world(s), reliance, shame (well, emotion in general), coping, and philosophy. Though this all may sound rather drab, remember: art is sometimes just a really beautiful reflection of our true existence. Actually, that's even more drab...
In any event, this book was a good read, and I look forward to seeing the movie version with Jodie Foster (that's right! from "Contact"!). When I see it I will let you know, but until then:
"Just as the habit does not make the monk, the scepter does not make the king" - pg 209
"Just like everything else in life, let time take its course and it will find a solution." - pg 241
"But none of us, lamps, dogs, or humans, knows at the outset, why we have come into this world." - pg 274
"A glass of water is a marvelous thing." - pg 276
"Keep what is of no use at the moment, and later you will find what you need." - pg 288
