Reviews tagging 'Incest'

Claraboia by José Saramago

1 review

ceeemvee's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Skylight was the first novel written by Saramago, a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature.  Skylight remained unpublished until after the author’s death.  It had been submitted to a publisher but misplaced, and Saramago received neither acknowledgement that the publishing house received it or that it was turned down.  After it was found 36 years later, Saramago refused to let the book be published in his lifetime.  His widow gave the possible reason that seeing this book in print may have been a reminder of his humiliation.  It took him decades to write again.

Skylight allows us into the homes of a small working-class apartment house in Lisbon.  These are people living on the edge of poverty and life is hard, but it becomes miserable when you don’t like each other.  The third-person narration alternates between apartments and characters.  There are conflicts within each apartment’s walls as well as the residents being distrustful and disdainful of their neighbors.  Let’s meet the residents:

Silvestre and Mariana:  The philosophical cobbler and his wife, who appear to be the only characters content with their lives.
Abel:  A drifter with little ambition, renting a room from Silvestre and Mariana.  Silvestre and Abel play chess, and have deep discussions of human nature and the meaning of life.
Adriana and Isaura:  Two sisters who support their widowed mother and aunt.  The sisters sew from home, and all four spend their evenings together listening to classical music.
Emilio and Carmen:  Carmen is from Spain and hates everything Portugese, including her husband, a salesman.  Their young son, Henriquinho, is used as a pawn by his parents.
Anselmo and Rosalie:  while money is tight, they seem to have a stable marriage.  Their biggest struggle is Claudinha, their 19-year-old daughter.
Caetano and Justina:  They lost their young daughter, and their hatred for each other is palpable and ends in violence.
Lidia:  a former prostitute who is now the mistress of Senor Paulo Morais, who has a roving eye.  Lidia is facing the prospect of aging and may be losing her lover to Claudinha.

Saramago weaves the residents’ bleak and dismal lives together into a tale of…?  I’m not sure.  There are various seductions (warning), hostilities, venomous hatred, vengeance, violence.  Even though the book ended with a philosophical passage on love, nothing will change for the residents which left me despondent.  

I gave it 3 stars based on the engaging writing which immerses you in the characters and the stories.  If perhaps there was a glimmer of hope, I would have given it 4 stars. 

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