Scan barcode
aly_moh's review against another edition
4.0
افضل طريقة للسرد الجهنمى ....وبالنسبة لى ....احد افضل الأدباء فى التاريخ
grvhppr's review against another edition
I loved Blindness, however, this is just so unlikely that I can’t get into it. To imagine government abandoning society because of the freedom to cast blank ballots seems ridiculous.
I also think the continued style from Blindness to Seeing makes little sense from a literary perspective.
I also think the continued style from Blindness to Seeing makes little sense from a literary perspective.
serco_books's review against another edition
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
mettejellema's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
readcodelove's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
hoengloeng's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
pmyela's review against another edition
challenging
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.5
smark1342's review against another edition
Takes place in the same world as "blindness" with some overlapping characters, although no one apart from Constant the dog of tears is named and there's no capitalization or proper nouns. I think this all gives a sense of generalization which might be why it feels like a weird fable (I think Jesse ball uses this trick too). The symbolic elements of the plot like having everybody get struck blind, or having pretty much a whole city en masse reject their rulers, are so blunt and so allegorical seeming that it's funny how much of the book remains mysterious and cryptic. Fables are didactic and this is didactic in a subtler slower way I guess. Having the city get along well on its own strikes so many anarchist chords it was a bit of a surprise to do my post-read wikipedia cruise and learn saramago was a pretty unreformed commie.
This fable is I guess supposed to be transferable to anywhere at any time like most fables but I gather it's also supposed to be Portugal, some time where saramago still lived there. For as corny as it can sometimes be to have cold war style censorship be a big bad monster a character has to fight against, I didn't realize western European countries were still banning books with anti Catholic sentiments as late as the 90s, and while I'm sure saramago didn't love that I imagine it must have been satisfying for a writer like that to still be able to provoke such a reaction.
The style is unmistakable, long long long sentences, dialogue which isn't broken up into sentences where a new speaker is indicated by capitalization and a comma, characters are given these pseudo-eloquent banal speeches which serve to characterize them really effectively. In spite of the wandering discursive chunks of text, it's crystal clear and satisfying to read, a testament to saramagos ability as a writer and also I imagine the translator, Margaret Jull Costa. At the beginning of the book I thought I might be impressed by it but would never in a million years care about it and I'll just say the end made me pretty damn sad
This fable is I guess supposed to be transferable to anywhere at any time like most fables but I gather it's also supposed to be Portugal, some time where saramago still lived there. For as corny as it can sometimes be to have cold war style censorship be a big bad monster a character has to fight against, I didn't realize western European countries were still banning books with anti Catholic sentiments as late as the 90s, and while I'm sure saramago didn't love that I imagine it must have been satisfying for a writer like that to still be able to provoke such a reaction.
The style is unmistakable, long long long sentences, dialogue which isn't broken up into sentences where a new speaker is indicated by capitalization and a comma, characters are given these pseudo-eloquent banal speeches which serve to characterize them really effectively. In spite of the wandering discursive chunks of text, it's crystal clear and satisfying to read, a testament to saramagos ability as a writer and also I imagine the translator, Margaret Jull Costa. At the beginning of the book I thought I might be impressed by it but would never in a million years care about it and I'll just say the end made me pretty damn sad
kirstenfindlay's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0