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A review by robertlashley
The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago
5.0
I first thought the style got in the way of the book. Saramago is often associated with the boom writers, and you can glaringly see it in the writers he's channeling with the maximalist-beyond-all convention prose. In the 2 to 3 page sentences, one can hear much-more-than-faint-echoes of Faulkner's The Bear, and Garcia Marquez's The General And His Labyrinth. What perturbed me is how form met function in the aforementioned two novels, and-upon my first reading of it- did't seem to to meet function in Lisbon. The Bear had the the tension of Lucas's symbol laden hunt for the animal and the kinetic outburst of moral decay from General Compson. In Labyrinth Garcia Marquez had created his own general Compson, an ur dictator-and the prose from start to finish encapsulated the claustrophobic violence that could create such a tyrant, and does so in nuanced and complicate ways.
My first impression was that the tense yet grandiose style didn't work here. The story- of a historian who changes a sentence of a pre-eminent part in Portuguese history, almost loses his job gets' supported by a new boss who he falls in love with-and proceeds to go all crazy in writing a new history-is rich and dynamic in it's own right, and the El0000n-gaaaaaaa-teeeeed sentences brought too much attention to themselves.
What changed my mind in re-reading was the Protagonists view of history. Upon rewriting the Siege Of Lisbon, Raimundo Silva sees and analyzes history and sees it not as a triumph but as a bloodbath, a showcase of un-relenting cruelties and it shakes his mindset set to the core. In that sense, Silva is Saramago's own Lucas Mccaslin, the protagonist of the Bear( and Go Down Moses, where the story was published in), a human being who has a slow, nuanced, and complex climb to reason and kinship with his fellow human beings.There is also how he weaves that narrative into his relationship with his editor, Maria Bello, and the complex push and pull they have. Not only does she both champion and challenge him in complex ways, she establishes her own boundaries when he gets all conventionally gushy about their love affair( which Silva-in response-is cool with).
A great, complex novel that is worth it.
My first impression was that the tense yet grandiose style didn't work here. The story- of a historian who changes a sentence of a pre-eminent part in Portuguese history, almost loses his job gets' supported by a new boss who he falls in love with-and proceeds to go all crazy in writing a new history-is rich and dynamic in it's own right, and the El0000n-gaaaaaaa-teeeeed sentences brought too much attention to themselves.
What changed my mind in re-reading was the Protagonists view of history. Upon rewriting the Siege Of Lisbon, Raimundo Silva sees and analyzes history and sees it not as a triumph but as a bloodbath, a showcase of un-relenting cruelties and it shakes his mindset set to the core. In that sense, Silva is Saramago's own Lucas Mccaslin, the protagonist of the Bear( and Go Down Moses, where the story was published in), a human being who has a slow, nuanced, and complex climb to reason and kinship with his fellow human beings.There is also how he weaves that narrative into his relationship with his editor, Maria Bello, and the complex push and pull they have. Not only does she both champion and challenge him in complex ways, she establishes her own boundaries when he gets all conventionally gushy about their love affair( which Silva-in response-is cool with).
A great, complex novel that is worth it.