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A review by joreasonable
Skylight by José Saramago
3.0
My Review.
I think the most interesting part of this novel is the story behind it´s publication. José Saramago submitted the manuscript of Skylight to a Lisbon publisher in 1953. Receiving no response, and apparently never seeking one, he was plunged, says his wife Pilar del Rio in her introduction, "into a painful, indelible silence that lasted decades". He did, however, make a reputation as a journalist and editor before he returned to writing fiction in 1977. In 1989, having published three novels, he was at work on a fourth when the publisher to which he had sent Skylight wrote to say that they had rediscovered the manuscript and it would be an honour to print it. Saramago went at once and brought it home. His wife tells us that he never read it and said only that "it would not be published in his lifetime". We must assume that he said nothing about what was to be done with it after his death.
If you want a secret view into people lives, around the 1940´s in Lisbon, this is it, these people are not wealthy, they are often struggling with many things in life, and the reader moves from apartment to apartment getting to know each family and their circumstances and all the action or lack thereof that happens in the apartment building with the many, many different, often depressing characters, which in the beginning can seem confusing, There is actually no plot here, rather it is character driven. Nothing actually happens, just day to day life.
Jose Saramago has a dark mind writing this, there are some uncomfortable moments, there are very good in depth character development with deep inner thoughts, there are not many descriptions, just thoughts, some sad, some kind, some sexual.
This is a good example of how gossip can spread without any truth behind it.
I do feel that this book was published because of Saramago´s other books, and also his Nobel Prize in Literature.
I was wondering how it would finish, as this is one of those books that could be eternal, a bit like a soap opera, but the ending is done very well indeed as it actually has an ending.
I give this book 3 stars, the next country we are visiting in our journey around the world is Laos.
I think the most interesting part of this novel is the story behind it´s publication. José Saramago submitted the manuscript of Skylight to a Lisbon publisher in 1953. Receiving no response, and apparently never seeking one, he was plunged, says his wife Pilar del Rio in her introduction, "into a painful, indelible silence that lasted decades". He did, however, make a reputation as a journalist and editor before he returned to writing fiction in 1977. In 1989, having published three novels, he was at work on a fourth when the publisher to which he had sent Skylight wrote to say that they had rediscovered the manuscript and it would be an honour to print it. Saramago went at once and brought it home. His wife tells us that he never read it and said only that "it would not be published in his lifetime". We must assume that he said nothing about what was to be done with it after his death.
If you want a secret view into people lives, around the 1940´s in Lisbon, this is it, these people are not wealthy, they are often struggling with many things in life, and the reader moves from apartment to apartment getting to know each family and their circumstances and all the action or lack thereof that happens in the apartment building with the many, many different, often depressing characters, which in the beginning can seem confusing, There is actually no plot here, rather it is character driven. Nothing actually happens, just day to day life.
Jose Saramago has a dark mind writing this, there are some uncomfortable moments, there are very good in depth character development with deep inner thoughts, there are not many descriptions, just thoughts, some sad, some kind, some sexual.
This is a good example of how gossip can spread without any truth behind it.
I do feel that this book was published because of Saramago´s other books, and also his Nobel Prize in Literature.
I was wondering how it would finish, as this is one of those books that could be eternal, a bit like a soap opera, but the ending is done very well indeed as it actually has an ending.
I give this book 3 stars, the next country we are visiting in our journey around the world is Laos.