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A review by pris_asagiri
Blindness by José Saramago
3.0
On writing technique, I give this book 4 stars, but for overall story content, I give it only 3 for two reasons:
1. I was outraged that he wrote the Doctor's Wife (DW) as a strong, intelligent, self-sufficient women who meekly and cowardly allowed not just herself but her fellow female "inmates" to be raped and sodomized and tortured when she had an opportunity to change things. That Saramago had her kill him after the fact was nauseating to me because it felt so untrue to how he had written her up to that point. I am not outraged there was rape (I'm actually surprised it didn't come up sooner). I'm not outraged that she was raped. I'm not advocating murder either. But she had an opportunity to take away the leader's main weapon (the gun) and stop the rest of the women from being tortured like this. And she didn't.
2. The ending. It was such a let down. He wrote such a powerful story and to have it end on such a whimper, I was just disappointed. It was gripping until I knew the first blind man could see. Then the rest of the book was completely predictable.
But this should be a book that should make your "modern classics" list. It's powerful and raw and speaks deeply on humanity and what makes us human. I felt it always had a tinge of truth even in its most ridiculousness of scenarios. But human beings--being what we are--are ridiculous.
The writing style was perfect for the story. I felt it conveyed the emotion and panic throughout the whole story. It was a little hard to get used to at first but once you found the rhythm of it, I could almost hear it in my head.
All-in-all, I'm grateful I had the opportunity to read this.
1. I was outraged that he wrote the Doctor's Wife (DW) as a strong, intelligent, self-sufficient women who meekly and cowardly allowed not just herself but her fellow female "inmates" to be raped and sodomized and tortured when she had an opportunity to change things. That Saramago had her kill him after the fact was nauseating to me because it felt so untrue to how he had written her up to that point. I am not outraged there was rape (I'm actually surprised it didn't come up sooner). I'm not outraged that she was raped. I'm not advocating murder either. But she had an opportunity to take away the leader's main weapon (the gun) and stop the rest of the women from being tortured like this. And she didn't.
2. The ending. It was such a let down. He wrote such a powerful story and to have it end on such a whimper, I was just disappointed. It was gripping until I knew the first blind man could see. Then the rest of the book was completely predictable.
But this should be a book that should make your "modern classics" list. It's powerful and raw and speaks deeply on humanity and what makes us human. I felt it always had a tinge of truth even in its most ridiculousness of scenarios. But human beings--being what we are--are ridiculous.
The writing style was perfect for the story. I felt it conveyed the emotion and panic throughout the whole story. It was a little hard to get used to at first but once you found the rhythm of it, I could almost hear it in my head.
All-in-all, I'm grateful I had the opportunity to read this.