Cain by José Saramago - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

Apr 19, 2013 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: portugese, religion

The Bible is a playground of stories, of characters, of parables, of moral dilemmas. Some take it literally, the WORD OF GOD. Some think it nonsense. Highly entertaining nonsense. But nonsense nonetheless.

Saramago, in this his final work, thinks it nonsense. He has tapped this mine before, in The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, but here he goes again, telling the story of Cain and Abel but then projecting Cain as an observer and sometime participant on other Bible stories. Thus: Cain shows up...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Fionnuala rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

José Saramago is certainly not the first writer to question the logic of the old testament, the legitimacy of the Lord's pronouncements and the merits of the prophets who interpreted those pronouncements for the benefit of the descendants of Adam and Eve, and sometime later, for the benefit of descendants of the very small gene pool of Noah’s family who survived in the ark and repopulated the earth when everyone else was drowned in the Flood but Saramago is possibly one of the most creative and...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Kinga rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In 'Cain', published just a few months before Saramago’s death, the author gets to argue with God one last time. On this occasion his jibes are aimed the god of the Old Testament, who, as we all know, is an easy target. This god is cruel, proud, jealous, vindictive, inconsistent and often simply petty.

Saramago hires Cain to call out god on all his sins and errors beginning with Cain’s own sorry story which made him go down in history as the first murderer of the worst kind. But weren’t there any...more In 'Cain', published just a few months before Saramago’s death, the author gets to argue with God one last time. On this occasion his jibes are aimed the god of the Old Testament, who, as we all know, is an easy target. This god is cruel, proud, jealous, vindictive, inconsistent and often simply petty.

Saramago hires Cain to call out god on all his sins and errors beginning with Cain’s own sorry story which made him go down in history as the first murderer of the worst kind. But weren’t there any extenuations? After all, it’s god who started it. He was the one that created that unhealthy sibling rivalry between Abel and Cain by asking them for offerings and judging them. Abel, who took care of livestock brought a nice juicy lamb, and Cain who was a farmer brought god veggies. Sadly, god was not a vegetarian so he snubbed Cain’s offering each and every time. OK, so Cain overreacted. Murder is never the answer. But maybe god should take some of the responsibility, too?

This is the question that is being asked many times throughout this little book. Cain, condemned to endless wandering, appears whenever and wherever god’s actions are questionable. What sort of god asks someone to kill their beloved son to prove some stupid point? And isn’t killing against god’s very own commandments? Saramago reveals that it was actually Cain himself who stopped Abraham from killing Isaac as the angel sent on that mission was running late. Back when I was a good church going little girl I remember that story scared me the most. I was surprised it was never mentioned how Isaac felt about the fact that his dad just tried to kill him. Here is how it went according to Saramago:

“Isaac asked, Father, whatever did I do to you that would make you want to kill me, your only son, You did nothing wrong, Isaac, So why did you want to cut my throat as if I were a lamb, asked the boy, if that man, may the lord’s blessings be upon him, hadn’t come and grabbed your arm, you would now be carrying home a corpse, It was lord’s idea, he meant it as a test, A test of what, Of my faith and my obedience, What kind of lord would order a father to kill his own son, He’s the only lord we have, the lord of our ancestors, the lord who was here when we were born, And if that lord had a son, would he ordered him to be killed as well, asked Isaac, Time will tell.”

And what about the children of Sodom and Gomorrah? Surely they were innocent, weren’t they? And that whole Job business, that really was unnecessarily cruel. If any human were to test anybody’s love that way they would’ve been deemed psychopathic. Not to mention that replacing all the children of Job whom god killed with new children does not actually make it ok.

And so it goes, whenever god acts up comes Cain to ask the uncomfortable questions. Sometimes they are big things like just why exactly would god help certain tribes in their battles by killing thousands of people? Sounds rather bloodthirsty. Other times they are just minor inconsistencies – if Lot was so drunk that he passed out and had no idea his daughters were having sex with him, how did he manage to get it up?

Throughout the book Cain gets angrier and angrier with god, until he finally finds himself on the Ark with Noah and decides it’s time for revenge which is where the story ends.

'Cain' is a funny little allegory but I couldn’t help but be saddened a little by how disappointed Saramago seemed to be with both god and the humankind. Nonetheless, it’s hard to disagree with him even if his jokes seem almost juvenile occasionally. I came to similar conclusions when I was nine and they explained to me that we must worship god all the time, otherwise he would get angry and send us to hell. I thought: what a drama queen!(less)

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Apr 11, 2012 Sardonyx rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was a quick fun read. It takes the story of Cain (of Cain and Abel fame) and elaborates a bit on what he was up to when he was being a fugitive and a wanderer in the early days of Old Testament history. His observations and interactions with God and the rest of the cast are amusing. I loved Lilith!
One thing that I did find irritating is the author's writing style of mashing together the dialog with only commas to separate who has spoken. That took some getting used to and I often had...more

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Mar 27, 2013 José-contemplates-Saturn's Aurora rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: portuguese-lit

I've just read some pages, and I surely can envision many to come of the same.

It starts quoting Hebrews 11:4. “By faith, Abel offered God a sacrifice….and by faith Abel, though dead, still speaks". A quote from the Book of "Rubbish/non-sense",according to Saramago.

An imperfect Creation, that's the main issue: (1) God got aware later that Adam and Eve (in the book: adam and eve) didn’t speak: so God made a tongue (both the muscle and the idiom); afterwards the creation. (2) God corrected later...more

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Feb 01, 2013 ميّ أحمد rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: روايات

يقول ساراماغو في حوار معه إن الكتاب المقدس ما هو إلا دليل للقسوة البشرية ويقول أيضا أن العالم سيكون أكثر سلاما لو كنا جميعا من الملحدين .. ويزيد على ذلك أنا ملحد ولكني لستُ غبيا ..

وعلى أساس هذا النكران للأديان جاءت هذه الرواية ورواية الأنجيل يرويه المسيح والتي كتب فيها ساراماغو رؤية أخرى مغايرة للأنجيل على لسان المسيح ..وهاتين الروايتين لقيتا إستياءا كبيرا من الكنيسة الكاثوليكية ومن اليمين المتطرف لكن ساراماغو الذي لا يكتب لأجل إستياء أو إرضاء أحد لم يلقى بالا لكل الإنتقادات الواسعة التي شملت ال...more

يقول ساراماغو في حوار معه إن الكتاب المقدس ما هو إلا دليل للقسوة البشرية ويقول أيضا أن العالم سيكون أكثر سلاما لو كنا جميعا من الملحدين .. ويزيد على ذلك أنا ملحد ولكني لستُ غبيا ..

وعلى أساس هذا النكران للأديان جاءت هذه الرواية ورواية الأنجيل يرويه المسيح والتي كتب فيها ساراماغو رؤية أخرى مغايرة للأنجيل على لسان المسيح ..وهاتين الروايتين لقيتا إستياءا كبيرا من الكنيسة الكاثوليكية ومن اليمين المتطرف لكن ساراماغو الذي لا يكتب لأجل إستياء أو إرضاء أحد لم يلقى بالا لكل الإنتقادات الواسعة التي شملت الروايتين ..

قايين هي رواية الهرطقات العقلية يظهر قايين بمظهر المتحدى للإله فهو لا يتقبل فكرة قبول الإله لقربان أخيه واستبعاده وهو الذي حرث وزرع وعمل بإخلاص لكي ينال رضا الرب وحين تستبد به الغيرة يقتل هابيل ليصبح بذلك أول قاتل في تاريخ البشرية قاتل مطارد بلعنة الرب موسوما بوسم العصيان على الجبهة ليبدأ بذلك رحلة عبر الأزمان تبدأ بالإلتقاء بلليث ليبذر مولوده الأول بعد ليالي حافلة بالجنس ..

يتابع قايين الرحلة فيبدو كأنه يعبر من زمن لآخر من خلال آلة للزمن غير مرئية وفي مشاهد متتابعة فيمر على أزمنة مختلفة للأنبياء مراقبا للمحن التي تعرضوا لها مغتاظا من قسوة الرب وتحميله اللوم لكل عذابات البشرية

لغة الرواية تسود فيها السخرية من الدين ومن القصص الدينية ممتلئة بشعور غاضب تجاه فكرة وجود إله يدين إليه البشر بالعبودية المحضة على الرغم من كل المآسي التي تعرضوا لها عبر التاريخ .. في الرواية يطيح ساراماغو أرضا بالتابو الديني ويكسر كل الأعراف مغامرا بجرأة بطرح الأسئلة الحرجة متمسكا بفكرة التواطىء بين الرب والشيطان ضد الإنسان وهي الفكرة الصادمة التي آلت إليها نهاية روايته الأنجيل يرويه المسيح

يبدو ساراماغو محبطا من الإله ومن الدين ومن البشرية جمعاء
فالإله كما يبدو في الرواية هو مرادف للشر وهو إله لا يمكن الثقة به فهو لا يهتم بالعواقب وقد بلغت الرواية ذروة سخريتها في أنسنة الإله وفي مشهد الملاك الذي أرسله الإله لينقذ ابن إبراهيم من الذبح غير أن الملاك يصل متأخرا فيضطر قايين ليتدخل وينقذه من يد أبيه .. حوار عاتب وساخط بين الملاك وقايين المتمرد بالغ الطرافة في حين يظهر إبراهيم ككل الأنبياء مستسلما لسلطة الإله
ورغباته الغير منطقية في عرف كاتب الرواية

لا أتفق مع ساراماغو في تحميل الأديان عذابات البشر أعتقد أن البشر لديهم هذه النزعة للإختلاف ، وأظن إن العالم لو كان كله ملحدا كما يود الكاتب فإنه سيجد شيئا آخر ليختلف ويتصارع حوله

رواية مشاكسة جدا (less)

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Dec 09, 2011 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Oh, I've had enough of all this nonsense about the lord's ways being inscrutable, answered Cain, god should be as clear and transparent as a pane of glass and not go wasting his energies on creating an atmosphere of constant terror and fear, god, in short, does not love us." Such is Cain's conclusion after wandering the earth for generations as a witness to mankind's goings-on--at least so he is depicted in Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago's last novel. It was Cain who stopped Abraham from sacrific...more

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Nov 02, 2009 Ana Paula rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: portuguese-literature, fantasy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I had some kind of expectation when I started this book and, although I'm not sure about what expectations these were, the book didn't fulfill all of them. It has Saramago's same old style, full of his provocating ironies. It's even funny in some parts, like when the angel is delayed to save isaac because of a mechanical problem in his wing. Saramago makes many allusions to modern things and ideas in stories that happened in the old testament, such as the Archimedes principle, hydraulic and logi...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Sujith Philip rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The tone of the book can be summarised in one of the quote withins "and what kind of god would ask a father to sacrifice his own son?"

Second book I have read of his; funny why the translations have no quotation marks, question marks. Its like the whole book is one continuous dialogue :)

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Mar 09, 2011 Mia - rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Saramago, in un’intervista rilasciata a Serena Dandini a “Parla con me”, ha detto:

“Più vecchio si è, più libero si diventa. Più libero si diventa più radicale si diventa. Questa è la mia idea.”

L’intervista verteva su “Il Quaderno”, la raccolta di scritti tratti dal blog del signor premio Nobel, censurati dall’Einaudi (all’epoca casa editrice di Saramago passato adesso a Feltrinelli) e pubblicati dalla Bollati Boringhieri.
Non parlava, dunque, di “Caino” in quell’intervista ma resta il fatto che q...more

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Nov 16, 2010 Laginestra added it · review of another edition

Shelves: l, portoghese

L' umanesimo utopico che attraversa tutta l'opera letteraria di Saramago si incarna nuovamente nella figura di Caino, il sedizioso, l'unica persona che sottrae al controllo di dio la sua libertà di uomo. <br />Il messaggio di Caino dunque è potente, meno - purtroppo - la tenuta narrativa, che più non ha la forza e la compattezza del Memoriale, del Ricardo Reis o di Cecità, ricadendo nelle stesse debolezze del recente Viaggio dell'elefante. Come se mancasse una dimensione: il testo è depost...more

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May 12, 2013 Leon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Suitably disturbing—and a pleasure to read.” — The Scotsman

In this, his last novel, José Saramago daringly reimagines the characters and narratives of the Old Testament, recalling his provocative The Gospel According to Jesus Christ. His tale runs from the Garden of Eden, when God realizes he has forgotten to give Adam and Eve the gift of speech, to the moment when Noah’s Ark lands on the dry peak of Ararat. Cain, the despised, the murderer, is Saramago’s protagonist.

Condemned to wander fore

...more

“Suitably disturbing—and a pleasure to read.” — The Scotsman

In this, his last novel, José Saramago daringly reimagines the characters and narratives of the Old Testament, recalling his provocative The Gospel According to Jesus Christ. His tale runs from the Garden of Eden, when God realizes he has forgotten to give Adam and Eve the gift of speech, to the moment when Noah’s Ark lands on the dry peak of Ararat. Cain, the despised, the murderer, is Saramago’s protagonist.

Condemned to wander forever after he kills his brother Abel, Cain makes his way through the world in the company of a personable donkey. He is a witness to and participant in the stories of Isaac and Abraham, the destruction of the Tower of Babel, Moses and the golden calf, the trials of Job. The rapacious Queen Lilith takes him as her lover. An old man with two sheep on a rope crosses his path. And again and again, Cain encounters a God whose actions seem callous, cruel, and unjust. He confronts Him, he argues with Him. “And one thing we know for certain,” Saramago writes, “is that they continued to argue and are arguing still.”

A startling book—sensual, funny—in all ways a fitting end to Saramago’s extraordinary career.

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, October 2011: In his final slim novel, the late José Saramago gives a cheeky modernist update to a timeworn biblical tale. After killing his brother Abel in an exasperated rage, Cain makes a deal with a CEO-like God and escapes with little more than a donkey and a few snacks, doomed to nomadic immortality. As he wanders through time and space, the handsome itinerant interferes with the dealings of a familiar cast of characters--Noah, Moses, Isaac--forever altering the course of legend along the way. Deeply flawed and all too human, despite the eternal life granted him, Cain also struggles openly with the idea of faith in the face of an equally flawed God. By turns philosophical and hilarious, Cain shows off the scope of Saramago’s talent and makes a fitting coda for a superlative writing life. --Mia Lipman

Review

"Cain's vagabond journey builds to a stunning climax that, like the book itself, is a fitting capstone to a remarkable career."
-Publishers Weekly, starred

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Apr 16, 2013 Lydia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Picked this up over Easter with my usual abysmal sense of timing. Saramago has an interesting take on biblical material, though occasionally I was distracted by what seemed to me to be shaky theology. At any rate, the point of the book isn't to examine the Bible too deeply, and though Cain and God bicker throughout this book as if they were an unhappily married couple, the book is more concerned with Cain's journey, with his reaction to God and the events of the Bible, with his development throu...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Elisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, portuguese

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 21, 2013 Emmett rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was the second novel I´ve read by Saramago, after ¨Blindness¨, and I can definitely say I enjoyed this one just as much. Honestly the only thing I think that would´ve made it even more enjoyable for me is if it were a bit longer, which is something I rarely would think to say about a book. I have to confess that being an atheist, Saramago´s treatment of the Old Testament was pretty humorous to me, especially the parts where he would refer to God as ¨a son of a bitch¨ or anything else equal...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Ralph rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cain is a farmer, but the lord doesn't seem to care much for what he produces so he dings brother Abel with the jawbone of the ass and takes off and then does the entire bible: Abraham and Isaac, the golden calf, Lot, Job, Sodom and Gomorra, the Walls of Jerico, Noah and the ark.

And in the process, we find another Cain, for Saramago has shaped him into the new everyman, looking at the world with a piercing clarity, wondering how it can be so mad and cruel.

For instance he asks some of the angels...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Caroline rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hispanic, 21st-c-fiction

Not subtle, but what's subtle about the old testament? A lifetime of watching evil unchecked, boiled down into hard questions.

Cain conversing with two angels about why God tested Job, as he did Abraham, who he knew had full faith in him. [Capital letters signify a change in speaker]

The lord must be very happy, he said to the angels, he won his bet against satan, and despite all job's sufferings, he has still not denied god,
We knew he wouldn't, And god knew too, I imagine, Oh yes, the lord most...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Iceman rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

José Saramago, único Nobel da Literatura português, gera amores e ódios.

Dono de um feitio muito próprio, sem dúvida algo prepotente e pedante, sabe, contudo e como poucos, contar histórias que chocam mentalidades, aproveitando, explorando uma cultura (a portuguesa) provinciana, saloia, anacrónica e supersticiosa.

Saramago é um profundo conhecedor da natureza humana. Dá provas disso em todos os seus romances, exaltando e salientando os vícios, defeitos e virtudes do ser humano.

Assim, sabe como toc...more

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Oct 21, 2012 Kathleen O'Grady rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved Jose Saramago's Blindness, and even count it among my favourite recent novels, so I approached Cain with great anticipation -- and was met with disappointment.

The narrative voice was smug and contrived -- a postmodern inflection that left me feeling cold. I neither cared for or about Cain or his god, and was only happy that the novel is so slender it barely exceeds 150 pages. The remodeling of old testament myths and characters in a fantastical melange could have been interesting, but th...more

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Oct 21, 2012 Ronald Beasley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Saramago's Cain is a satire that takes the moral ideas of the Old Testament to their logical conclusions. From the beginning, God appears on stage as the antagonist, or if you like, the Antichrist, to Cain, a simple farmer who only wants his sacrifice of crops to be as appreciated as Abel's sacrifice of livestock. Both the agrarian culture and the cruel, unfair 'justice' of the ancient 'Holy Land' are on display here, as is the true, terrifying nature of Old Testament morality. Surely such an ev...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Diane by: boxall's 1001 books, 2012 edition

Shelves: boxall-1001-books, religion, wpl, jewish-themes, historical-fiction, humor-fiction

Cain was my first introduction to José Saramago although it was his last book. I found Cain to be an easy and entertaining read, although I can see how others either would not like the book or find it difficult. First, the structure of the book can be off-putting for those who are sticklers for grammatic rules. Saramago often constructs sentences that last more than a page long with phrases and ideas separated by commas. His dialogue does not use quotation marks; he separates his different speak...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Adriana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is another book in the same style as "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" but it doesn't reach the beauty or complexity of that story in my opinion. Here we have the story of an "experiment" conducted by a God who is superficial in His judgements, impulsive and miscalculated in his plans, short tempered, quick to lie to cover his shortcomings, cruel and self absorbed. God is an engineer who tries to improve his creations while at the same time trying to prove his absolute power and knowledg...more

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Aug 01, 2012 La Stamberga dei Lettori rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sakura87

Era da un pezzo che non riprendevo in mano Saramago, e ho deciso di farlo scegliendo il suo altro romanzo a tema biblico. E’ più forte di me: non riesco a fare a meno di prediligere i romanzi in cui l’intoccabile dio cristiano viene rivoltato e trasformato in una divinità capricciosa e crudele più adatta a un romanzo fantasy degli anni ottanta che a una religione che da migliaia di anni ha preso possesso di vita, morte e politica delle civiltà occidentali. Saramago, in seguito alle polemiche sor...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Yuelio Menendez rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Una de las piezas más cortas de Saramago, el libro es una crítica directa ante el genesis bíblico, denunciando a un Dios totalmente imperfecto y egocéntrico. Historias de un Dios que está lejos de la perfección divina, de humanos más reflexivos, santos menos virtuosos y personajes más propensos a actos inmorales.
Caín tiene el mismo ritmo que he leído siempre de Saramago, veloz y ligeramente caótico, aunque en esta ocasión añade viajes a través del tiempo, lo cuál dejan al autor y a los propios...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Kevin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-classic

When I first picked up this book, I read through the initial chapters pretty quickly. I hadn't read the cover so I was unsure what I was going to be reading. All I had heard was that Saramago was a good writer and someone who will most likely be, dare I say it, canonized.

After having finished this novel, I can say that I truly enjoyed the novel and was actually surprised at the overall substance and style presented throughout the novel.

First, in regards to substance, the story offers an altern...more When I first picked up this book, I read through the initial chapters pretty quickly. I hadn't read the cover so I was unsure what I was going to be reading. All I had heard was that Saramago was a good writer and someone who will most likely be, dare I say it, canonized.

After having finished this novel, I can say that I truly enjoyed the novel and was actually surprised at the overall substance and style presented throughout the novel.

First, in regards to substance, the story offers an alternative view of Cain after he killed Abel. It does not take a long time to move into the character of Cain, but does follow the flow of the Bible itself in arriving to Cain (i.e., Adam and Eve, the fall, etc.). Once Cain enters the story, we start to wander through the lands of the Earth during his time. Throughout his various encounters, he occasionally comes across other Biblical figures and conveys an alternative view of what occurred during their story from the Bible. What I found most interesting is many of the dialogues that Cain has with these figures and the Lord himself as to why the Lord does the "things" he does. I think it reflects some people's thoughts and questions about God's actions. Overall, the story is extremely interesting and is a quick read. The poetic language is mesmerizing and one can sometimes become lost in the language itself (not difficult just stylistically developed).

Second, in regards to stylistics. Saramago does not use quotation marks and continues conversations and story without conveying these jumps through punctuation. At times, one may need to retrace who is speaking and when the narrator is conveying information. If you dislike this style, I would definitely not recommend this book. But, Saramago also has dialogues with the reader and philosophical episodes that are subtly added without detracting from the overall movement of the story. I personally enjoyed that he did not include most punctuation because it gave the book a stream-of-consciousness feel (I would even venture it makes one feel as though it is personal thought and not a writer's words).

Therefore, I will end on the note that the story is quite interesting and the style adds to this "interestingness". I would surely recommend this novel to any reader who enjoys a novel that can also attempts to break away from the traditional story format. Few books do I think are worth re-reading, but I can surely see this one being on my shelf again and again. (less)

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May 12, 2012 Marialyce rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-group-reads

I do admit at times to feeling a bit sacrilegious reading this book, though I did have to smile a bit at the various ironies the Mr Saramago pointed out in his rendition of some of the Old Testament. Taking from the point of view of Cain wandering about the planet after being sentenced by god to never dying, it was a fun look at how a present day type Cain would look at his predicament.

Mr Saramago is not easy on God, accusing his of being ruthless and somewhat bloodthirsty in his desire to see h...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Julia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-fiction, magical-realism

This slim volume simply bowled me over--the whole book is a long stream of consciousness, so I had to get into the "groove" of that flood of words. But the power of Saramago's feelings made the read rewarding, if at times shocking and certainly irreverent.

Cain is the hero of the book, and the villain is god--so right off the bat, many people would be offended. It's a book based on rage at the violence done by God to various people, since once Cain is given his mark and set wandering, he can "wan...more This slim volume simply bowled me over--the whole book is a long stream of consciousness, so I had to get into the "groove" of that flood of words. But the power of Saramago's feelings made the read rewarding, if at times shocking and certainly irreverent.

Cain is the hero of the book, and the villain is god--so right off the bat, many people would be offended. It's a book based on rage at the violence done by God to various people, since once Cain is given his mark and set wandering, he can "wander" through time.

The tone of the book can be shown in an early observation about God punishing Adam and Eve for eating of the Tree of Knowledge: "...if he really didn't want them to eat that fruit, it would have been easy enough simply not to have planted the tree or to have put it somewhere else or surrounded it with barbed wire."

That sets the format in which Cain condemns God time after time--for "testing" Abraham by asking him to kill Isaac, to which Saramago responds: "The logical natural and simply human response would have been for abraham to tell the lord to piss off" [Saramago doesn't use capitals for names].

When Cain is suddenly transported to the Tower of Babel, he muses: "His (god's) great fault is jealousy, instead of being proud of his children, he succumbed to envy, and he obviously can't bear to see anyone happy." At the end of the Babel sequence, Saramago says "The history of mankind is the history of our misunderstandings with god, for he doesn't understand us, and we don't understand him."

In the section on Job, Cain gives his most bitter denouncement of god:"The lord isn't listening, he's deaf, everywhere the poor, unfortunate and wretched cry out to him for help, they plead with him for some remedy that the world denies them, and the lord turns his back on them".

And so, in the final chapter, Cain finds himself on the ark with noah--and he kills all the people on the ark so the human race can be ended. When god calls him a murderer, Cain replies, "There had to come a day when someone would show you your true face."

For those who have also struggled with how a "good god" can allow horrible evil, this is a powerful book. The issue is the ages long question of "theodicy"--how an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent being can permit evil to exist and do nothing to stop it. The most powerful work on this same topic, for me, is Archibald Macleish's play "J.B.", which modernizes the story of Job.(less)

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Apr 07, 2012 Margarida rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mais uma obra com temática religiosa que os Católicos contestam acerrimamente. Percebo o ponto de vista deles, já que ninguém gostaria de ver algo em que acreditam a ser deitado por terra por um escritor... mas percebo o ponto de vista do autor, de colocar em causa "verdades" aceites por uma sociedade humana há séculos.

Caim era o filho mais velho de Adão e Eva, nascido após o casal ter sido expulso do Jardim do Éden. Caim sentiu ciúmes por Deus preferir as oferendas sacrificiais do irmão Abel e...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Judith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was the last book written by this Nobel prize winning author of (among others) "Blindness" and "The Elephant's Journey". It reminded me so much of Mark Twain's bitterness and disgust with the Bible and Christianity toward the end of his life when he wrote "Letters from the Earth" and "The Mysterious Stranger". However, Saramago is much more light-hearted in his satire, and despite his obvious disgust of the stories of the bible, he ends his book on an upbeat note, describing man and God's r...more This was the last book written by this Nobel prize winning author of (among others) "Blindness" and "The Elephant's Journey". It reminded me so much of Mark Twain's bitterness and disgust with the Bible and Christianity toward the end of his life when he wrote "Letters from the Earth" and "The Mysterious Stranger". However, Saramago is much more light-hearted in his satire, and despite his obvious disgust of the stories of the bible, he ends his book on an upbeat note, describing man and God's relationship : ". . . and one thing we know for certain is that they continued to argue and are arguing still."

In this story, we follow Cain from his famous crime through his adventures as he wanders through the old testament continually shocked at God's cruelty and callous treatment of mankind. He happens onto Abraham about to kill Isaac and grabs the father's hand just as it is about to strike the son with the knife. I should mention that Saramago has his own particular style of punctuating, and like reading subtitles in a foreign film, you quickly get used to it.

"But the lord told me to do it, said Abraham, struggling, Keep still, or I'll be the one who does the killing, untie that boy at once, then kneel down and beg his forgiveness,Who are you, My name is cain, I'm the angel who saved isaac's life. This isn't true, cain is no angel, that title belongs to the being who has just landed with a great flapping of wings and who is now declaiming like an actor who has finally heard his cue, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, nor do anything to him, for now I know that thou fearest the Lord, being prepared for love of him, to sacrifice even your only son, You're late, said cain, the only reason isaac isn't dead is because i stepped in to prevent it. The angel looked suitably contrite, I'm terribly sorry to be late, but it really wasn't my fault, I was on my way here when I developed a mechanical problem in my right wing. . . .Better late than never. . .That's where you're wrong, never is not the opposite of late, the opposite of late is too late, retorted cain."

The book is a delight and has something for everyone. Like the Bible, there's lots of murder, juicy sex scenes (heterosexual, homosexual, incestuous), war, crime, philosophy, and adventure. Unlike the Bible, there is also a good deal of humor.

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Feb 29, 2012 Kelly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is a thrill when a book translated from the Portuguese delivers not only the message of Saramago's long standing argument with religion, but that the humour beautifully transcends that barrier also. There are so many moments in this satire of the Old Testament that are provocative, beginning with the story of creation, where the author observes that when god created Adam and Eve, though he is all knowing all powerful, he forgot bits and pieces and had to go back and add things in, and that it...more It is a thrill when a book translated from the Portuguese delivers not only the message of Saramago's long standing argument with religion, but that the humour beautifully transcends that barrier also. There are so many moments in this satire of the Old Testament that are provocative, beginning with the story of creation, where the author observes that when god created Adam and Eve, though he is all knowing all powerful, he forgot bits and pieces and had to go back and add things in, and that it would have made him feel 'annoyed with himself'. Such human emotions pinned to a god seem to be unnecessary, after all he is god, if it wasn't so obviously pointing out the text from which it comes was written by men who make mistakes and have to go back adding bits of the story on It truly fits the bill.
The story eventually leads to Cain, son of Adam and Eve, who slays his younger brother Abel in jealousy after Cain's sacrificial offerings pale in comparison and Abel makes fun of him. God appears and touches Cain's forehead, thus marking him. They argue about who is really responsible for Abel's death. God agrees to go 'halves' in the blame (what are the consequences for god?), but doesn't absolve Cain and makes him a vagabond that cannot be harmed but, to pay for his sins, can harm no one else. And so begins the trials and tribulations of Cain who, though a marked man, continues to observe life and question why god lets bad things happen if he has the power to stop it. Instead he only chooses to show up to tell people when they have been naughty.

The only thing I struggled with was the format, there was no parentheses to separate the conversations between people. I did get used to it, and it did add to the feeling of being a realistic flow of dialogue, but sometimes it made me want to take a biro to the book. It also got a bit boring in the middle, and it's not a long novel. I gave it a slightly lower score because I lost interest between Cain's son being born and the time marking the appearance of Noah, who is depicted as a tyrant and not a very likeable guy. The story comes to an abrupt end. I was left feeling like I'd just been through a Monty Python movie but the length was okay and delivered what it needed to - the message to 'question everything.'

Sadly this was Saramago's last published novel. He passed away in 2010. (less)

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