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Jun 19, 2010

Greg rated it:

Forward: I'm sorry José! You didn't need to give up the will to live just because I didn't like your writing style. Lots of people did like you. More people liked you than like me. Really! You shouldn't have cared so much about what I thought. Now I feel like an asshole for killing you. Fine. I guess I can live with that, but it was a real douche bag move, dying the week I write a bad review about you just to add to my excessive guilt complexes. You know what, I'm sorry that your dead More...

13 comments like (24 people liked it)

Jul 22, 2011

Amari rated it:

simply gorgeous. a story of timidity and how a tiny seed of imagination and curiosity can transform a person and his life.

i adore this one because there's no "love interest" and because of saramago's unbelievable ability to effortlessly pop breathtaking statements about humanity at the ends of long paragraphs. they seem like afterthoughts because of the way they're placed and articulated, but if everyone had a single thought like these in his or her lifetime, the world woul

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Nov 14, 2007

Lori rated it:

All The Names is the third book I have read by Jose Saramago. Blindness and Seeing left strong lasting impressions on me, and I expected this novel to do the same.

Except I found myself having to take numerous breaks from this one. While Saramago starts out with an interesting subject on which to base his book,(A clerk at the Central Registry comes across a card for an unknown woman, and becomes obsessed with hunting her down and collecting as much information as he can about her), I More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 22, 2007

jeremy rated it:

"You know the name you were given, you do not know the name that you have," reads the epigraph of All the Names, a gorgeously written and captivating allegorical tale of identity penned by the illustrious José Saramago, which concerns the seemingly mundane life of Senhor José, a lowly registry clerk in an unidentified metropolis, whose tedious and impersonal existence suddenly becomes full of intrigue and zeal when he finds himself compelled to, contrary to both bureaucratic regulati More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 10, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

Sorry, Stewart, but I did not love this book! In fact, I skimmed the final 40 pages or so. The book describes the life of a clerk at a Central Registry in an unnamed town and country. Although it seems to be modern times, there is no machinery or modern technology used at the registry. The clerks spend their days recording the names of the living (birth, marriage, divorce) onto cards, and then moving the cards into another area of the registry when it is time to record someone's death on the More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 09, 2010

Allen rated it:

The cadence and rhythm of Saramago's prose supplants traditional punctuation, and easily sweeps the reader into his Kafkaesque fado of institutionalized loneliness and isolation. This complex, at times darkly humorous novel, follows forlorn everyman Senhor Jose as he journeys through a series of labyrinths--crumbling bureaucracies, necropolises, psychic desolation-- searching for human contact, compassion, and love. By the novel's end Senhor Jose, tethered by a tenuous, metaphorical algorithm (t More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 12, 2008

Maria rated it:

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

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 16, 2008

Danika rated it:

This is every bit as tough to read as his other book, Blindness. Saramago uses punctuation "creatively", if at all. There are whole pages with no paragraph breaks. And yet, I really enjoyed it on many levels. Senhor Jose is an incredibly endearing man with a job as a clerk and no family. He spends his free time collecting articles about famous people. Until one day, when he comes across the registry card of an anonymous woman and spends countless hours trying to track her down. Very More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Nicole rated it:

This book is just beautiful, lyrical and beautiful. I had to read this book for a class. I'm not so sure I would have picked it up on my own, but it was one of those all time amazing reads. The kind of read that I want with every book, but so rarely get. It had resonance.

The prose was soft and inviting, even though the story itself revolved so heavily around a bleak, despairing center. You just got wrapped up in the story and the imagery was so spatial that it basically felt l More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 30, 2008

Laila rated it:

This was kind of a hard read but very worth it. The author wrote in a dense kind of way that's tough enough but coupled with the fact that he eschewed punctuation and paragraph breaks, it was all the more difficult. Besides that though, I rarely read books like this, I think the last time I read a book like this (in which I was on the edge of the seat "No Senhor Jose, WHY did you leave out the photographs, DON'T go back to the Central Registry tonight!") was Crime and Punishment. Yo More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 27, 2008

Libbie rated it:

The anxiety, confusion, and madness the reader experiences on behalf of the main character Senhor Jose is reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe.
This is truly one of the most interesting and unique storylines that I have read to date. As a result, I did not want the story to end, and when it did, I had to reread the last page several times and ask myself: "did that really just happen?"

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2008

Brenda rated it:

How to begin? This book is written in stream-of-conciousness. Many people don't like that style because it is hard to decipher the dialogue. I loved it because it was an allegory about a man looking for someone else's past, but in the end, it made me think about my mom, her name and legacy. It hit me at the end. I am so glad I did because I cried so hard at the end and I know I would not have finished reading the book if it affected me like that DURING the reading of it. Go figure: my sis More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 18, 2011

Bonnie Jeanne rated it:

This is my favorite read. There are two conversations with the ceiling I'd like to memorize. And perhaps on a fifth or sixth reading, I will.

This story is about a man who works in a city registry who does his job day in and day out, following routines and regulations. Until the one day something breaks his routine, a stray card with the name of a woman. Something drives him to find out more about this woman and as he does so, routine and regulation become the enemy of discovery, as t More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 13, 2008

Asif rated it:

Although I felt this book was not better than "Blindness," All The Names has its own uniqueness that is inherently Saramago. Its the way Saramago unravels his storylines like epiphanies which you can always draw parallels to life.

It is just me, or did anyone else find the ending quite intriguing? And that Shepard, truly a memorable character. This is only my second Saramago book but the more you read his work the more you come to see the art form embedded in his style. Yes More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 25, 2011

Sergei_kalinin rated it:

Книга по своему хороша. Это очень вязкая и неспешная по стилю вещь, где повествование засасывает как трясина :)

По ощущениям, по атмосфере - это нечто среднее между кафкианским "Замком" и эпизодами монастырской жизни в "Имени розы". Т.е. мрачно, абсурдно, готично, тяжело, сумрачно... Всё произведение - это некий концентрат из страхов лабиринта, темноты, одиночества.

Фабула проста: некто Жозе - работник Архива (вот Архив - это и есть то самое сюрреалистич More...

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Apr 01, 2009

Efrem rated it:

All the Names by Jose Saramago

This is a difficult book to like, let alone understand. It’s told from the viewpoint of Senhor Jose (no family name given), who labors as a lowly clerk recording births and deaths in a monstrously named bureaucracy called The Central Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in an unnamed city in an unnamed country. It’s a place where the essentials of every soul are noted on index cards that are then filed away, sometimes never to be found when searching More...

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Nov 24, 2008

Powells.com rated it:

A stunning novel by Nobel prize-winner José Saramago. At first, the style may be off-putting, but once you get into it, the story flows as delicately as melted butter. With the preternatural perception of Kafka, and the gentle reflection of Steinbeck, All the Names is a mostly allegorical tale of a petty bureaucrat who seeks to understand the lives of the forgotten. His quest ends in a remote corner of a cemetary where he, and the reader, are graced with a nearly celestial visitation. In the han More...

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Jan 06, 2012

ميّ أحمد rated it:

في هذه الرواية يواصل الكاتب رحلة البحث عن الذات كان هناك شبيها في الآخر مثلي وهنا رحلة البحث تأتي من خلال إمرأة مجهولة سقطت بطاقتها بين يدي موظف المحفوظات العامة في سجل الإحصاءات ليبدأ بذلك البحث عن المرأة التي أطلق عليها في الرواية بالمجهولة إمرأة لا يعرف عنها شيئا ولا هي تعرفه , دون جوزيه موظف ذو سمعة ممتازة لم يرتكب خلال الأعوام الطويلة التي قضاها في عمله أي مخالفة غير أن ذلك يتغير حين بدأ رحلته في البحث عن المرأة فيرتكب العديد من الحماقات
التي تثير الضحك ، الشخصية في غاية الطرافة لغراب More...

3 comments like

Aug 21, 2011

Patty rated it:

I am a big fan of Saramago even though I've only read 3 of his novels. This particular story has a great plot....a chain of events that keep the narrative going but does not move very quickly. This give you time to digest Saramago's brilliant view of man and of life. But sometimes I felt like skipping to the next paragraph. (Unfortunately Saramago does not use the usually excepted structure of the written word! So the next paragraph could be pages away.) My little brain could not comprehend More...

1 comment like

Jun 09, 2011

Jeruen rated it:

After reading a non-fiction book and not liking it, I decided to go back to fiction, and not only that, I decided to go back to fiction that is in my comfort zone. So with that in mind, I picked up this book, entitled All The Names (Portuguese title: Todos os nomes), by José Saramago.

This is about the story of a lowly clerk who works in the Central Registry, by the name of Senhor Jose. That is the only character in the book that actually has a name. The rest are just referred to by the More...

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May 01, 2011

Sonia rated it:

Senhor Jose is a simple man, he has the job of a lower division clerk at Central Registry of Births and Deaths. As the salary is small he leads a simple frugal life with hardly any luxuries. But Sr. Jose has a hobby, he collects pictures and details of famous people; actors, actresses, even bishops. Here he was updating his collection one fine day, when he gets an idea.'Why don't I add all those details which are so often hidden from the press, to my collection, after all, all it took was some m More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 29, 2010

Eric rated it:

While I enjoyed Mr. Saramagos elliptical writing style, the plot line here is a real snoozer, and as a result I took several extended breaks while reading this before finally polishing it off this weekend.

The main character is a timid, lowly clerk at a government office in a Latin American country that records the births and deaths of all its citizens. While cataloging his own personal version of People magazine, he stumbles across the name of an anonymous citizen and goes on a surrep More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 08, 2010

Kirstie rated it:

I was a fan of José Saramago before his passing but his death has actually reminded me to read some of his novels that I hadn't previously read and the man has certainly left a legacy.

At it's surface, All the Names is the story of the way bureaucracy deals with the dead and the living (at least in the 90s in Portugal) and how even the most antiquated systems are capable of some change.

To me, however, it was the story of what happens when you get so wrapped up in uncoverin More...

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Jun 21, 2010

Grady rated it:

A brilliant, addicting read

José Saramago is a genius wordsmith. To the novice opening a first book by this Nobel Prize winning Portuguese novelist, Saramago may seem a bit mad, if not just frustratingly bizarre. Pages without paragraph indentations, with conversations unpunctuated or without speaker identified, no use of quotation maeks, abrupt changes of time and place within one ongoing endless sentence. These impediments to reading a novel often tend to make the reader begin to si More...

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Jun 19, 2010

Portia Renee rated it:

Yesterday, June 18, 2010, the world suffered a great loss in the death of Jose Saramago. He was one of the truly great humans to grace this rock we call home. His writing is filled with thoughtfulness, sympathy, lyricism, cynicism, and curiosity, as it seems his life was as well. His stories are absorbing, not just for the stories they are, but how they transport the attentive reader beyond their own physical space into a clandestine world.

Last night I finished reading All the N More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 05, 2010

Candace rated it:

This was/is a very interesting book. It was the first (most definately not the last) book of Saramago's that I have read. I would DEF classify him as a modern day classic author (if that makes any sense)

The story was a good story, but left me confused in a couple of places, and I'm wondering if that isn't due to the difference in cultures or maybe something was lost in translation, either way, I enjoyed the book.

It was about a lonely clerk that works for the Central Regi More...

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Aug 10, 2009

Marvin rated it:

One of the strangest books I've ever read (including Tom Robbins's). A clerk works in the Central Registry (the equivalent of our Vital Records office where births, deaths, & marriages are recorded) & lives alone in an apartment attached to the building. The stream-of-consciousness writing effectively conveys the anomie experienced by this isolated individual working in a highly bureaucratic setting. In his off hours, he collects clippings related to famous people, then decides one day to sneak More...

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Jun 22, 2009

Frank rated it:

I wrote this is my journal in October, 2007:

I’m sort of happy to report that Todos os Nomes did not end as I expected it might. The ending was, in fact, totally unlike anything that I expected--which is why my happiness is reserved. Although our protagonist Senhor José was apparently forgiven all his indiscretions and went on to live unhappily ever after, I think my imagined ending would have been more fitting. Perhaps I should explain:

Senhor José is a 50-year-old, unm More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jun 04, 2010

Ruth rated it:

238 pages.

Fussy civil sergant goes looking for a woman whose card dropped on the floor.

Senhor Jose is a low-grade clerk in the city's Central Registry, where the living and the dead share the same shelf space. A middle-aged bachelor, he has no interest in anything beyond the certificates of birth, marriage, divorce, and death that are his daily preoccupations. In the evenings and on weekends, he works on bringing up to date his clipping file of the famous, the rising star More...

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Jan 24, 2010

Christopher rated it:

This book explores the many similarities between life and death and how those differences are mirrored in the every day.

As is typical in Saramago's novels, the story is set in a highly bureaucratic country during an unknown time that mixes the modern with the formality of a time long ago. For example, the main character Jose works in the Central Registry of an unknown country updating the records of the living and deceased writing on their record cards using inkwells and calligraphy More...

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