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Sep 18, 2008

Ronny rated it:

Buku ini saya add beberapa bulan lalu dg sedikit review. Tapi pengen memperpanjang reviewnya gara2 terpicu oleh kaus yang dipakai Gieb dalam acara peluncuran bukunya Nielam dkk, bunyinya: Mending pilih2 buku daripada pilih2 partai

Oke, José Saramago, penulis sepuh nan jenius dari Portugal pemenang Nobel Sastra 1998 ini (tahun yang sama penulis kesukaan saya lainnya, Amartya Sen, meraih Nobel Ekonomi) sudah saya baca hampir semua karyanya (kecuali karya pertamanya yg susah didapat dan More...

30 comments like (11 people liked it)

Dec 20, 2007

scott rated it:

I've read about half of Saramago's books now. This one is the sequel to Blindness, which was by far my least favorite (brutal, mundane, and mostly pointless). I much preferred "Seeing". I would not consider Blindness a prerequisite either. Of course lots of people disagree with me and loved Blindness...

I finished this book continually astonished with the author's ability to put words together but still wondering what it was all about. He narrates like an abstract painter or More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 17, 2008

Logan rated it:

Those looking for a sequel to Blindness will be surprised. While Seeing carries with it some of the same characters as Blindness, it is an entirely different beast of a book. Rather than the touching tale of survival that made its predecessor so acclaimed, Seeing is satire of the highest quality.

How does a government respond when 83% of voters in the capital cast blank votes? With typical heavy-handedness and increasing degrees of ridiculousness. There must be a conspiracy at wor More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Aug 21, 2008

M rated it:

Harder to get into than Blindness. There just isn't a whole lot of action in the first hundred pages of Seeing. A lot of pontification about the electoral process and the mechanics of politics, but nothing much really happens. I feel like Saramago was a bit too in love with his satire for a bit too long in the narrative, but that's just my take. It does pick up after that, and comes to a conclusion that is probably right for the book, but one that I didn't exactly love.
******
HE More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 04, 2008

Sarah rated it:

Reading Saramago is a lot like reading Faulkner. Once you get into his sentence structure and lack of punctuation, it's an entertaining read and you feel smarter when you're done. Like all the book reviewers say on the cover, this is a fascinating look not only at the people in government but also at how they react to crisis. As with Blindness, the book that precedes Seeing, this book left me asking, "so what happened?" or "how did it end?" Guess that's up to me, but I hope t More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 15, 2008

Brian rated it:

Resurrecting themes initially explored in his epic "Blindness" (which I highly, highly recommend), Saramago's unusual sequel starts of with just as much bang: Election day in an unnamed city in an unnnamed country, and the polls are empty. All of a sudden, directly following an intense rainstorm, everyone in the city arrives to cast their votes at once. Upon counting these votes it is discovered that 7 out of 10 are blank. A vote is recast, spies are integrated into the general populac More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2009

Justin rated it:

Like the other Saramago books I have read, this sequel-of-a-sorts to Blindness was a truly unique reading experience. Now in my third go-round with his distinctive writing style - minimal paragraph breaks, no punctuation to indicate conversations and no character names other than "the so-and-so - it's much less challenging than my first Saramago experience (Blindness).

While this isn't a straight sequel, I would recommend reading Blindness before Seeing. While the latter is full More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 18, 2008

Amy rated it:

I'm still reading this book - it's not one that I can leisurely browse while also keeping an eye on the baby and answering my daughter's "why, mommy?" questions with the other part of my brain. In other words, it's a worthwhile read. So appropriate during this election season. His language never ceases to impress and amaze me. The sentences are so long and wonderful, it's like eating truffles; you just want to bite in and see what's inside each one and eat it slowly, and then reac More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 20, 2009

Hamidreza rated it:

بعد از کوری دومین کتاب از ساراماگو بو که خواندم.به نظرم کوری جالب تر بود.البته نویسنده به کتاب کوری رجوع میکند.پیشنهاد میکنم اول کتاب کوری رو بخونید بعد بینایی رو.نکته ای که برام جالب بود مصداق سیاستمدارای اون کشور با کشور خودمونه.یه نکته دیگه اینکه خط آخر این کتاب هم خوندنیه.پیشنهاد میکنم بخونیش مخصوصا توی این دوره ایران More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 28, 2009

Angele rated it:

To call Seeing a sequel to Saramago's novel Blindness is to attempt to reduce this author's genius to the logic of the ordinary writer. I still haven't figured out why I find Saramago's work so compelling. Is it that contemporary life is coming to resemble Saramago's brutally and beautifully surreal Portugal more every day? Is it that his nameless, allegorical characters (the Interior Minister, the Superintendent, and again in Seeing, the doctor's wife and the dog of tears) take on individual More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 22, 2010

NG rated it:

الحدث العجيب! سكان العاصمة يقررون -دون أي اتفاق مسبق من أي نوع- على التصويت بـ"أصوات بيضاء" على سبيل الاعتراض على الحكومة الحالية والأحزاب السياسية المتاحة.. وهو حق مكفول في الدستور، لكنه يؤدي إلى أزمة حكومية كبيرة نظراً لتخطي نسبة التصويت الأبيض 83% من إجمالي أصوات الناخبين في العاصمة..
الحكومة المنكوبة تقرر إعادة التصويت فتأتي النتيجة أسوأ من ذي قبل.. تقرر الحكومة كشف ملابسات ما يحدث، تطلق مخبيرها وجواسيسها، لكن أحداً منهما لا ينجح في كشف الحقيقة.. فالتصويت الأبيض حدث بالفعل دون More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 12, 2008

Daniel rated it:

I picked up Saramago's latest because, honestly, the back cover lead me to believe that the events and characters from Blindness would play a part in the unfolding of this novel. Unfortunately, I must admit that I feel victim to some well-placed marketing. The characters from the earlier novel (to which this is a sequel, according to Market McMarket, the back cover writer) do not show up until the last 100 pages or so and the ordeal they went through, while referenced, is of little plot consquen More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 24, 2008

Charlaralotte rated it:

Searing. Devastating. Haunting. Brilliantly satiric.

If you don't like long paragraphs with the dialogue embedded instead of pulled out as quotes, then you might get frustrated.

This book is so painfully true about the nature of all governments--the farcical nature of relations between superiors & inferiors; the personality clashes that have far-reaching implications for innocent people, the subversive spin control of the media by desperate officials overstepping their powe More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Lori rated it:

As the "Somewhat" sequel to Blindness, this book follows the same townspeople, 4 years later, around election time. Believed to be under the "spell" of the one woman who did not go blind during the afflicted period 4 years earlier, the voters come out late, as if instructed to do so,and a shocking 80% have posted blank ballots.

The goverment once again reacts atrociously, and places the townspeople under lockdown, and begins an investigation. However, where this b More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 21, 2008

Amari rated it:

_Seeing_ is vintage Saramago, by turns provocative and humble, sardonic and sincere. Although he's one of my favorite writers of fiction, I've found one or two of his books -- forgive me -- mediocre, redundant, forced. The good news is that this isn't one of them.

I find one aspect of _Seeing_ difficult, and it bothered me in another of his novels as well: the absence of any characters with names. I understand why Saramago refuses to name characters, and I love the political point he More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 07, 2011

geek added it

i marvel at how he wrote the book with such simplicity, with a reality so stark that it hurts even for someone apolitical like me.

a must-read for those who are occupying public offices...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 02, 2009

Weinz rated it:

Oh Jose, I'm disappointed in you. You bit off more than you could chew and knew it. You had grandiose ideas and were on the way to succeeding but got lost along the way. Alas, you still construct beautiful sentences and speak volumes with your words so we will meet again.

6 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2009

Laura rated it:

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

1 comment like

Jan 16, 2012

Kira rated it:

There are a lot of books I’m considering as part of the next 12 months’ unavoidable emphasis on political theater: For one, I’ve somehow managed to never read Animal Farm. Also on the list are the various memoirs or nonfiction titles from 2012′s roster of crazy people (i.e. candidates) (it’s to be determined if I can stomach anything Rick Perry has ever written.) But while I think it’s important to read up on the specifics of an electoral pool of opponents, I think it’s in many ways more effecti More...

0 comments like

Dec 23, 2011

Daan rated it:

Een heel ander boek dan De stad der blinden, terwijl het toch het vervolg moet heten. Dat het een vervolg was, merkte ik overigens pas nadat ik over de helft van het boek was en er opeens werd gerefereerd aan gebeurtenissen van vier jaar geleden, toen de stad spontaan blind werd. Maar in tegenstelling tot dat verhaal, gebeurt er in dit boek maar weinig. Het is vooral een beschrijving van een verstoord politiek systeem dat ten onder dreigt te gaan aan de eigen bureaucratie. De enige gelijkenis me More...

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Jul 27, 2011

blake rated it:

This is not a perfect novel, but it is still extremely high-quality and very enjoyable. I've observed the satirical elements in some of Saramago's other novels (Blindness, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, and The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis), but never have I seen it so overt, sharp, and accurate as it is here.

In presenting a scenario in which a democratic society is undone by a sudden and inexplicable mass movement of blank votes, Saramago offers a brilliant send-up of t More...

0 comments like

Jun 09, 2011

Jeruen rated it:

5 months ago, I read Blindess by José Saramago. I found that book extremely awesome and moving, that I decided to grab the sequel and read it as well. Thus, one day, I went to the library and borrowed this book.

So, this book picks up four years from where Blindness ended. There is an election, and the country has three parties. One rainy day, the election was conducted, but the capital faced a democratic crisis: more than 85 percent of the votes have been blank.

So they decide More...

0 comments like

Jun 02, 2010

Joe rated it:

The best novel ever written about democracy and power. Reduces all of illusions of government to mysticism.

"How did they manage, now that there are no police, The robber was an amateur, and the gun, although it was a real one, wasn't loaded, Where have they taken him, The people who disarmed him took him to a fire station, Whatever for, they haven't any facilities for detaining prisoners, Well they had to put him somewhere, So what happened next, Apparently, the firemen spent an More...

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Jan 03, 2008

Beth rated it:

I randomly discovered this pseudo-sequel to Blindness when I was checking the library shelves for other books by Saramago. I say pseudo-sequel because it's not necessarily referred to as a sequel in anything I've found, yet it does reference the events and primary characters found in Blindness. Equally as haunting as its predecessor, though for somewhat different reasons, the ending had me in tears even if I did have an inkling it was coming. Well worth the time to read.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 06, 2009

Meredith rated it:

So of course I had to read the sequel as well. This, I thought, was a really great companion to the first novel. The overlap in characters was minimal, but the themes dovetailed well, and the juxtaposition of the two books' endings was great. I do think that Saramago's perspective on "human nature" or humanity was more insightful and engaging than his views on politics. I thought he allowed for more variation in humanity, yielding destructive scenarios that still offered hope, while hi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 23, 2009

DL rated it:

A bald satire of governmental bodies and their wild, erroneous inefficiency, Seeing is in turns funny, inspiring, mystical, and a bit devastating. Without any prior organization, 87% of the voters of the fictional country (Portugal) cast a blank vote at the presidential election. The government, convinced there must be a conspiracy, removes itself from the city, leaving the citizens (traitors? conspirators? insurgents? ingrates?) to fend for themselves under a state of siege. An awkward serie More...

0 comments like

May 10, 2010

Emily added it

I found it useful to think about José Saramago's Seeing as, not so much a sequel to his earlier novel Blindness (though it takes place in the same unnamed European city, four years later), but as, fittingly enough, its photographic negative. Whereas Blindness is a brutally dark story with a glimmer of hope toward the end, Seeing is a wickedly funny satire—a much lighter tone overall—but with a crushing bit of darkness at its close. Whereas Blindness does not hesitate to explore the vilest brut More...

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Feb 05, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine added it

The same dense, relentless style that has won Portuguese writer Saramago accolades throughout a long career meets with some ambivalence in Seeing, a sequel to Blindness (1998). In the manner of that earlier novel, Seeing combines the author's trademark verbal convolutions with an allegory of power and politics. Some critics argue that the novel's allegorical plot misses the mark or simply falls flat; most, however, recognize the octogenarian's skill as a satirist and cultural critic. Saramago's

More...

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Jul 20, 2009

Danceswithwords rated it:

Blindness was, to me, a moral story: what happens to people when society collapses, and everyone is uniquely vulnerable; how individuals deal with their power, or lack thereof, over others. Seeing--which is, if not a sequel, then at least a follow-up to Blindness--is, by contrast, an explicitly political fable. Faced with an ongoing silence from the government about the terrible past epidemic of blindness, and by an array of ballot choices that don't answer their questions, the public chooses to More...

0 comments like

Jul 01, 2011

Althea rated it:

I read this because it's the sequel to "Blindness," and although I didn't wholeheartedly love that book, it was intriguing enough to make me want to know where the author was going to go with this.
The first half of the book makes no reference to the first book, and I was beginning to wonder if it was merely a conceptual sequel, but the characters from 'Blindness' appear in the latter portion of the book.
Mainly though, this book is Saramago's acerbic criticism of politics, his More...

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