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Dec 16, 2009

William rated it:

When you sit in a coffee shop at the corner of two busy streets and read a book about blindness, you find yourself thinking unfamiliar thoughts, and you believe, when you raise your head to watch the people passing, that you see things differently. You notice the soft yellow light of the shop reflecting off the bronze of the hardwood floors. You notice among the people coming from the train two girls who intersect that line, spilt, call back, and go their ways, dividing into the two directions o More...

9 comments like (113 people liked it)

May 14, 2011

Paquita Maria rated it:

Whoa! This will be a bit scatterbrained. Maybe I will come back later and try to really give this the long, well-thought-out review that it deserves, but right now I am too busy basking in a mix of discomfort and disorientation.

Somewhat important fact concerning this book and my review and rating of it: I saw this movie first, and felt that it (to be totally clear) fucking sucked*, but was fascinated by the plot enough to randomly pick up this novel one day when I so happened to More...

22 comments like (31 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Sammy rated it:

This is definitely a book that people will either love or hate. It's just that kind of book. Not everyone is going to pick this up and like it. Even the people who end up really liking it, while reading it keep finding themselves putting down the book, looking around the room and sighing in discomfort, wondering if they should really continue. They will though, and they will once again find themselves fully immersed.

Jose Saramago writes this specific story in such a way that you are More...

2 comments like (40 people liked it)

Aug 24, 2011

Saman added it

رمان خوف‌ناك و تفكرانگيز (كوري) يا ترجمه‌ي صحيح‌تر آن(نابينايي) با جملاتي كه در زير مي‌آيد شروع مي‌شود. سرآغاز كتاب هم اين چنين نوشته شده است
وقتي مي‌تواني ببيني، نگاه كن
وقتي مي‌تواني نگاه كني، رعايت كن
«از كتاب مواعظ»

كه صد البته چنين كتابي وجود خارجي ندارد و نويسنده با اين سرآغاز مي‌خواهد نكته‌اي را در لفافه گوشزد كند: اين يك داستان موعظه‌وار است

درباره‌ي رمان (كوري) و نويسنده‌اش بسيار نوشته‌اند و اخيراً نيز پس از سال‌ها نويسنده‌اش اجازه‌ي به تصوير كشيدن More...

1 comment like (14 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Amos rated it:

Saramago is an incredible writer and I think Blindness is, hands down, his best novel.

There are no names in the book (the narrator identifies everybody by their traits) which makes the characters universal. In typical Saramago style, there are very few paragraph indents and very few periods, but a great number of commas. Also, as Saramago readers have come to expect, the language is deceptively simple yet loaded with meaning. Saramago conveys in half a dozen words what another w More...

2 comments like (23 people liked it)

Sep 15, 2008

Alison rated it:

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

8 comments like (19 people liked it)

Jun 23, 2010

mp rated it:

Whether interpreted as an allegory, or simply as the story that is being told, Blindness is about being human. Between its multiple layers and multiple possible interpretations, the factor that is common is humanity.

In a world full of blind people, where the civilization as we know it has completely deteriorated, people are no more identified and judged based on their profession, social status, outward appearances etc. All that remains to distinguish one person from another is one's More...

7 comments like (23 people liked it)

Sep 30, 2008

Shannon rated it:

There are some books where, as you are reading them, you can actually feel them enrich your life, broaden your mind, wow you with their awesomeness. For me, Blindness is one such book.

This is a classic example of "highbrow" literature because the way it is written is an artform, and just as important as the subject matter, but I wouldn't want that to put you off. It's not an alienating book, I don't think; it's not that it's difficult to read as such, just plays with conve More...

13 comments like (23 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Marieke rated it:

this is the first of a two-part inquiry by jose saramago into the implications of the phenomenon of cultural blindness. because it is jose saramago, and he is a literalist, he makes this come alive by introducing us to a city hit by a sudden and devastating blindness epidemic. no one knows why the first man (in a sense, very much like albert camus' first man in his ambiguous and rather anonymous depiction in the novel) went blind, or why it becomes infectious. understandably, complete chaos ensu More...

6 comments like (11 people liked it)

May 27, 2011

Maryam rated it:

كتاب كوري يكي از بهترين كتاب هايي بود كه من تا به حال خوندم. اينقدر در داستان غرق شده بودم كه حتي فرصت نوشتن جملات زيبايش را پيدا نكردم و به همين خاطر مي خوام در اولين فرصت براي بار دوم بخونمش تا جملات قشنگش رو براي هميشه براي خودم بنويسم....

خلاقيت نويسنده اش برام قابل تحسين بود.

ولي اصلا نمي تونستم تصور كنم كه اگر واقعا چنين اتفاقي كه براي شخصيت هاي اين داستان افتاد، روزي اتفاق بيفته حال و روز ما چطوري ميشه!

نكته ي جالب براي من اين بود كه هيچ كدوم از شخصيت ها More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Apr 22, 2011

Becky rated it:

This was definitely a thought provoking book.

What would the world be like if we all suddenly lost our ability to see? Would we try to help and protect each other or would we adopt such a heightened sense of self-preservation that it would make every other living being an enemy? Would we lose our humanity along with our sense of identity...?

It took me a little while to get the feel for this book, literally. Dialogue was reduced to a disorienting jumble of voices, which w More...

5 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 09, 2008

Laura Jean rated it:

Science fiction literature. Yes, it is possible.

Here's a response I wrote to the book:

Blindness by José Saramago, published in English in 1997, is a pre 9-11 parable that aptly depicts the debasement of which humans are capable in extraordinary circumstances, and is therefore relevant to contemporary audiences struggling with government incompetence and the consequences of apathetic cruelty. While his characters and nearly all those living in the book’s fabulist scenar More...

3 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

spencer rated it:

Like Stephen King without all the punctuation.

4 comments like (20 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2008

Rebecca rated it:

This book was a major challenge for me to finish. For that reason, I cannot give it more than two stars, maybe 2 1/2. I admire this author's cautionary tale, but there are so many parts that I did not like. The first half of the book drove me crazy with frustration. It took me quite a while to get used to the author's lack of grammar. I had a difficult time getting into the story. I still do not understand why names for the characters are unnecessary. I think that people can be called a n More...

12 comments like (17 people liked it)

Mar 26, 2008

Yulia rated it:

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

7 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2011

Venus rated it:

وجدان که خیلی از آدمهای بی فکر آنرا زیر پا می گذارند و خیلیهای دیگر انکارش می کنند،چیزی است که وجود دارد و همیشه وجود داشته است.اختراع فلاسفه عهد دقیانوس نیست،یعنی اختراع زمانی که روح چیزی جز یک قضیه مبهم نبود.با گذشت زمان،همراه با رشد اجتماعی و تبادل ژنتیکی کار ما به آنجا کشیده که وجدان را در رنگ خون و شوری اشک پیچیده ایم و انگار که این هم بس نبوده،چشمها را به نوعی آیینه رو به درون بدل کرده ایم،نتیجه این است که چشمها غالبا انچه را سعی داریم با زبان انکار کنیم بی پروا لو می دهند. More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 01, 2009

HappyHippo rated it:

bagaimana jika penduduk satu kota atau satu negara jadi mendadak buta semua?
repooooooooooot dan susaaaaaaaah mungkin itu jawabannya.

rada lama namatin buku ini karena beberapa faktor, misalnya ini buku bercerita tentang masyarakat yang sakit yang sering bikin gue brenti baca karena merasa mual dan gak kuat untuk nerusinnya. faktor lainnya yaitu sok2an baca dua versi bukunya yang edisi terjemahan dan edisi inggrisnya (e-book). faktor baca bolak2 itu mungkin jadi faktor kela More...

31 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 14, 2008

Logan rated it:

This is an early contender for "book of the year" status. Many thanks to those who have recommended it to me, I would have missed out on an essential work of fiction.

It's written in a different style that eschews typical rules of punctuation and paragraphs, yet Blindness remains understandable to the lay reader in a way that the books of Cormac McCarthy do not. This book was incredibly haunting, painting a realistic portrayal of the darkness in the hearts of humanity and More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 07, 2007

marg rated it:

Since this will probably be my last pleasure read for a good long while, I'm thrilled it was such a good one. This was a random purchase at Steimetskys where they were having a buy one, get one half off special on fiction in English (thus justifying - somewhat - my purchase of The Saturday Wife, Khay) - anyway I had never heard of it but the Nobel for literature ribbon on the front seemed a good haskamah so I went with it - wow! One of the most meaningful, profound (read: depressing ;) reading More...

5 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 24, 2007

Don rated it:

Wow, this is a book that will stick in the mind. At the narrative level it's simply an exploration of what would happen if everyone in a modern nation were to become blind. The breakdown of sanitation, food distribution and the normal social order are described in just enough detail to make the reader squirm and cringe, from the viewpoint (so to speak) of the the one eyewitness who is spared, and her companions. The story is told in a matter-of-fact voice that makes the worst degradations just b More...

8 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 17, 2009

John rated it:

(1st, special thanks to Michelle W for the cattle prod)

Recently I dipped again into this one, as I dusted off a few of the artifacts picked up during my heart's recent resurrection. Not that I'm unaware of the novel's haul: the Nobel for literature, for one, & well-nigh 13000 reviews here on GR for another. To toss in my own two cents suggests the sound of coins falling in an empty forest. Yet then I revisit this brutal yet balanced fairytale, & I find I've got to offer up someth More...

7 comments like (11 people liked it)

Nov 11, 2008

Diana rated it:

This isn't a fun read, but extremely thought provoking and well written. I highly recommend it. It won the Nobel Prize for Lit. and is translated from Portugese.

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 29, 2011

Kwesi 章英狮 rated it:

When everyone is in need, no one can ever help them. The eyes that looses its vision and the fears that the men can never explained. The unnamed city of Blindness, is a city of people crying for mercy looking through the eyes of every blind man and every bluntness that the man can do. But only one man can save them, a woman, the eyewitness of every man's fears and the suffering of innocent people. How merciless can be, a place, a place of nobody can see except you.

It started when th More...

26 comments like (12 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2008

Sera rated it:

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0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 02, 2008

Tara rated it:

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3 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 22, 2008

bobherzog rated it:

I don't know why I'm giving this book 4 stars, but for some reason I respected it.

The story is depressing, the characters aren't that unique or compelling (this is done on purpose, I believe, you know the everyman Hitchcockian thing), and the dialogue is awkward (he tries to offset this by keeping the dialogue within the prose, with no quotation marks, trying to give it a less concrete feel). I know he wants it to have an anytime-anyplace feeling, but that doesn't excuse some of the More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Aug 24, 2011

Abdullah rated it:

رواية جدا رائعة ومميزة

ثق تماما أنك عندما تشرع في قراءة "العمى" فلن تكون كأي رواية قرأتها مسبقا. فهذه الرواية لها طابع خاص بأسلوب مميز ويكاد يكون غريب نوعا ما ولاتستسيغه في بداية قراءتك للرواية.

كما ذكر الكثير ممن قرأها, الأحداث تنفجر في وجه القارىء من السطور الأولى.. بلا مقدمات أو تمهيدات. عن نفسي تفاجأت من قوة البداية وقوة تأثيرها وجذبها للقارىء بأسلوب غامض مثير للريبة!

من الأشياء التي شدت انتباهي هي عدم وجود أي أسماء أشخاص أو مدن أو أماكن أو شوارع More...

7 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 02, 2008

Erin rated it:

By striking all of his characters blind in his novel Blindness, Jose Saramago explores the conditions and consequences of the myriad figurative blindnesses that plague humanity. Saramago conducts his investigation with delicacy, he is a sympathetic narrator, even as the plot rushes forward with all the weight of an allegory, or a crowd of frightened blind people, and the hapless victims are crushed underfoot.
One day, in a nameless city and country, a man in his car is struck suddenly bli More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2010

Lori rated it:

Revised Review:

In September of 2007, I was wandering the Literature Shelves in Borders, not quite sure what I was in the mood for, but determined not to leave until I had found a new book to bring home with me. I rarely enter the bookstore with a list, although I have over 200 books that I desperately want to purchase... I prefer browsing and letting the books call to me while there. Where is the fun in bringing a list, hitting the shelf it sits on, and walking out???

More...

7 comments like (6 people liked it)

Mar 28, 2008

Brad rated it:

Not at all disturbing, not at all compelling and not at all interesting, Jose Saramago's Blindness only succeeds in frustrating readers who take a moment to let their imagination beyond the page. Yes, Saramago's story is a clever idea, and, yes, he creates an intentional allegory to force us to think about the nature of humanity, but his ideas are clearly those of a privileged white male in a privileged European nation. Not only do his portrayals of women and their men fall short of the mark, bu More...

32 comments like (20 people liked it)