Rob's review of Blindness
Blindness by José Saramago, Giovanni Pontiero
Rob's review
rating:
bookshelves:
2008
recommended for:
acolytes of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
status:
Read in January, 2008
"...but it is also true, if this brings her any consolation, that if, before every action, we were to begin weighing up the consequences, thinking about them in earnest, first the immediate consequences, then the probably, then the possible, then the imaginable ones, we should never move beyond the point where our first thought brought us to a halt."
Never felt myself particularly captivated by this particular novel. Nothing about it grabbed me and aside from the quote above, nothing about it really resonated with me. Perhaps it was the style -- the incredibly long paragraphs full of improbably long sentences, the dialogue interspersed throughout, Like so, different speakers connected by commas, Like so. Not as hyper-extended as Marquez, but that was the rub that I got.
Never felt myself particularly captivated by this particular novel. Nothing about it grabbed me and aside from the quote above, nothing about it really resonated with me. Perhaps it was the style -- the incredibly long paragraphs full of improbably long sentences, the dialogue interspersed throughout, Like so, different speakers connected by commas, Like so. Not as hyper-extended as Marquez, but that was the rub that I got.
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That is an interesting question as it seems that many said countrymen follow this pattern of literature although one could say the same for Russian authors as their are a few instances of such, but verily I cannot recall their names although their words have impressed on my soul the essence of the method outlined in you original comment yet they differ in very fundamental ways namely: style, prose, and that je ne sais quoi that we are all aware of, that is, those of us who have studied under the inimitable Michael Glaser, who I am sad to say has not a single publication on this Internets site that I was able to find, although others may be able to succeed where I have failed -- although I have not truly attempted to try -- regardless I have mentioned that Russians like to drink vodka, but it was said in between the lines, as the saying goes, and that fact transcends the original focus of this follow-up comment which leads me to conclude thusly.
We've been hiding... biding our time. Awaiting the moment where we can most effectively thrash your productivity to ruin. That time is anon.-m
And apparently I will be Saramago's fellow conspirator.One of the strengths of Blindness is the novel's ability to show us both the lowest depths & the highest aspirations of the human condition. Yeah, there are a LOT of people whom knowing that no one can see their actions will get away with whatever they can, but then there's others who will perform acts of sacrifice & nobility knowing that no one will ever bear witness to what they have done. It's an interesting (if granted somewhat densely written) book.
Did you finish it?
@Steve: it's densely written, alright... and it isn't that I didn't take away anything at all. For me it was more like the writing style got in the way of the narrative.And: yes, I finished it.
