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    <name><![CDATA[Marieke]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>        
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      <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>9</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[leila, dave]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at>Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Aug 26 20:08:00 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Aug 26 20:08:00 -0700 2007</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[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 ensues, but we realize that one woman, the wife of the opthalmologist first exposed to the blind seeking help, is inexplicably immune. i have come to think that she represents the spiritual guide that helps us through the novel, and somehow manages to remain a bastion of calm and reason even in the face of horrific circumstances. in other words, she is a grace, a muse embodying hope. the main characters, a core of five or six of the first individuals to go blind, must find their way through the labyrinthine and kafkaesque setting of the mental institution designated by the government for quarantine. the blind are herded there, left with little sustenance and no guarantee of supervision and very quickly people become survivalist, some altruistically, and some in a savage, aggressive and violent manner. the haphazard organization that emerges is threatened by a band of rogue blind men who demand food and supplies from the various barracks and rape the women. as in 1984, there is an announcement played over a loudspeaker at the same time every day, repeating instructions and essentially threatening death if anyone plans to escape. deftly and surreptitiously, the opthalmologist's wife helps as many people as she can. left to their own devices, the inmates soon understand that the entire city has been overtaken. in many ways, this book is a tender character study revealing the rapidity with which human frailty wreaks havoc on moral codes and ethical systems. i read the second part of the series, &quot;seeing&quot;, but i would NOT recommend this, as saramago's extremely fluid style, sometimes annoyingly lacking in punctuation, does not serve the less philosophical project of exploring the political resistance of the people involved in the epidemic years later. this book was ultimately readable, frightening, and fits under the aegis of the apocalyptic/disaster literature that some of the greatest living writers have been causing to flourish.]]></body>
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