From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

Skylight

José Saramago,

Margaret Jull Costa (Translator)

Why we're reading this: A book that was originally published in another language.
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Nov 22, 2014 Jeff Scott rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley, fiction, portuguese-fiction, male

Saramago called this book “the book lost and found in time”. It is a gift to his readers born from heartache. A book submitted to a publisher when he was just starting out only to be harshly rejected. It resulted in a silence for over a decade. Skylight represents a young Saramago formulating his strengths and finding his voice. Publishing it now, it is like finding that lost piece of artwork. The connoisseur can find the early attempts at the shadow and see what would come out of it. This is a Saramago called this book “the book lost and found in time”. It is a gift to his readers born from heartache. A book submitted to a publisher when he was just starting out only to be harshly rejected. It resulted in a silence for over a decade. Skylight represents a young Saramago formulating his strengths and finding his voice. Publishing it now, it is like finding that lost piece of artwork. The connoisseur can find the early attempts at the shadow and see what would come out of it. This is a book for his fans, a treat to see Saramago in his earliest stage. A great lost work, fully intact to sit among his canon.

Skylight takes place in an apartment complex in Lisbon just after World War II. A young protagonist, Abel (assumed to be a version of Saramago) rents a room from a cobbler and his wife. From there, we observe all the interactions of those in the complex. We see a family’s fall from grace, we see couples viciously fight each other, but most of all we see a young writer trying to find his voice.

Saramago often goes for the fantastic to make his point. In Blindness, he can reveal man’s true humanity when the world is plunged into darkness. In Death with Interruptions, he can show us the dignity of man when no one can die. In this book, we see Saramgo struggle with finding his voice, trying to decide if he will be a cynic and keep to himself, or continue to write to help people reveal the error of their ways. By writing he wants to help them see and just like his creator, he would create a career to do just that.

Favorite Passages:

Time slipped slowly by. The tick-tock of the clock kept nudging the silence, trying to shoo it away, but the silence resisted with its dense heavy mass in which all sounds drowned. Both fought unremittingly on, the ticking clock with its obstinency of despair and the certain knowledge of death, while the silence had on its side disdainful eternity. p. 26

I just hope that your preoccupation with avoiding imprisonment doesn't end up with you becoming your own prisoner, the prison of your skepticism. p. 135

As soon as I feel the octopus of life getting a grip, I cut off the tentacle. p. 132

Listen, Abel, when you say the word 'man', think 'men'. Man, with a capital M, as I sometimes read in the newspapers, is a lie, a lie that serves as a cover for all kinds of villainy. Everyone wants to save Man, but no one wants to know about men. p. 253

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Jan 02, 2015 Tiffany rated it liked it · review of another edition

Definitely want to read more of Saramago's books. As a first novel, this is beautiful. ...more

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Jan 07, 2015 Sharon rated it it was ok

Shelves: vintage

Don't review my library record to see how many times I had to renew this book to finish it ... at least I made it through by the maximum allowance. I was really hopeful that I would enjoy this early work of a maestro, and alas, found the skylight to be less like a shiny, beautiful prism and more like jagged shards of glass. Love lost? ...more

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Nov 15, 2014 Rincey added it

Shelves: 2014

Jun 14, 2024 Loretta marked it as to-read

Shelves: e-books-i-own-to-read

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