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Summary: I cried when i finished it
Review: I dragged out reading this book as long as possible, because it was so beautifully written and haunting. A few pages every night made it last, but it still followed me after it was done. I agree with all the praise this book has gotten, as it's an extraordinary book. The writing style may throw you off at first, but it reads smoothly so that you do not even notice after a while. Another thing worth mentioning is the descriptive quality the author gives every little detail, from the colors of traffic lights to the cast of caracters, whom he leaves anonymous only in name.
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Summary: Blind, know thyself!
Review: It has already become a cliche to say that Saramago's 'Blindness' is a disturbing novel. However, that is really what it is--a disturbing novel. Why? Because it makes us ask if, indeed, we have to become blind to see the way things are and to understand what it means to be human. As one of the characters in the novel says: 'So num mundo de cegos as coisas serao o que verdadeiramente sao' ('Only in a world of blind people would things be what they truly are'). Another says: 'Dentro de nos ha una coisa que nao tem nome, essa coisa e o que somos' ('Inside us there is something that doesn't have a name, that something is what we are').More than a novel, I see 'Blindness' as a disquisition on human values. Its title in Portuguese, 'Esaio sobre a cegueira' (literally, 'Essay on blindness'), gives us a clue as to what Saramago is up to in the novel. There are terrible acts of violence and beautiful acts of solidarity; there are jokes on the way we use our language, so centered in our sense of sight; there are asides among characters, revealing, in many instances, the need for companionship and, at the same time, the ultimatately unknowable nature of everyone next to us. In many ways, 'Blindness' is reminiscent of Sartre's play 'Huis clos'. In Sartre's play, our eyes represent the hell everybody has to live with because it is through them that we base our opinions of others, particularly those next to us; in Saramago's novel, our eyes interfere with our attempts to know things and each other better because we become so easily prejudiced by the looks of things and people. One dialogue between two of the characters close to the end of the novel--the old man with a band on one of his eyes and the girl with the dark glasses--exemplify this last point beautifully. People complain that Saramago didn't do anything new in 'Blindness'. To be sure, the story of descent into darkness and pain and the knowledge obtained from the experience has been told too many times. However, Saramago deals with the subject in a very original way in his singular writing style. After so many centuries of writing, I guess that few, if any, subjects are left untouched under the sun. The true test of a good writer is to say things with a unique, personal voice, to depart from the masses and make us see our inconsistencies and absurdities in a creative yet familiar way. Saramago has accomplished that task convincingly with 'Blindness', and he deserves to be congratulated at least for his effort. I originally read 'Blindness' in English. This second time, I read it in Portuguese. The English translation by Giovanni Pontiero (who, unfortunately, died while completing the job) is superb, keeping the idiosyncrasies and power of Saramago's original Portuguese. English readers will be delighted with the translation, and will definitely find considerable food for thought and discussion.
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Summary: Give to a friend and than start a conversation after
Review: I found this book both disturbing and uplifting. It provoked much conversation between myself and a friend I recommended read it. At times the reading was slow, but those times were rare and I was intrigued to see how it all played out. A conversation starter of a read
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining and interesting - but didn't dazzle.
Review: Blindness is a thought provoking, interesting read, with an apocalyptic, "what if we all went blind premise". Ultimately the "white sickness" as the spontaneous blindness is called, is a metaphor for moral blindness in society today, and that is summed up in the final pages of the book. The horrific vision of a world gone blind that Saramago writes about is at times gripping, but at other times very long winded, and readers could find themselves bored at certain places in the story. I found the language to be a little stiff but keeping in mind that it was translated, the struggle for survival of the characters made me want to read on. I thought the ending was somewhat sappy - with a clichéd "you have to go through hell to get to heaven" message to it. Blindness is not the most well written book, doesn't have the deepest plot, or most moving narrative, but the underlying post apocalypse theme is what intrigued me in the first place to pick this book up and made it a worthwhile read.
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Summary: Remarkable
Review: While most describe this novel as a story about blindness, I feel it was about a quest to find the human spirit. Having just finished this novel I am reminded of the nights when I was kept awake thinking of the shocking reality this novel portrayed. Blindness seems to draw a person in, refusing to let go of them until they realize what it is truly about. All in all it made me question what seperates us from the animals. For me, The book was an educational experiance.
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Summary: Blind = 1) Sightless 2) Unwilling to Judge 3)Unquestioning
Review: A fantstically, disturbing novel about the human conditio
Rating: 
Summary: Awful!
Review: A particularly dreary read written in a different, albeit novel, manner that imparts little wisdom or insight to any other than the most sheltered.
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Summary: A profound study of the Human Condition
Review: In a city without a name and with protagonists who are essentially "nameless" (eg. girl with the dark glasses), Saramango's narrative voice has created a world that is universal or "anywhere" (much like Macondo in One Hundred Years of Solitude) and inhabited by "anyman" which could be you or me. Due to an epidemic of white blindness which infects the entire nation, readers are drawn into a world of loss and disorientation through the eyes of one eyewitness. Here we are spectators to "man" at his/her most horrific self, as s/he faces seemingly unbearable atrocities. In the end, man's spirit triumphs in the face of the most absurd and unjust conditions. This timeless work of fiction is an ingeniously profound study of the human condition.
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Summary: Blind luck
Review: I am not quite sure how I selected this book. Blind luck I suppose. A Kafkaesque mystery, fable with a moral that perhaps borders on the stereotype. Are we really morally blind? Just suppose a crime occurs in a full elevator, will most just stare at their shoes? Anyway, I loved the detailed descriptions of not only the expected draconian reactions by the government during this epidemic, but also the balance between the primitive (at times graphic) tribal authoritarian elements with the beauty of the human need and dignity to evolve a cooperative greater family. Disturbing. Wise.
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Summary: Neither good nor bad
Review: It's quite difficult to write a review of this book. After reading it, I'm left with mixed feelings. It's true that the whole physical/moral blindness theme is a bit too evident. I was expecting more on that point. There were other weaknesses, and not because of the translator, because i read it in portuguese. On the other side, I absolutely adored his style, which can be, it is true, quite a burden. I also liked all the graphic details, as they show more than anything else the decadence of the people described in the book.I also liked his objective narrative style, never showing any emotion, not even compassion, for the people he describes (I even thought he was sometimes mocking them by being so laconic and objective). So in the whole it was not bad, but it was surely much inferior to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is one of the prime novels in portuguese litterature (in my opinion). Furthermore, I just wanted to point out that Saramago didn't get the Nobel prize for this novel, but for another one (called I think Memorias do Convento=Memories of the monastery?)which is about the construction of the monastery of Mafra (near Lisbon).
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