Rating: 
Summary: Profound and haunting
Review: It is rare to find a book that is interesting, well-written, AND challenges everything you have ever thought about life and death and human nature in general. Saramago's book is intriguing and insightful. He brings fiction away from simple storytelling into a new realm. His book exists in a world that forces you to examine EVERYTHING you take for granted, and even the things you don't. I believe that one of the best traits a book can have is the power to inspire. I don't mean in a "chicken soup for the soul" way, either. After reading Blindness I contacted an estranged friend (with whom I hadn't spoken in a year) to reccommend it. I read it straight through, on an airplane, and I wanted to touch ground so I could reorder my life and write a novel. What a feeling! To put down a book and want to be productive. It is not preachy in any way. It just makes you think.It has been over a year since I read this book and the awe I felt after closing the cover has not left me. Some of the terror and the joy enclosed within those pages lives like a memory in my mind.
Rating:
Summary: The book of the decade
Review: I read this book a year ago and was so impressed I've since delved into all of his books, he is worthy of his Nobel prize for literature for this book alone.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read in Every Sense!
Review: A great wisdom allows truth to be expressed at once simply and completely, and this book is an easy example of that. I felt that the read was not at all confusing despite the unusual employment of punctuations, and this probably has alot to do with the deft translation which probably deserves a significant credit to the stature of this novel in its English version.
Rating:
Summary: Blindness - A Metaphor
Review: Saramago has done it again. For those of you that haven't read this book, buy it as soon as you can. It captivates you like no other book. The author uses a metaphor -- white blindness -- to show how weak humans really are when it comes to making decisions and living their life. To fully understand the symbolism behind the white blindness, you must read the book and experience it yourself. The novel starts off when one person suddenly goes blind, and soon the entire world is infected by this disease. Every chapter is filled with irony and symbolism. This is by far one of the best book I have ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: A brilliant allegory of a world gone mad
Review: Saramago is an outstanding writer who offers many interesting questions and ideas pertaining to the loss of sight, and how it can effect a group of people trying to survive amidst a worldwide epidemic. At times disturbing and sad, but always interesting, the most imporatant thing about this work is that it will endure.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but reader beware ...
Review: I picked up this book while browsing the literature shelves at a local bookstore, looking for something new. The cover didn't grab me, and I've learned to ignore the irritating habit publishing companies have of re-stickering all of an author's works when he or she wins an award ... so it was really the concept, outlined on the jacket flap, which drew me in. The concept is intriguing, but then all of Saramago's concepts are - he is a master joke teller. He sets up the one-liner, then fleshes it out with a whole backstory. Genius. Having finished the book, I found it very interesting and entertaining, and give it four stars. But I must admit that my enthusiasm and enjoyment were somewhat dampened by Saramago's writing style. I'm no idiot - I can handle stream-of-consciousness and other purposeful obfuscations. I'm not a bubblegum book reader. But I found myself frequently backtracking to try to parse an extremely long sentence - sometimes more than half a page - comprised almost entirely of commas. Furthermore, the complete lack of delineation of conversation will have the reader counting lines ("Man 1 said this, Man 2 said that ...") to see who said what - everything is run together like the publisher was trying to save money on paper. Unfortunately, this style seems to be status quo for Saramago. I've just begun his "The History of the Siege of Lisbon", and the first chapter is a four-page conversation without a SINGLE quote mark, indentation, etc, to let you know who's talking - and since there has yet to be any character development, it is difficult to follow. But if you are willing to put in the time, they are both very good books. I don't agree that leaving the name of some ridiculous god out of the narrative made it less believable - I think it made it more believable. After all, the main characters were educated, enlightened people - I rather liked the way in which they eschewed any feelings towards an imagined deity, and undertook their responsibilities as necessary. As for those prudes who are lambasting the book for its "lewdness" - folks, life is lewd and rough and disgusting. You can't have a "nice" tragedy. Saramago makes the situations seem more real by showing us how dirty they are. Remember the old cowboy shows from the 50's, where the cowboys were always clean and on clean sets? Remember how fakey they looked? Reality is dirty and always a bit disconcerting. One last note - to all you weirdos who are posting junk like, "This book will haunt you", or "This book will make you re-examine your life" ... please get day jobs. Fiction rarely has much of an impact. It's a good story, and it's pretty well told. That's all that matters. "Nobody cares. Just play the record" - Roger Waters
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: This is undoubtedly one of the best books I know of. I read it in 7 hours at a single sitting and was so impressed I started to urge everyone else I know to give it a try. The unfailing descriptions and memorable characters completely drown you in the story; you start to fear that you yourself might be struck by the white blindness at any moment but you still can't revert your eyes from the pages. Humanity in all its forms is on display here; from utter wickedness and selfishness to the example of the doctor's wife. Strongly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A story whose characters are all of us
Review: This is one of those few books with the power to change our lives, unless we are afraid to acknowledge its words as a mirror of ourselves. Undoubtedy, Saramago's intention was to shock readers with the spectacle of their most horrible faults,(and this is apparently the most striking feature of the book), but strangely enough it also comes across as a tribute to human nature, to what we have been able to keep as genuinely good in a predominantly evil world: contradictory as these messages may seem,they are easily combined by the author, who makes a single, ordinary woman seem like a goddess among her fellow (human?) beings...
Rating: 
Summary: Over-rated, irritating to read
Review: This was one giant metaphor, which would have been better suited to a short story, by an author obssessed by excrement (literally) and negligent of his punctuation. Concept is terrific - execution is dismal.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting, if incomplete vision
Review: Saramago carefully weaves his vision of the world when humans lose one of their senses. Most of the passages in this book are dark and depressing, so if you are looking for a dramatic episode followed by an uplifting one, read something else. It is a horror story and a metaphor. My only qualm is that Saramago never mentions God in his characters' thoughts or in their actions, which is highly unlikely in a situation like that, whatever your belief system might be. It made the novel feel less real. Other than that, an engaging read. The last third of the book made it all the more worthwhile. Read it in Portuguese if you can.
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