Blindness

Rating:
Summary: Human Nature Exposed
Review: A dark look at the core of human nature and the will to survive when stripped of a sense that is widely taken for granted. The book has many literal levels that are open to interpretation and is written with very little punctuation that is sometimes difficult to follow in dialogue-heavy areas. Overall, an interesting look at the breakdown of society when laws are obsolete and where only the strong survive.

Rating:
Summary: Worth all five stars
Review: This is an important book about the insights of the human soul and surpisingly true if such an epidemic should occur. I find it to be more about the story of discovering the truth behind social interactions when social barriers are struck down and the world ceases to function. Packs of humans form together and many look out for themselves. It deserved the Nobel Prize.

Rating:
Summary: Great premise but doesn't hold together
Review: Jose Saramago is a Nobel Prize winner in literature and his conception for this book is commendable. However, I don't agree with the raving reviews for this novel and I think that this offering is merely OK. Saramago tends to write in sentences that fill up the page and leave little room for the imagination to roam. Rather than create a relational tension between the words and the reader's mind, Saramago oveplays his gift of words and falls into the trap of writing profusely on a page. This may have been his intention, but if so, then this story is really nothing to write home about as a novel. He has created a memorable plot line that doesn't have much of a heartbeat. "Blindness" was my introduction to Saramago and I enjoyed the setup and the imagination required to write this novel. Yet, I don't think it is worthy of its raving reviews and I should maybe try other works from his repertoire.

Rating:
Summary: Horrific Masterpiece
Review: One day a man goes blind while driving, a strange blindness in which everything turns white. Within days, everyone who has come in contact with the man also has the white blindness--the ophthalmologist who saw him as an emergency, the man who helped him to get home (and also stole his car), and so on. Soon it is evident that a strange plague of blindness is sweeping the city. The authorities react with panice, herding all the newly blind people into internment in an abandoned mental hospital.

Things quickly deteriorate. Food is sporadic. Sanitation non-existent. The veneer of civilization crumbles in a series of horrific scenarios that reminded me of Lord Of The Flies. Anyone who tries to escape is shot on sight. A handful of thugs takes control of the food and uses it to extort from, and humiliate, the other blind people. No need to belabor the plot--there are many other reviews.

The book is a deep and frightening look at what it means to be human. It is also an exploration of human courage, resilience and caring. This is my third Saramago novel, and definitely the best. The author's unusual writing style has been noted by other reviewers. Endless paragraphs, minimal punctuation, no quotation marks at all. None of the characters have names. It takes some getting used to, but in this book it worked well. A nobel prize author can break a few rules!

I had to put the book down frequently because it was so emotionally demanding, so ruthless in its portrayal of the dark side of humanity. Despite this it is also a book of redemption. Blindness is a work of genius and I can't recommend it too highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

Rating:
Summary: Icky existentialism
Review: Blindness seems to provide a lot of opportunity to explore existential questions. I suppose that's because the sighted rely so heavily on their eyes to understand the world that the loss of sight is a perfect metaphor for the existentialist view that our world is fundamentally unknowable. What we think we know, we only assume... and are probably wrong.

In Blindness, Saramago gets at the core of this uneasiness and exploits it to tremendous effect. Other reviewers have covered the plot pretty well, so I won't go into any detail there. Saramago begins with a character going blind behind the wheel of his car at a stop light. A good samaritan helps him home, only to rob him. In the tradition of poetic justice the thief is the second character to go blind. Gradually everyone within the realm of the city (and one presumes a good chunk of the world since no outside help is proffered) contracts this epidemic blindness save for one woman, who finds herself guiding a band of not-so-merry blindfolk.

At the outbreak of the disease, the government carts off the newly-blind to be quarantined leave them neglected and unsupported, without enough food for all the inmates. Anyone trying to escape is killed by snipers. No one will enter the building for fear of contracting the blindness. In "Lord of the Flies" fashion a form of tribalism takes over with one group of male goons ruling with iron fists over the others, extorting sex and money in exchange for food. Saramago carries us through the gradual descent into anarchy as everything that keeps society functioning dissembles.

If hell is other people as Sartre supposed, there's no question that hell is infinitely worse when basic hygiene practices have been abandoned. There are passages in the book with such vivid descriptions that I could literally smell and taste the squalor in the air around me. Eventually, our clan of blindfolk make their way back to the city and proceed to simply do what it takes to survive in this new world. Saramago may have existentialist questions, but if Blindness is any indication he is confident in humanity's ability to survive anything.

If you like Blindness, I'd recommend Joseph Kelman's "How Late It Was, How Late" for a different treatment of a similar situation. In "How Late...", the main character wakes up on the side of the road to discover that a drunken row with a policeman has left him blind. In both books, the very bureaucracy that is supposed to help those in need is their biggest obstacle. In both cases, the blind character(s) are left to their own devices to exist in a world that won't accommodate them. Both books are raw, and unabashed about the unpleasant elements of human behaviour, but Blindness is more hopeful than "How Late..." At the end of Blindness, we are confident society will be able to rebuild. Kelman leaves us no such comfort.

Rating:
Summary: Another Masterpiece by Saramago
Review: What would we all do if the world were suddenly blind? Exactly what Saramago writes - we would become less than human, killing each other for survival, chaos and paranoia everywhere. We can't think we are above this behaviour, Saramago with his distinctive writing style reveals his thoughts on human nature, politics, the nature of fear, and the fight for survival. The story is prolific, realistic, and addictive. His writing style works excellently with this story, dialogue of several people run into each other and you often can't tell who has stopped talking and who begins - try closing your eyes as though you were blind - you will find the same effect hearing conversations that Saramago constructs on paper - and it wasn't contrived at all. Also recommend "the Gospel According to Jesus Christ" by Saramago.

Rating:
Summary: A powerful and disturbing novel
Review: A man waiting at a traffic light suddenly goes blind for no apparent reason. Not a dark blindness, but a unique whitening, as if looking at a blank movie screen. Then, the man who helped him home goes blind and soon, more and more reports of sudden blindness are sweeping through the city. The government, in an effort to stem this epidemic, confines the newly blind and those who have been in contact with them to a mental institution. After a few days, the conditions become horrific, food becomes scarce, and baseness soon starts to grab hold of the internees. One lone woman is witness to everything, waiting for her turn to become one of the blind, becoming the eyes for a small group of internees as they survive in this new whitened world.

The sense of disorientation and loss caused by this inexplicable blindness comes across not only in his description of places and living conditions, but also in how everyone communicates. Saramgo does not separate each character's speech into separate paragraphs, but has them run into one another in long, flowing paragraphs that confuse the reader, making him/her feel as though he/she is blind as well, not knowing who is speaking, only hearing voices. The reader also sees society at its worst: an alarmist government, soldiers going off half-cocked for fear of being blinded themselves, communities in the grips of fear that turn against one another, the degradation the one human can cause another.

The character of the Doctor's wife - the lone woman with sight - witnesses all these horrors, but still maintains a sense of what is right and wrong. She remains the voice and eyes of reason, altruistically helping those in her ward to survive until the next day and the next.

"Blindness" is a powerful and disturbing novel from author José Saramago that shows the resiliency of the human spirit. Things that we take for granted may suddenly disappear, but humanity can persevere and adapt in the face of such changes. A wonderous reading experience.

Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking and original with universal themes
Review: My six-work title wraps it all up: Blindness is definitely worth reading, though at a time when you feel like reflecting about the futility of our existence and how fragile our entire system of well-being is. The reason that this novel is able to cross borders and appeal to an international audience is because it is a fable that demonstrates how mankind is walking a tightrope and the slightest mishap could throw us off-balance. While this is unlikely, it is an interesting study in that and how the instinct of survival makes man do the worst. I found it interesting that the story seems to take place in a rather small city in a somewhat traditional society (probably a good description of where saramago is from in portugal), yet despite this origin, the majority of the members of this society quickly lose all sense of decency, something i would expect more of people in a huge metropolis.

One word of caution, DO NOT READ THE ABOVE SYNOPSIS (AKA "REVIEW")...IT GIVES AWAY THE WHOLE STORY OF THE ENTIRE BOOK! i think that if you were to read that synopsis it would take a huge amount of pleasure out of reading the book, since it tells you absolutely everything but the very last five pages of the book.

To respond to some of the book's earlier critics, i read the novel in the original portuguese and found the language beautiful, but not "confusing" or "unusual"... the only strange factor is that it is written as a stream of consciousness with long paragraphs, and quotations are not set apart (but they are capitalized which makes it very easy to distinguish them). i don't know why, but i didn't find that hard to get beyond, and my portuguese is far from perfect...

In my opinion, the most interesting character is, of course, the woman who never loses her sight. she is an awesome metaphor for those enlighted few in today's world who have the luck to see the world for what it really is, yet it is in such a mess that there is very little that can be done. she can help an infinitessimally small fraction of the helpless lot around her, but it really doesn't even make a dent, despite the fact that she could probably be considered the most powerful person in the world. she herself seems helpless, almost useless...you sometimes want to grab her and tell her clean up her act and really start helping the people around her, but upon reflection you realize it is an insurmountable task. i think that the best part of the book is reflecting on her, why she acts the way she does, what she sees and what you would do if you were in her place. that is the message that reached me most, 'if you are able to see things that others cannot and do something about it, what is stopping you?'

Rating:
Summary: Bleak and Provocative
Review: Wow. I'd been hearing a lot about Saramago in the last few years, and I can't say I'm disappointed. This is an amazing novel about blindness on all levels. It is a brilliant allegory about fear, selfishness, and redemption. I can't think of a novel I've read lately that is more intellectually rewarding. The climax of the book is one of the most understated, yet most powerful scenes in any book I have ever read. However, if you don't much care for heavy intellectual effort in reading, take a pass. The prose is difficult and the point is not always obvious--just the way I like it! If that doesn't appeal to you, don't read it. Otherwise, Blindness gets my highest recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: There's None So Blind as They That Won't See
Review: Jose Saramago's Blindness is, as described, an amazing parable of the wantonness of the 20th Century. Saramago's story-telling skills are superb. The common complaints raised by other reviewers are fairly weak. Saramago's city is most likely not an American one. Nor is it in any country that is part of the G7. A lack of CDC officials swooping in is hardly surprising.

Besides, the infectious blindness of this make believe world is never fully explained. It clearly spreads virally, but it is not necessarily a virus. What, pray tell, could the CDC do?

But that only highlights the problem with overanalyzing (or, rather, misanalyzing) an allegory.

(...) Israel is not the third Reich. On both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict there is enough blood to condemn the whole world to Hell and enough innocent victims to cause the blood to boil. His oversimplification of that situation reflects poorly on this work, which seeks to demonstrate a sophisticated, and one would hope nuanced, view of humanity's self-inflicted wounds from the bloodiest century in history.