Rating: 
Summary: His best book
Review: A little different from his other works, I think, but its what makes it great. It is what the The Stand tried to be but couldn't. He gets at the very heart of how ugly and how heroic we can be in a way other books who attempted to address human behavior during crisis couldn't. The reason: he doesn't preach through his work and he's not cutesy; it is raw human nature where the good can be ugly without losing the heroic characteristic of the protagonist.He doesn't write to shock or throw you; it is a side effect and you get that so its not phony. If you only want to read one of his books (and i read most of them) this is it.
Rating:
Summary: devastating blindness
Review: Blindness left me in a state of delicious, drained, post-coital despair. It is an awful book. Terrible, wondrous and appalling. The best experience of my year.
Rating:
Summary: nameless characters, haunting images, an unforgetable book
Review: I started reading this book about ten minutes after I finished "Song of Solomon".just a coincedence, but what a difference in style!. "Song of Solomon" is descriptive about its characters, the story flows like water, and dialoge is plenty and well done. The other starts off very dry. No detailed description of the characters, or surroundings, no sentences to remember, not much poetry in this prose. But as the book went on, I was absorbed by the plot and by this new style that makes you feel blind yourself. There are voices coming from everywhere, the words are spoken and you dont know instantly who is saying what.The characters do not have names, just a decriptor that the narrator has for each one of them.
The dialoge is hard to keep track off, so once you get over that you will not want to put down this book. In this country of the blind, all the desires and needs are reduced to two things essential for survival food and water. the blind people need nothing else. (the girl with the dark glasses asks for some music, just not to forget she says...) forget about hygene and cleanliness, forget about arts and literature, forget about kindness. all these people live for is their daily ration of food. they kill for it, fight for it, let themselves be raped for it. life is reduced down to survival,our primal animal instinct. amongst all this, still, the human spirit survives. the story will stay with you. it is certainly worth your time.
Rating: 
Summary: not his best book, but definitely thought-provoking
Review: In an unnamed city people all of a sudden become blind: in the middle of the street or in their own houses, it definitely seems to be contagious, but there is no real pattern. The government panics and decides to lock the people up in a big, abandoned building. We follow the small group of people who arrive first and read how their situation deteriorates rapidly: the place gets incredibly filthy, there is not enough food and soon a gang is formed that terrorizes the other blinds, including the people in our group. What nobody knows is that one of the group members has not fallen blind and she tries to help the other group members without telling them that she can still see. After a terrible fire the group can escape and tries to make a living in the free world again, where the whole public life has turned into a catastrophe. The horrors are described very vividly and sometimes make you positively sick. But what Saramago shows us is not only the black, egoistic and violent side of people that shows up the moment you remove the thin layer of cultural varnish. He also describes how in very awful situations some people rise above themselves and are capable of altruism and that it is impossible to say who react in what way once something truly awful happens. A book that definitely makes one think about your life and what would happen if something similar would happen to oneself.
Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal! I feel like many critics miss the point, though.
Review: This book is deeply disturbing. I found myself invited to a celebration along with my own mental, spiritual and emotional blindspots. Saramago's indirect storytelling is brilliant as it gives the readers the necessary space to more clearly see themselves. ---While I physically see, I am blind in so many many other ways. And I am blind of my own accord. Now, because of him, I know it. I am squirming. He is in my face, and he won't let me avert my eyes and escape. Incandescent. ....But wait, now that I've put down his book, my usual oblivion is settling around me.
Rating:
Summary: A harrowing trip into the depths
Review: Compelling reading, but sometimes so overwhelming that I had to put the book down and recover! Saramago plumbs both the depths and the heights of what it means to be human. None of the power of this novel is lost in the translation. Highly recommended, but be prepared!
Rating:
Summary: Allegory
Review: This is a masterful allegory, it can mean anything you want it to, whether you believe humans are little better than animals, or, as I do, that people can rise to the occasion and take care of themselves, of course there is some sex and violence thrown in, which I think makes the novel more interesting to American readers, like an "X-files" episode maybe. This is a good novel to read, but I like "Balthazar and Blimunda" better - the latter novel is a richer tapestry of humanity, history, and the Church, and presents a more optimistic but still cheerfully cynical view of the human animal.
Rating: 
Summary: I expected more...
Review: I'm halfway through the book now and am frankly disappointed. I keep reading because I hope it will salvage itself. Saramago is not saying anything that hundreds of writers have not said (better) before him. Stories about the "best & worst of humanity," about government oppression and/or neglect, about how people turn into dogs in the absence of law abound in literature (Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm are just two that come to mind). In Blindness, Saramago is not telling us anything new, and even worse--he hasn't given any new insights or made any interesting variations on these themes. Guess what--when people become afflicated and are locked up together with no authority or leadership, they start doing bad things to each other. No kidding! Humans can be extrodinarily selfish and cruel to each other, and sometimes kind. Tell me something I didn't know. His one innovation is the style (few punctuation marks, which I do find interesting and effective) but that does not make up for the fact that the story itself offers nothing new or transcendent. Blindness is such a powerful word, with so many meanings and much depth. I was hoping he decided to use blindness as the afflication in this book because the blindness represented something non-physical--the spiritual deadness of modern society or something along those lines, but instead what causes the blindness is a regular, physical disease. But then again, I'm only halfway through, so maybe he does use blindness to greater purpose later on...
Rating:
Summary: Human spirit at it's worst and it's best!
Review: This is the first book of Mr. Saramago that I have read, but I assure you it won't be the last. Nothing was lost in the translation of this amazing story of how low human beings can sink when faced with absolute personal terror and abandonment of government support and human kindness. Going blind with no warning from some unknown apparently contagious illness causes an entire country to disolve all sense of fairness and good will in a fury to try and isolate those afflicted. The old good guys vs the bad guys game comes to play in a locked asylum as human beings try to help eachother or kill eachother depending on which side you reside. A definate page turner with a surprising ending.
Rating:
Summary: a fast but stunning read
Review: Just like that, you go blind. A horrible thought. Despite the seemingly simple plot, an epidemic, this book will floor you. Steven King's book with a similar story line pales in comparison. Blindness will scare you, really scare you, but it never uses forced scenarios to achieve effect. Interestingly, the book is written without the use of quotation marks and most other punctuation aside from periods. This method brilliantly adds to the lightning fast progression of the story. I read the book in two days, but only because I had to stop and go to work the first. It is great for a summer read as it is not lofty or academic, but it most certainly is not grocery store pulp crap. Good stuff.
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