The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing Novel in Search of a Plot
Review: This is the second book of Jose Saramago's that I have read. I mention this because the first one has a plot but I'm not sure that "The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis" has one. After reading this novel, I'm not sure that I care. There isn't much action in this book. Its' strength is in its' character development and their relationships with each other. One of the characters is a sort of ghost, another a maid, and yet another a young disabled woman. The title character has returned from Brazil to Portugal after an absence of about 16 years. He has come home to pay his respects to an old friend; the poet Fernando Pessoa who recently passed away. (I am of the impression that this is a real-life person from Portugese literary history). Dr. Reis doesn't seem to know what he wants to do with the remainder of his life. He develops an infatuation with the young disabled woman and this becomes his focus. Actually, the more I try to explain the "plot" the more meaningless it seems. Throughout the novel, there are thoughts and conversations that give us a lot of deep insights to a variety of things. If this doesn't sound like a reason to read this book, don't waste your time. If you are at least a little bit interested, bear in mind that Jose Saramago is a very gifted writer and this is considered by many to be his best book. It's worth the time to pick this up and judge for yourself.

Saramago doesn't believe in quotation marks and he likes long sentences and paragraphs. However, it's surprizing how this doesn't confuse the reader nor slow down the book. People would be talking back and forth with each other and I had no trouble following the dialogue.

There is a bit of history in this book. Dr. Reis reads the paper daily and Saramago allows us to follow the developments in Europe in 1936; Ethiopia, Nazi Germany, and the developing civil war in Spain. For those especially interested in the Spanish Civil War, this book may be quite interesting (so long as you aren't looking for a plot).

The other work by Saramago that I read was "All the Names". That book had a rather futuresque plot and lots of possible interpretations. I will concede that, in my interest in reading "The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis", I may have missed some key interpretations of the author's intended message. There was a heavy emphasis on Portugese poetry and this may have been Saramago's toast to the poets of his country's recent past. Personally, I came away with a bleak look at a life that had lost its' purpose and an individual who lost interest in finding a new one.