Group Read "Blindness" by Jose Saramago

Hi everyone, there are quite a few of us who are interested in reading Blindness by Jose Saramago. So, we felt we just set up a thread so that other's could join in. Well, go and check your TBR grabb your copy and start reading whenever you feel ready to do so :)



Jose Saramago was a Portuguese writer, born on the 16.11.1922 and who died on 18.06.2010 at the age of 82 years. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor. In 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his outstanding works.
Due to his themes discussed in his works Saramago came on a regular basis into conflict with groups such as the Catholic Church. He was an atheist who defended love as an instrument to improve the human condition. In 1992 the Portuguese government demanded the removal of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ from the European Literary Prize's shortlist, because they felt that the book was religiously offensive. Disheartened by this political censorship of his work, Saramago went into exile on the Spanish island of Lanzarote, upon which he resided until his death in 2010.
Aside from Novels, Saramago was also known for his collections of short stories and poems. Actually, he was already quite old when he finally became an acclaimed author. In the 1950's he tried twice unsuccessfully to publish a book and then gave up on his literary career until 1966 when he published his first book of poems.

(Source Wikipedia)

These are some of the covers you can find to the book!

This is one of my favorite books, so I'll stick around and just lurk, and enjoy reminiscing--don't worry, I promise not to give anything away, if I chime in at all! And, I'll keep my fingers crossed that this thread and other readers will push me to get around to reading the sequel. Enjoy your read, everyone!

I'll be lurking too!

Another lurker here. Blindness is one of my all time favorite novels as well.

I won't lurk, I promise. Thanks a lot, Bianca for setting up the thread. These are already some nice facts - and I haven't known a lot of them.

I love the diversity of covers for this novel. - And that's why I'd like to share the cover of my copy.
It includes the painting "Portrait of Josette" by Juan Gris. I'm curious if one can make a connections between the story and the painting... We'll see.

Hi Kathy, that's a beautiful cover. Yes, I am curious what the book is going to be like as well as the theme somewhat reminds me of The Plague by Albert Camus which is one of my fave books.

whitewavedarling - I have got the sequel Seeing on my TBR as well. Ahem, actually I have got quite a few works by him dusting on my TBR pile and I do hope to clear some of them out :)

Nora and Darryl have fun lurking, but maybe you decide to contribute as well *smile*.

Bianca, I love The Plague. It is one of my all-time favourites and I can read it every other year. Fortunately, my mom owns almost all the books of Saramago. That's why I can borrow them - there's only Das Zentrum gathering some dust on my shelves... So, is Die Stadt der Sehenden really meant to be the sequel? I already thought that it was only about an uncreative publisher...

After reading Blindness, I immediately went to pick up more work by Saramago--too many of them are still sitting on my tbr, but I think I may just pick one up this next week or two now that I'm thinking about it...

Kathy - yes, Die Stadt der Sehenden is meant to be the sequel. Apparently, the same people as in Blindness play there part in this story. However, how these two stories are connected? I haven't got a clue! But maybe we could find out?

Whitewavedarling - let us know what you are going to pick up. I always enjoy reading your comments and reviews on your books.

I shall! I'm still reading Don't Call it Night by Amos Oz and Waterland by Graham Swift--I want to finish those two before I pick up another piece of literary fiction! (And, thank you :) )

#9: Bianca, thanks a lot for the clarification. If we enjoy Blindness, we could directly continue the group read with Seeing... ;)

#10: Jennifer, it would be great to get some comments about other books by Saramago. So I'm curious as Bianca what you'll think about the book you're going to read.

Kathy, that's a great idea. We just could carry on using this thread.

Trying my best to avoid real spoilers (that it's about blindness shouldn't be one...), here are my first impressions:

I had started the book earlier in March, then put it on a short hold to wait for the GR and picked it up again yesterday. I am reading in Italian, my edition has 276 pages, and I made it to page 56/ chapter 5 surprisingly quickly, although the pages didn't look too inviting with long paragraphs, not broken by real dialogue.

So far it still has been an easier and more gripping read than expected, but I guess the hard part will start right on the next page. Dystopian novels always make me feel highly uncomfortable, and seeing the setting the book has reached now and the general idea of the sudden blindness/ complete helplessness of the characters, I am scared to read on.
Chapter 5 has 16 pages, so I'll better jump in right now after posting this comment...

Only that many pages in I realized that we won't get names, so I hope that in all translations the peoples' descriptions will be identical.

Almost forgot (you see how I am dreading to continue my reading?): I didn't find the book yet on the TIOLI. My cover has 12 people on it so I could add it to challenge #4, but maybe it would fit better elsewhere?

I finished the novel yesterday and it is fantastic - but very intense and horrifying at the same time.
The helplessness is really haunting and the brutalization sometimes hard to bear.

Nathalie, I think the characters are described similarly, here are a few examples from the German version:
Ophthamlologist/Eye specialist and his wife
The first blind and his wife
Young woman with dark sun glasses
Boy who is cross-eyed
Old man with eye-patch
Car thief

***

Just some first observations for the beginning:

- It's interesting that Saramago uses names neither for his characters nor for the locations. I think that's why you can easily identify with the situation: It just can happen everywhere and to everybody.

- I was surprised how quickly the government reacted and placed the blind into quarantine.

- The reference to La Peste by Albert Camus is obvious. But somehow I remember the people in La Peste to stay more "human".

- The original title is Ensaio sobre a cegueira - "Essay about blindness" - The writing style is not very essay-like, but still it's not a common novel.

(- Personal question: Could you keep an eye on the narrator's description of the young woman with dark glasses throughout the book? Is it just me or is he quite judgemental?)

> Nathalie
I was thinking Challenge #3 - with the word 'blind'

Bianca has already started with a some facts about the author. I will add a few information about the books itself. There

___ ______

A traffic light changes to green. But the car doesn't move. Its driver is suddendly blinded. And everyone who tries to help him or who's just bystanding will soon be blind as well. The blindness spreads like a mysterious plague and the government is forced to take measures: They put the blind in quarantine in a former lunatic asylum. But undetected from the others one human being is still able to see. Together with her we become witnesses of the social breakdown and the struggle to survive of every single person.

“You never know beforehand what people are capable of, you have to wait, give it time, it's time that rules, time is our gambling partner on the other side of the table and it holds all the cards of the deck in its hand, we have to guess the winning cards of life, our lives.”

“I don't think we did go blind, I think we are blind, Blind but seeing, Blind people who can see, but do not see.”

***

The novel Ensaio sobre a cegueira was originally published in 1995 in Portuguese.

In 2008 a movie adaptation came into the cinemas: The doctor was played by Mark Ruffallo, the doctor's wife by Julianne Moore. Here's are two links to the trailers:
This one doesn't give away too much: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTivdzpDqP0
This one is quite detailed and may contain spoilers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px5LBgsKuiI

In 2004 Saramago published Seeing (Ensaio sobre a lucidez). The story is more political and has nothing to do with Blindness except for some characters the reader will recognize.

#16: Thank you, it should have been obvious...how could I not see this?? :-)
Okay, maybe because my book is called Cecità and somehow my brain wasn't able to do the necessary transfer/ translation work.
Yes, let's put it there!

#15: some descriptions are a little different then, but it should be possible to identify everyone. The cross-eyed boy in my edition is usually just 'the little boy'. Eye-patch guy either has not yet turned up or is called differently. The eye specialist is just 'the doctor'.

#18: Just to make it clear: At the beginning of the book you learn that the doctor is an eye specialist, but later he is only refered to as "the doctor" and his wife as "the wife of the doctor" in the German version...

OK, Nathalie you are reading the Italien version. Kathy you have read the German version and I am like most others are going to read the English version. You made me curious now about the descriptions.
Kathy, thanks for the link to the trailer.

There is an old science fiction novel, The Day of the Triffids in which everyone, but the narrator and a very few others who were asleep or sick or had bandages on or whatever looks at some bright thing and is blinded, then the triffids which are plantish sort of things take over....- I must go and see if I can find it. It's been on my mind ever since I read what this story was about. Helplessness and vulnerability. This is just an observation, nothing more.

For all the TIOLI People here: I added the book to challenge 3.

Started reading yesterday and I am on chapter 3 now. So, far I find the book very daunting and I am only at the beginning!

Just promoting the thread a little bit... :)

***

Here are some aspects we could discuss:

- Dehumanization/brutalization ("The human beast")
- Surviving of the fittest: Alle people are equal, but some people are more equal than others. (King of Ward 3)

- Choice and description of characters and places
- Female images (girl with dark shades)

I picked it up again today and am now almost half through. I notice that I am taking a distance to the events in the story and stop caring about the characters. This happened before with dystopian novels that were not also sci-fi, i.e. novels where the setting was very close to our reality. An example is Never let me go. While I enjoyed that book and basically 'got the message', I kept thinking throughout the read 'wouldn't work this way'. 1984 on the other hand described a future society which made it easier for me to simply accept the setting.

In this book here the 'bad things' happen too quickly and too drastically. I don't doubt they could happen eventually, but not after a couple of days. This isn't really a criticism on the book, it's just a personal thing.

Some spoilers:
I believe that in such a completely helpless situation people at first would really try to work together, to organize themselves to make it all more bearable for everyone. Then eventually there would come some rupture and disagreement, some striving for extra power, but not in the middle of all that fresh chaos.
But maybe there will be some explanation for that later in the book. Maybe the bad guys aren't really blind either?

SPOILER

Nathalie, I was suprised how quickly the government reacted - how quickly they put the victims into the asylum without any realistic plan.

Interesting - how quickly everything went down seemed plausible and acceptable to me. One reason is because people are scared and have to get used to the new situation, when they get blind. What I didn't understand was the inactivity of the doctor's wife at the beginning. She could have organised e.g. a system for easier orientation with ropes to the toilets. And it wouldn't have been necessary to tell the others that she still can see.

I believe that in such a completely helpless situation people at first would really try to work together, to organize themselves to make it all more bearable for everyone. I really hope so for real life!

>24 PersephonesLibrary: Kathy very good points to discuss which I think will suit the storyline very well.
As I have been mainly listening to the audio and only started on the physical book today I was surprised by his interesting writing style. Jose Saramago either uses very short sentences, or he combines several sentences as one, only seperated by commas. The only hint that a new sentence has started is that he uses capital letters after the comma. Did you notice that in your German and Italien editions as well?

SPOILER ALERT

The display of the anxiety by the government and other people really struck a cord in me. Especially the part where the doctor and his wife got transfered to the assylum. Back in 1993 I worked on a HDU ward for HIV/AIDS patients. Our unit was brand new and the only one located on the 4th floor. During our first year in the unit we still had to deal with people being afraid and not understanding how HIV can be transmitted. What happened very often to us was that porter would come in two or three's with one holding the lift door open and the other THROWING our supplies out of the lift. People were scared to enter the unit at times. However, the most degrading and horrible experience we had - and if you believe it or not everyone involved was so utterly shocked that - instead of crying - we were howling with laughter - was when a patient of ours had to go to another hospital for a special investigation. And guess what they came with a very special ambulance for patients with highly contagious infections and very special staff. The "Safety clothes" looked somewhat like the one in the photo, also their heads were even more protected and their gloves (bright green) went above the ellbows and their feet protection went above their knees (very much like angler wellingtons) Well, we felt there was an Alien invasion coming and when they entered our unit we just stared at each other, until our sister in charge asked them whether they are serious.

So everyone thinks the blindness is 'catching'? - If so, yes, I think there would be panic and cruelty. Otherwise I would expect a kinder more sensible reaction. Or the cruelty would ameliorate, as it has with AIDS, as people understand how it gets transmitted.

My copy has the comma 'sentences'.

I have read thirty or so pages.... not very far. Still not sure how far I'll go.

I bought the German edition today. Not because I like the book so much, but because in Italian I have to read every single word and I can't do that anymore. I need to finish this book as quickly as possible so I don't need to touch it again. I am sorry if I don't do it the honor it deserves, but for me it is now much too drastic.
Don't get me wrong, it is a good book and it won't get a bad rating from me. I'll also try some other Saramago. I really like the writing, but I just can't get over the setting.

Spoiler for about half-time:
And the sex scenes annoy me. Not speaking about the rape - in the setting as it is at that point, it is very believable that rape happens. Although even that is just too much. How often can someone do it in a week, as violently as described here?
But what I find worse is how it happens in the rooms, that women are 'serving the men' out of a feeling of duty or friendly support. So if it is such a physical need for the men (why not for the women?) let them take care of it themselves. If the women want to do it because they feel like it, no problem at all. It's the service idea I hate!
I am incredibly relieved the story took a turn just when I thought I couldn't go on anymore.

In the beginning I was reminded of Primo Levi's description of Auschwitz after the Germans had left and before the Russians arrived in If this is a Man. The coldest winter imaginable, no water, no electricity, no wood for fires, no food at all, and all the remaining prisoners gravely ill, many suffering from typhoid fever and diarrhea. Yet, although many died in those last days, a feeling of togetherness remained, many tried to keep things going somehow.
But this here is worse, and I am asking myself if I really need to read worse.
Maybe something will happen in the last third that justifies it for me, but for now I can say I'll be glad when it's over.

Thanks for the GR that really helps me getting through it.

I want back into Murakami's 1Q84 world...

Just an update: I finished the book last night, and although I didn't enjoy it I bought my next Saramago book this morning when I had some time to spend in Bolzano: Il Vangelo Secondo Gesu Christo.

Hi Nathalie,

the parts you mentioned are really rough and I had my problems with them, too.
Maybe that was the reason why I read it that quickly - SPOILER I wanted the rape scenes to be over. The sacrifying part was also almost unbearable - and it was the moment where I got angry with the doctor's wife. That was the very last point at which she should have interfered somehow.
Do you remember when Saramago described the woman with the shades? I was a little bit annoyed by his way of treating her. At some points he seemed to say "even if she acted like a sl*t in real life, she didn't enjoy the forced sex" which left quite a bad taste in my mouth.

But congratulations on finishing it!
And thanks a lot for deciding together with Bianca to make it a group read - otherwise I wouldn't have read it so soon.

Sorry, this is all spoilers:

I was more than a little annoyed with his handling of that young woman and I couldn't find any irony there. Extremely moralistic, and then in the end she's 'purified' by the experience of blindness. Talking of 'purified': the doctor's wife behaved like a saint throughout the book. The self-sacrificing good woman, the Madonna, who by her forgiveness even had her share in 'healing' the young woman from her bad way of life.
I also haven't made my mind up yet about the ending. Why does it end this way, is there a deeper meaning?

At times I wanted to tell Saramago: I get it, the world is covered in s**t and dead bodies and the smell is unbearable, please stop giving me more ick-scenes with people suffering from diarrhea and not finding a bathroom, so I can finally concentrate on what you want to tell me with the blindness.

I'm on page 88 and loving it. I do think everything moved a little more quickly than is realistic, but I don't share the optimism about how people would react. We have only to look at history to tell us how a mass of panicked, vulnerable people react to being trapped with each other.

More later as I reach the points you've begun discussing here.