Blindness

Dark

This is a very different kind of doomsday fiction. The writing and reading of "Blindness" are vivid enough that I'm still a bit haunted by it several weeks after finishing.

The storytelling is very like Gabriel Garcia Marquez; disparate events are woven into a well told tale. While a Latino ken for life-metaphors is apparent, "Blindness" could be any time or place.

I heartily recommend it, but be prepared to "see" things differently.

26 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Surrealistic

Saramago is a Nobel laureate, so I think we have to credit him with having insight worthy of our attention. Blindness is a powerful parable, but I think it has to be read as a surrealistic allegory rather than any attempt to portray the situation as it might actually occur in the real world. I agree with the reviewer that pointed out that this parable is much more accessible in the oral than in the visual format. The endless run-on sentences and lack of proper names makes the reading hard to follow, but as a narrative, it isnt so bad. Maybe this was the intention of Saramago. In the story he has the blind listening to readings from the only sighted individual as their only source of entertainment, and he may have intended this as a more powerful verbal parable that a written one. I am an ophthalmologist myself, I found this story to be an intriguing thought experiment, but I was waylaid by the fact that the author made no attempt, or possibly consciously avoided the attempt, to make the story scientifically plausible. There are so many incongruous elements in time and space, its like a Dali painting. For instance he talks about the doctors wife being distraught about not winding her watch. The last time I had to wind my watch was probably in the 1960s, and then he talks later about computers functioning the water system. The ophthalmologist talks about ordering an encephalogram , which we havent used since the 1970s, instead of a CT scan or MRI. He also talks about how the blind stop gesticulation when they talk. But people with acquired blindness have their gesticulations programmed into their extrapyramidal system and never loose that habit. Did he intentionally ignore present day science so as to make the story more surrealistic, or is he a lazy Nobel laureate researcher?
I thought it was a provocative read, intriguing and thought provoking. But dont expect Crichton. Think Lord of the Flies by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

30 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

One of the best books I've ever "read"

This book is being made into a movie and the trailer intrigued me. The book was not available on Audible yet, so I went to the book store and purchased the text version.

I could not read it. The author is known for his long sentences and paragraphs. Wikipedia warned me that the author does not give any of the characters names. It was too difficult to read the text. I wondered how in the world did this author ever win the Pulitzer Prize for literature.

Then, I saw the Audible version was available. I listened to a sample. The narrator made up for the author's idiosyncrasies. I purchased the book and could not stop listening. What a story! Rarely has a book taken me so deeply into the psychology of human nature ... why they do what they do ... how the mind works. I felt I knew some of these characters better than I knew members of my family. I recommended this book to a teacher/friend for her Advanced Placement English class.

Read this book. It's worth it. I hope Audible makes the sequel available.

24 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Stark Portrait of Blindness as Contagious Disease

The famous Portuguese author Jose Saramago paints a cold and halting portrait of what it would be like were Blindness suddenly contagious.

To prevent a pandemic, the government quarantines the first stricken, including the Doctor (an optometrist) and the Doctor's wife, the latter of whom is obviously immune to the disease. As the story progresses, the gov't puts more and more blind people into the abandoned building, with little food and zero supervision, forcing them all to fend for themselves. To add to the icy subtext, Saramago gives all the characters only descriptors, like the Doc, the Doctor's Wife, the Girl with Dark Glasses, the Cab Driver, etc.

This is a tale of both the goodness and baseness of humans in a world of darkness and squalor. Evil and the treachery of men initially wins, but goodness eventually prevails, so that this novel is ultimately hopeful.

The potential reader should be forewarned that this book contains graphic scenes of the rapes of several women.

As usual, the narrator Jonathan Davis is excellent.

7 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Very well read, audio is nice and clear.

Any additional comments?

Great audiobook. The story is for you to judge, but the audio was great. The quality was good, the audio was very clear. And the reader was able to change his voice in order to adapt to the characters. One of the best audiobooks I've heard!

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Blindness is Powerful

This story has the structure of a parable, but here the parable is not transparent. The parable is interpreted through Blindness. Becoming one with the Blindness the story, characters, and the text cease to matter.

This is definitely not a dystopian fantasy. It is not philosophy either.

Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of Blindness are the reviews. Some see darkness, nightmares, frightening, heartbreaking. Others see beauty, uplifting, thought-provoking, interesting. Some say boring, unrealistic, and just plain bad. Some are deeply offended by the violence, poop, stench, vomit, and decomposition. Some people even hate the Dog of Tears! All this is what makes Blindness powerful.

The narration is excellent.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

I Cried

I read the book, then listened to it then read it again, then had my brother listen to it (loved everything up until the ending). I have recommended this book numerous times to many people and haven't heard a single bad thing about it. the narration was 🦆ing awesome. get this book if you haven't already!

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Good concept but so pretentious

So pretentious. Not sure if it's the translation, the Portuguese, or the writer. It's pretty hard to get through. Liked the concept, but could use 100x less philosophy in my opinion. A British narrator would have thrown it over the edge, good reading.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

the 1st book I've lived in!!

This is a book that wrapped me up and tossed me around as the story went along. It is somewhat of an Apocalypse story that freaks you to the bone because it is something that you can see happening and it explores the dark reality of the situation!

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Surprised

I was assigned this book over the summer for AP Lit . I thought I was just going to have to numbly read this book hating every part of it but the exact opposite happend. I love this book it is amazing and just beautifully written . I'm so happy I was forced to read this .

1 personne a trouvé cela utile