Blindness by Jose Saramago

**Weave** on Tue Apr 24, 2012 7:51 pm

Title of Book: Blindness
Name of Author: Jose Saramago
Paperback
ISBN~10: 1860466850
ISBN~13: 978-1860466854
Number of Pages: 320

Synopsis ~

In an unnamed city in an unnamed country, a man sitting in his car waiting for a traffic light to change is suddenly struck blind. But instead of being plunged into darkness, this man sees everything white, as if he "were caught in a mist or had fallen into a milky sea." A Good Samaritan offers to drive him home (and later steals his car); his wife takes him by taxi to a nearby eye clinic where they are ushered past other patients into the doctor's office. Within a day the man's wife, the taxi driver, the doctor and his patients, and the car thief have all succumbed to blindness. As the epidemic spreads, the government panics and begins quarantining victims in an abandoned mental asylum--guarded by soldiers with orders to shoot anyone who tries to escape. So begins Portuguese author José Saramago's gripping story of humanity under siege, written with a dearth of paragraphs, limited punctuation, and embedded dialogue minus either quotation marks or attribution. At first this may seem challenging, but the style actually contributes to the narrative's building tension, and to the reader's involvement.

The Story ~

'Blindness' is the story of a unnamed country which suffers a widespread blindness epidemic. It begins with a man stuck in traffic who is struck by 'white' blindness. The only solution the government has is to lock all of the blind people together in a former asylum, a decision that slowly becomes worse and worse for the people, secluded from their friends and family, life in the asylum is every man and woman for themselves, groups develop and fight amongst themselves, will they ever leave the asylum and what is waiting for them outside?

What I thought of 'Blindness' ~

'Blindness' is a book which we will stay with me for different reasons, the story is terrifying as people experience blindness and try to live in a world where everyone is blind. The government actions are questionable, arrogant, ignorant and cruel. The isolation the group feels is showed brilliantly. A book to make you think.

The only downside for me was the lack of character names but it did not take anything away from the story.

Rating: 3/5

**lankylil** on Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:26 pm

The story sounds interesting but I think that I'd struggle with it as I hate poor grammar, punctuation etc. Very Happy

**Weave** on Tue May 01, 2012 4:40 pm

lankylil wrote:The story sounds interesting but I think that I'd struggle with it as I hate poor grammar, punctuation etc.

The grammar and punctuation was fine, it was just the characters had no names, they were referred to as 'the doctor's wife', etc. confused

**lankylil** on Sat May 05, 2012 10:14 pm

Weave wrote:
lankylil wrote:The story sounds interesting but I think that I'd struggle with it as I hate poor grammar, punctuation etc.

The grammar and punctuation was fine, it was just the characters had no names, they were referred to as 'the doctor's wife', etc.

Very strange Shocked

**Weave** on Mon May 07, 2012 10:55 am

Blindness by Jose Saramago

Blindness by Jose Saramago

Re: Blindness by Jose Saramago

Re: Blindness by Jose Saramago

Re: Blindness by Jose Saramago

Re: Blindness by Jose Saramago