Review – Blindness by Jose Saramago (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Dystopia/Science Fiction
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Harvest Books
Release Date: October 4, 1999
ISBN-13: 978-0156007757
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Swapped through Paperbackswap.com
Rating: 3/5 stars
“A city is hit by an epidemic of “white blindness” which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers—among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears—through the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation and a vivid evocation of the horrors of the twentieth century, Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayal of man’s worst appetites and weaknesses—and man’s ultimately exhilarating spirit.”
I have a lot to say about this book; some good and some bad. This book is very much a post-apocalyptic read and shows how quickly civilized society can degenerate into chaos. It was a fairly engaging read but I had some issues with it. I wouldn’t say I actually enjoyed it all that much, this isn’t really a story you enjoy. I really have no idea why it won so many awards because the concepts didn’t seem all that original to me.
The premise is that a epidemic of blindness quickly hits the population of a city (we never find out how widespread it really is). The government tries to contain it by putting the people who are initially blind in a mental hospital. Conditions both outside and inside of the mental hospital quickly degenerate.
I had a lot of issues with the writing style. Saramago seems to believe that punctuation is optional and uses mostly commas through the book. Capitalization is also spotty. This is one of those books you kind of have to just read out loud in your head and go with. If you concentrate too much you’ll get confused by the lack of any structure to the writing. It reminded me a bit of “The Reapers are the Angels” by Alden Bell…but much worse. Once I fell into the writing style I didn’t have an issue following it, but each time I sat down to read it I had to kind of get back into a certain mindset to follow it.
The premise is actually pretty basic. Something horrible happens and society descends into chaos. Anyone who has read any type of post-apocalyptic novel has read this before (whether it be illness, epidemics, zombies, or the moon crashing into Earth) the unraveling of society is always similarly portrayed. The biggest difference here is that everyone goes blind. While it was interesting to realize how much people depend on their sight to keep things going, it wasn’t all that unique of an idea or that unique of a representation of societal collapse.
I had a lot of issues with some things in the story. First of all a lot of what happens in the mental hospital seems contrived and flat out silly. Why would 200+ blind people let themselves be demoralized and tortured by a small group of blind inmates (~ 15 of them) just because one of the blind guys has a gun? Yes, some people are sheeple and fear will make that worse…but I have a really really hard time believing people would allow that to happen and not do something. The violent raping and torture of women seemed especially gratuitous and didn’t really add anything to the story; I am still struggling to see how this really added anything to the story. People, at least the ones I deal with, aren’t that accepting of their loved ones getting hurt and would self-organize and deal with any issues. The guy with the gun couldn’t even point it and see for goodness sake.
I also found it really hard to believe that society outside would degenerate that quickly. I mean people are very clever and they can easily come up with ways to deal with a loss of sight. I thought this was overall a very bleak and depressing look at what would happen if the dregs of society lost their sight. I could think of a million ways people could develop ways to navigate with sound or by feel and find it hard to conceptualize everyone starving to death rather than innovating solutions to deal with blindness. So…yeah…I struggled with a premise…a lot.
The ending was bizarre and completely unrealistic. It had me rolling my eyes in exasperation.
Overall this was an okay book. The story is strangely engaging and it was a fairly easy (if not pleasant) read. The writing style takes some to get used to, but it did give the story urgency and fit the tone of the book well. The premise was hard for me to swallow. This was a very very adult read and very violent so just FYI. I would recommend to those who like post-apocalyptic reads that are written in a different sort of writing style. I personally won’t be reading anymore of Saramago’s books.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
