Discovering Saramago

I came across Blindness by Jose Saramago in a Turkish bookstore. It was on a table that hosted classics such as Crime and Punishment and Pride and Prejudice. I had read just about every book on this table but had never even heard of Blindness.

I usually only bought books from the used stands in Istanbul because full priced English books were so expensive. I was very hesitant to drop about 18 dollars for a book that I could probably buy on Amazon for 5. But deciding that 13 dollars was a fair price to pay for entertainment and enlightenment I went ahead and bought the book.

Jose Saramago is a celebrated Portugese writer who sadly died just a few months ago. He didn't publish his first novel until he was sixty and after that he wrote many works that were recognized for their brilliance all over the world.

Read if:

-You are interested in reading an author that shuns conventions. Saramago writes however he wants to (he uses commas instead of periods, uses run on sentences and paragraphs can go on for pages) and creates a world completely his own in Blindness. His characters aren't named and his writing is as much social commentary as it is anything else. 

-You like to think about what base human nature is and want one person's interpretation of that. 

Don’t read if:

-You don't like writers who go off on tangents.

-You are squeamish as there are some horrifying passages and Saramago forces us to accept what humans can and will do in desperate times. 

-You get obsessed over plot holes. If you hated Inception, you won't like this book.

Rating: 7.7/10