Blindness: A Book Review

Some of you who know me know that I enjoy a good book.  I try to read a variety of fiction and non-fiction, everything from the classics (I am trying to read everything by Steinbeck, one of my favorites) to deliciously light and predictable mystery/thriller paperbacks.  My most recent read is Blindness by Jose Saramago, which I just finished last night. 

In Blindness, an entire city is overcome by an inexplicable illness wherein all the residents come down with 'white blindness'-- they are blind, but instead of seeing everything black, it is as though there is a white light shining into their eyes.  All the afflicted are herded up and brought to a former insane asylum for quarantine.  Within the quarantine they are subject to every possible humiliation and degradation. They are reduced to living as animals, with "packs" competing one against the other.  They live among their own filth (the toilets plug early on, and when you're blind you can't see where you're going anyway), their food rations arrive sporadically, and the women are forced into unthinkable acts of profanity to earn what food there is to be shared.   It is a living hell. 

They are all blind, save one.  The Doctor's Wife, as we know her, (Saramago does not give any of his characters formal names) has feigned blindness so she could stay with her husband. It is through her eyes that the reader sees the atrocities occuring in the forsaken asylum. It is she who becomes the heroine of the story and eventually leads her own small band of compatriots out of the asylum back into the heart of the city. 

The writing style Saramago uses in Blindness is tedious as well.  The book is laid out in lengthy paragraphs. There is a lot of stream-of-consciousness, and dialogue is embedded.  There is also less punctuation.  While it is difficult and slow to read, this writing style forces the reader to pay very close attention to what is happening.  Saramago does not want us to miss anything. 

To me, a major theme seems to be totalitarianism vs. anarchy.  Are the people better off with the government supposedly taking care of them?  What happens if this government abandons its people?  And yet, when there is no government left to take care of its charges, the people self-organize anyway. 

Another major theme is human nature at its best and worst.  There are moments in this book that make you hate what humankind can bring itself to do, and also moments of supreme generosity and kindness that not only make up for the darkness, but give a sense of hope. Every possible human emotion is explored in Blindness.

To be honest, Blindness is, well... not my favorite.  Reading Blindness was like watching the movie Requiem for a Dream.  I don't know if any of you have seen that movie, but if you have, you will know what I mean.  Requiem for a Dream and Blindness are both very dark, very graphic, and emotionally wrenching, and leave you thinking about what you have read/seen for a long time.  They are both very well done, but yet not enjoyable.  Does that make sense?

Jose Saramago won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998; Blindness was published in 1997.  I would deduce that this book had something to do with why he won the prize. As I said, it is extremely well written and brings up some major themes that are very relevant to modern times.  One other review I read stated, "This is an important book, one that is unafraid to face all of the horrors of the (20th) centry," (The Washington Post).  I think it is important to acknowledge and learn from past human tragedies and triumphs, but I like to enjoy what I read.  Blindness is a masterful work of fiction, but for me, it was simply not enjoyable.