Hey! Just finished Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira, written by the one and only José Saramago. This is my fourth Saramago book, and it was definitely a favorite alongside Caim.
It's hard to pick a Saramago book for me because the synopsis always makes me want to grab all of them – I just love how original his ideas are!
I have gone through some threads on r/books and r/literature and it made me sad that many of them were quite negative, especially because of his style. I'm Portuguese so I've always read them in the original language of course, and I think that might influence my opinion because his way of speaking feels very Portuguese to me. It's quirky, it's blunt, and even a little bit insensitive at times to the point where it'll get you laughing in the most inappropriate moments. However, he can bounce from harshness to beauty in a second, in his way of saying things and (in my opinion) it's just unmatched!
Here are two parts that I found practically memorable:
The part where the women bathe themselves in the rain and the narrator talks about shame and beauty will have a special place in my heart from now on.
The last few pages, when the first blind man recovers his vision are written in such a way that I got chills and tears appeared in my eyes. Drifting off to sleep and suddenly you stop seeing white and start to see black so you think you might've gone blind for real but just got your vision back? *chef's kiss* beautiful way to end the story!
Honorable mention to the writer who started living in the first blind man's home. For some reason, I really enjoyed how this character spoke and expressed his thoughts (A casa é vossa, disse o escrito, eu aqui só estou de passagem. (…) Estou de passagem, dissera o escrito, e estes eram os sinais que ia deixando ao passar.)
I also think the man with the covered eye somewhat represented Saramago, perhaps some self-doubt on the fact that he fell in love with a younger woman as well.
My thoughts are all over the place because I just finished the book and wanted to share all my thoughts and ideas haha. Thanks for reading 🙂
by triumphhforks