For weeks now, my friend Aaryn has been tortured by a book. She's not easily shocked, this friend of mine, so my ears immediately perked up when she told me about it. When she mentioned it was written by José Saramago , Portugal's most famous writer, I was even more intrigued (since I was just in Portugal in September). I asked Aaryn, who has her own blog and writes a column for San Diego CityBeat , to write up her thoughts on Saramago's Blindness and she was kind enough to oblige. Blindness has also been made into a film starring Julianne Moore and directed by Fernando Meirelles (who also directed the great City of God )
Blindness : A Review
by Aaryn Belfer
If you're not down in the dumps this holiday season, I've got a dazzlingly dreadful read that just might cause you to double down on that Prozac prescription. Blindness is the 1995 work of Portuguese author and Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, who was 73 at the time of publication. The silver st38 on the front cover is, by itself, enough to earn the glance of any avid reader. But Blindness is no joy ride. This novel is the 293-page equivalent of water boarding. It's a 17-ton lead weight with cement anchors attached to it. I know because it took everything I had to wrestle it from its place on my nightstand and then I barely had the strength to open the cover, let alone turn the pages. This is no up-lifter and I highly recommend it.
LilSass
December 19, 2008 at 02:15 PM
Aaryn, thanks for posting this link and referring this book. I've seen it at bookstores for months and months now and I think you've peaked my interest!
