Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" that spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and assaulting women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides her charges—among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears—through the barren streets, and their procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. As Blindness reclaims the age-old story of a plague, it evokes the vivid and trembling horrors of the twentieth century, leaving readers with a powerful vision of the human spirit that's bound both by weakness and exhilarating strength.

I'm only part of the way through this book so far, and while I'm finding the prose difficult, I also admire how well it fits the subject material. Saramago favors seemingly endless run-on sentences that mimic well how natural speech sounds, and none of the characters are ever named or physically described. In a world without sight, names and faces are no longer relevant, and speech is the only form of communication left available. I don't know if Saramago adopted this style specifically for this book, or it's just how he naturally writes, but it's pretty genius.

This sounds really interesting.

I remember reading this several years ago. I really enjoyed it.

A very profound examination of humanity and human nature. It was by turns frightening and reminiscent of Animal Farm for me. It is dystopia done well.

I found this book very hard to read - both the sentence structure and the actual content. There are a couple of really graphic scenes - he's such a good writer which is why it disturbed me so much. I ultimately felt like he made some great choices as an author, but gave it four stars due to the style of writing which was hard for me to get through.