blindness

ack, i have been incredibly busy lately and thus, severely lacking in the posts department. also lacking in my posts about recent good reads! so, here is one to satisfy your written word woos.

it took me quite a while to read but blindness by jose saramago was no easy read. the run on sentences of a peculiar style which is unique to saramago are at times hard to follow if you are not 100% dedicated to the words at hand - i find myself quite often daydreaming while reading and have to reread entire pages sometimes!

however, the subject matter and the plot help to keep one interested. for those of you who don't know blindness is the story about a pandemic of well, blindness that sweeps the nation? [one is never really sure after reading the book.] the tale of how it all begins and how the characters cope with it. a story that makes you appreciate your sight, and makes you think about certain things in a whole new way.
note: 'If you can see, look. If you can look, observe.'
 
there were numerous times throughout this novel where i had to physically stop to appreciate the beauty of the words saramago put down.



'I shall clean whatever is still dirty, and now to work, let's go, we are the only woman in the world with two eyes and six hands. Perhaps in the building opposite, behind those closed windows some blind people, men, women, roused by the noise of the constant beating of the rain, with their head pressed against the cold window-panes covering with their breath on the glass the dullness of the night, remember the time when, like now, they last saw the rain falling from the sky. They cannot imagine that there are moreover three naked women out there, as naked as when they came into the world, they seem to be mad, they must be bad, people in their right mind do not start washing on a balcony exposed to the view of the neighborhood, even less looking like that, what does it matter that we are all blind, these are things one must not do, my god, how the rain is pouring down on them, how it trickles between their breasts, how it lingers and disappears into the darkness of the pubis, how it finally drenches and flows over the thighs, perhaps we have judged them wrongly, or perhaps we are unable to see this the most beautiful and glorious thing that has happened in the history of the city, a sheet of foam flows from the floor of the balcony, if only i could go with it, falling interminably, clean, purified, naked. Only god see us, said the wife of the first blind man, who despite disappointments and setbacks, clings to the belief that god is not blind, to which the doctor's wife replies, Not even he, the sky is clouded over.'

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it was also made into a hollywood blockbuster but i promised myself to read it before seeing it - so that is my next step!