Surely, Saramago is in a league that requires comparison with such writers, on the basis not only of skill but subject matter, too. In fact, it is fitting that Camus and Kafka come to mind in considering this book, if only as a kind of speed rating. For instance, in "The Metamorphosis," when Gregor Samsa wakes up and finds that he is an enormous cockroach, he doesn't say, "My God, look at me, look at these plates and brown things on my chest," but, in effect, "How the hell am I going to get to work?" The trick of all of this, of course, is that when the author refuses to react to his characters' circumstances, the reader does. Camus points out that Kafka's characters seem so bizarre precisely because they accept their unusual if not outlandish circumstances as being perfectly ordinary. Reviewed by Craig Nova, whose most recent novel is "The Universal Donor."Ī few pages into Jose Saramago's "Blindness," I was reminded of Albert Camus' essay on Franz Kafka. By Jose Saramago, translated by Giovanni Pontiero
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |