I first picked this book up at one of the liquidation sales Borders gave before it closed every location within driving distance. I was saddened at the loss of the book store in the mall, but being a poor college student, I can't turn my nose up at any cheap texts, no matter the reason for the reduction in their prices.
Blindness was recommended to me by my old manager at the retail clothing store where I worked. The book was recommended to him by his roommate, who is apparently an avid reader. I was skeptical at first, but I decided I needed a more serious read after The Hunger Games, so I decided to give Blindness a whirl.
The story takes place in an unspecified city in an unspecified country at an unspecified time, which can't be too far off from modern times. There is a red traffic light, and there is an overabundance of traffic, as in any big city. The difference here when the traffic light turns to green is that a car at the very front of the line hasn't pitched forward because the driver has gone inexplicably blind.
The blindness spreads virally and infects almost anyone who comes in contact with the initially-blinded man including his wife, ophthalmologist, the man who steals his car, and three other patients who had the misfortune of being in the ophthamologist's waiting room when the first blind man was observed. Oddly enough, the doctor's wife resists the blindness throughout the text, and remains the only person to bear witness to all that follows. The strange thing about this blindness, too, is that it showers the world in a blinding white, which is the opposite of the usual darkness experienced by the blind.
The government, in a well-meaning attempt at order, decides to seclude this first batch of blind people in a disused mental facility, where they can be provided-for at a relatively-low cost and high return. The hospital is monitored by soldiers with orders to shoot anyone who attempts to escape or, indeed, comes too close to the walls for comfort. Thus begins the exceedingly hellish portion of the novel.
Honestly, I had a lot of trouble getting through the middle to end of the novel. Saramago spares no horror and reports everything faithfully, including details of disgustingly squishy floors due to lack of plumbers and overflowing toilets, carnage, rape, starvation, sexual deviance, senseless violence, and the oppressive misuse of military force when confronted with a real emergency of pandemic proportions.
Throughout the text, Saramago stays very Naturalistic in his narrative style. Nowhere does he condone or villify the characters, no matter what lengths they go to or how degraded they are. He comments on human nature as a reporter, and allows the reader to come to their own conclusions about what should and should not be seen.
One of the most striking scenes for me occurred near the end of the book, when the doctor's wife stumbles into a church with her husband and the dog of tears (wonderful name!) only to find all the saints with their eyes covered. Someone, prior to being blinded, double knotted the blindfolds over the statues and went over the paintings with two coats of white to insure that God, too, would be blind.
Sight is obviously an allegory for something else, though Saramago doesn't specifically say what that something is. In my opinion, the book is very political, and discusses atrocities humans allow worldwide. Genocide, famine, and unreasonable living conditions abound in the impoverished sections of the globe and people who live in the city just can't be bothered to see.
A good book, but a very difficult one to read through.
