Seeing

A more appropriate title for this piece of literature would have been "Sleeping"; that’s all that I felt like doing while drudging through it. Jose Saramago's sequel to the unbelievably good book "Blindness" is a dark humored look at the governmental hierarchy four years after the White Blindness epidemic. Though don't go into this read thinking that it’s going...more

A more appropriate title for this piece of literature would have been "Sleeping"; that’s all that I felt like doing while drudging through it. Jose Saramago's sequel to the unbelievably good book "Blindness" is a dark humored look at the governmental hierarchy four years after the White Blindness epidemic. Though don't go into this read thinking that it’s going to pick up right where it left off, with the same characters and what their lives may or may not have become. Oh no, this reads entirely from a third party's perspective about more than a few main characters. After a tight political race that opens the story, all of the votes are counted...then of course re-counted. Eighty percent of the votes turn out blank. Problem? Yes. A voters right to cast a blank vote? Yes. But, for the government...things get out of hand when they decide to re-locate and put upon the city a state of siege. The inter-workings of governmental officials turns ugly and suddenly, someone decides that this occurrence must be being led by someone. Hence, finally past characters from Blindness re-appear and the Doctors Wife (who had not gone blind) is made into a criminal. Without having read Blindness, this story would have been much more appreciated. The only thing that saves this book for me is that its written in the same style as Blindness, a style that only Saramago can pull off. I was expecting more of a sequel in the sense of closure on Blindness’s brilliant characters whom were easily recognizable. This obviously wasn’t what Jose had in mind.   hide