Saturday's Pick

Blindness by Jose Saramago
** translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero

From the Nobel prize wining author, Jose Saramago, comes this gritty story of courage, survival, and the very essence of human nature.

A driver idles at a traffic light, when suddenly and inexplicably he is struck blind. One by one, those who come in contact with the blind man--the pedestrian who guides him home, his wife, the ophthalmologist who agrees to see him, and the patients in his waiting room--are themselves struck blind with a similar "whiteness". Soon, an entire city succumbs to the disease, and amidst panic, degradation, and fear, we witness a total collapse of civility. All that is, but the ophthalmologist's wife, who remains the reader's constant guide and eyewitness to the impending horror.

Although it took a few chapters to hook me (not to mention a strong stomach!) Blindness is more than worth the read. It is not an easy novel, forcing me to think more than I usually do about the words I am consuming. Regardless, it was a story that will stay with me long after I turned the final page. I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Golding's Lord of the Flies, or George Orwell's 1984.

Keep your eyes peeled for the follow up, Seeing (excuse the pun...)