Blindness

"No food, no water, no government, no hierarchy, no obligation. This is not anarchy, this is blindness"—proclaims the jacket of Jose Saramago's Blindness. This is my first Saramago book and by the experience, will not be the last. There are 3 authors one has heard a lot about — Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa & Jose Saramago. I am yet to read MVL and have read Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. And the richness of the fiction of this trio has been described to be breathtaking. I can vouch for atleast 2 of the 3 now. But to return to Saramago.

"A driver waiting at the traffic lights goes blind. An ophthalmologist tries to diagnose his distinctive white blindness, but is affected before he can read the textbook. It becomes a contagion, spreading thru the unnamed city. Trying to stem the epidemic, the authorities herd the blind into a mental asylum. The wards are terrorized by blind thugs. And when the fire demolishes the asylum, the inmates burst forth and the last links with the supposed civilized society are snapped. " From the back cover of The Harvill Press Edition of Saramago's Blindness

The story is set in a modern unnamed city when a sudden epidemic rips thru the city and before you know it, the entire city & then the country is blind. The way the society shapes up to this chilling reality is the canvas Saramago revels in. Philosophy is dispensed throughout by characters in situations, which arise when the entire frame of reference for human existence is changed. Then there are figures of speech & imagery, unique to Saramago. There is the dog who licks off the tears of one of the central characters, there is the ' prostitute' referred to as the girl with dark glasses throughout the story. There is the old man with one eyepatch. There is the boy with the squint. In fact all the characters are referred to by their appearances or by their profession. There is a religious tinge to the ending when the survivors of the epidemic of blindness end up in a church with all religious symbols having their eyes wrapped up in something. The imagery is wild. Saramago's talent runs amok in the novel while he alternates between descriptions of ordinary lives & at times terrifed, at times depressed, stifled existence of a blind person. And he excels at this game of seeming simplicity, since most of the novel is about blindness. So everything is 'seen' thru the eyes of a blind person. It takes great confidence to pen such a story and Saramago is game. The story could be described as A Brave New World sans the science meets The Lord of the Flies. Must Read.