Book report: Blindness by Jose Saramago

I loved it.

This book has been praised to the extent that I don't need to write any sort of review, but I do want to point out a few things.

First, the basic plot (a population stricken by a mysterious blindness) reminded me most of Albert Camus' The Plague. If I remember correctly, that book also focused on a doctor (though w/Saramago, it's more on the doctor's wife) and the way a society decides to quarantine the affected. I also thought about all those Stephen King books I haven't read about post-apocalyptic worlds (I think his current one, Cell, is another).

What's effective about Saramago's novel is how the characters respond with complete realism to the blindness. There are heroes, certainly, but he portrays them all with great depth. The doctor's wife, the one person not blinded, is remarkably conflicted. She is a leader, but she also wavers in her confidence and often makes decisions that she acknowledges as being morally questionable.

Saramago also balances the events with philosophy, though less so than Camus, and he avoids excessive preaching. I was concerned near the end, as he introduces a new character who is presumably Saramago, writing the story of the blindness. But he holds back, and this writer ends up being a minor note. Also, it seems as though Saramago might take on religion near the end, as two characters end up in a church, but again, he holds back.

His restraint is more remarkable considering the platform he's given himself. He's reduced his characters to a primitive population of scavengers, and he doesn't hesitate in describing the debasement of each person. But the doctor's wife is no Messiah. Yes, she uses her sight to avenge and save, and her altruism towards the end is near the point of excessive, but ultimately she is loyal only to her small group, and, more than even neglecting the population at large, she is indirectly responsible for the deaths of many so that her group can eat.