Jose Saramago (1922-2010)

I was only introduced to this great writer three years ago. The latest issue of the Economist carried an obituary for Saramago, who died on 18 June 2010, interestingly in the style in which he wrote his famous novels.

I first read Seeing and realised I should have read Blindness first. But I've done both. And then also read Death at Intervals. I am fascinated by the themes, which revolve around democracy, anarchy, the human psyche, socialism and the spirit of the free individuals.

In Seeing, a general election sees voters suddenly coming out to vote at a certain time and then returning empty ballots. The caretaker government worries that there's a conspiracy going on as when voting is repeated, the number of blank ballots goes up. The book shows how vengeful the government can get and how resourceful the people are to reorganise and restructure themselves. For example, the government seals the people in as a kind of punishment and soon essential services are stopped, the people then get together to clear the streets etc.

In Death at Intervals, the story begins with the mysterious end of death, and death in the plot is both a phenomenon and character. At first the people celebrate the phenomenon as this is something cultures and traditions and science have been trying hard to fight against - the end of the human life. Soon, this happy situation turns problematic as people begin to realise the social and financial implications of not dying! Someone discovers that you could cross the border to die and soon a mafia begins to take people across the border to die. The biggest threat is to the Catholic Church, whose raison d'etre - death and resurrection of Christ is challenged.

While realising that comparisons are not fair to authors, reading Saramago's political narrative was as enjoyable as reading Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Wizard of the Crow for the plot and creativity.

Its also his style of writing which I found unique - they are unpunctuated, a continuous flow of thoughts and story. In the last couple of years, I've enjoyed reading some of the these alternative styles of writing. Q&A by Vikas Swarup and and Shahriar Mandanipour's Censoring an Iranian Love Story are the other two.

Saramago wrote extensively in his lifetime and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for literature in 1998. Most of his books that are written in Portuguese are widely translated. I have to update my collection with a few more of his books. RIP Saramago.

(Pix taken from the blog: http://amc-nuncamais.blogspot.com/)