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Only a few days late this time, haha. Let's discuss Blindness by Jose Saramago!

I still have a little bit of reading to do. So will be back to discuss soon.

However, I really hope no one was put off by the writing style of this book.

I finished the book a few days ahead of schedule, but I know you treat deadlines as flexible, Jordan

I enjoyed this book and wasn't the least bit turned off by the writing style. I found the unconventional structure refreshing and a pleasant challenge. Some books make it too easy to go into an auto-pilot mode. Their narrative structures are mundane, their plot simple and predictable, or they are just plain boring. Blindness was none of that.

The characters felt real to me; none of them stylized archetypes created for the sake of drama. The action felt natural, not forced.

I have not read any other works by Saramago, but I likely will.

Ryan, so glad the writing style didn't bother you.

I'm so sorry I'm still working on this. Life has been unexpectedly hectic. Hopefully, I can find a nice quite and cool place to read and get this finished up. So far very intriguing.

No worries, Gretchen! The discussion will be here when you finish. :)

This was definitely a book that I found to be both fascinating and disturbing. I listened to the audiobook so I didn't notice the writing structure too much. Being that it was a translated book, however, who is to say that the writing style was intentional or just a case of a translator's interpretation changing the schematics. In any case, I found this book to be an interesting read and it kept my attention. I did have a few questions/issues by the end of the book but I will leave that for future parts of the discussion.

As for the meat of the story, I found it an interesting depiction of what humans would succumb to after an outbreak of blindness. Nothing that anyone did actually surprised me and that was a very disturbing thought. Things disgusted me, angered me and made me sad, but nothing really surprised me. It was an all too real reminder that humans are just animals. Selfish animals. The book isn't fantasy, it is a foretelling of what could/would happen if a blindness epidemic actually occurred.

I found it very creative to leave the characters without names. I think there was a line in the book that said something to the effect of "without eyes, we are reduced to our voices". Also, the doctor's wife mentioned that names were no longer important a few times throughout the book. It was an interesting touch that added to the dehumanization theme in the book.

I agree with you, Ryan, that the characters felt real and not stylized. I don't think any of them had any special, or outstanding, characteristics. They all felt like they could be neighbors or any of the nameless faces that we see in the grocery store. I think that added to the disturbing nature of the story for me. These 'everyday people' were capable of atrocious things. Once again, not surprising, but definitely a disheartening reminder of the nature of animals.

A character that I am still turning over in my head, was the doctor's wife. Why didn't she go blind? Was she an allegory for an all-seeing being or a protective mother? Did the story just need a person with sight to bring all of the atrocities to light for the reader or did she serve a greater purpose in the story? I haven't decided yet. What did you guys think? I had heard the quote "We are who we are when nobody is watching" (forgive me if the quote isn't exact) while in college and it has always stuck with me. I try to take notice of how I act when I am alone and analyze if that is who I want to be. I have to check myself at times because it can bring forth the realization of personality characteristics that I don't like about myself and that I desire to change. I am unsuccessful in doing this more than I am successful and I actually try. I don't remember any of the characters being too concerned with their actions since they believed that they were no longer being watched by others. That says a lot about human nature and it is terrifying to really think about.

Gretchen, take your time and catch up to the discussion whenever you are able. As Ryan mentioned, I treat deadlines flexibly. haha

Ryan, I agree with your thoughts on the characters being real and the plot not being mundane. There were a few times during this novel where I caught myself thinking "I know this story, I know what will happen next..." only to find the characters acting differently than I expected, and the plot moving in another direction.

In comparison to some of the books we have read in this club this book could be considered mundane. There were no ancient nameless horrors or supernatural creatures, after all. Yet, I was never bored, my predictions were all wrong, and I never went into "auto-pilot" as you call it, Ryan. It was a fresh experience and I enjoyed it.

I too listened to the audiobook and was not quite sure what to make of your concern over the writing style, Gretchen. After reading your comment I looked into it and it seems we lost some of the artistic intent in the conversion to an audiobook. I've read Saramago took an unconventional approach to punctuation. Perhaps you or Ryan can fill us in on what that experience was like.

Danielle, the Doctor's Wife interested me too. Initially, I thought she was just a literary tool, someone to progress the plot. As she took a more prominent role in the story I expected her to go blind at some pivotal moment. When that never happened, and the others gained their sight back, I expected her to go blind at the very end. Like I mentioned earlier, I was not very good at predicting which way this story would unfold, haha.

Speaking of wrong guesses, I expected the blind accountant to play a more significant role in this story. When we became aware of his existence I thought he would rise quickly through the hierarchy and become the king of the blind.

Danielle, your thoughts on the collapse of behavioral norms after the blindness took hold make a lot of sense to me. First, with how the military treats the blind people, then later with the rapists and thugs in the other ward, we see people abandoning the normal rules of society and humanity with little hesitation. Some of them gleefully. I agree that while shocking and horrifying, it was not surprising.

So Friday night I sat down to read a little before bed. I had briefly skimmed over Danielle's post and had seen she was listening to the audio version. After about 20 minutes of reading/re-reading I decided I was to tired to make sense of what I was reading. I felt defeated in that it was going to take me forever to finish. Not because I wasn't enjoying it but because I've been so busy and has been hard to find time to read for more than 20 minutes or so at a time. Then it dawned on me why not download the audio version. Which I did and I'm so glad!

Yesterday, while listening, got a deep clean on my kitchen done, cleaned out my garage and took my dogs for a long overdue long walk.

The writing style was challenging but compelling and well done. Here is the best description I've found of the writing style.

"It’s an omniscient narrator hopping between a lot of heads. The dialogue is run into the rest of the prose, with no punctuation to distinguish it from the rest of the prose. Yes, no quote marks. Not even a dash. Sometimes the dialogue has no tags to tell us who’s speaking � or indeed that it is speech. When the characters speak, it’s not even presented in separate sentences, let alone paragraphed."

This seemed kind of like a parable to me. What lessons are we suppose to learn? What does this tell us about humanity? How would one define them self? Etc.

Since I read the first half of the book it seemed to take forever to get to a defining moment where the internees decided to change the narrative of their lives in the institution. I was wondering if it was just going to continue to play out in the hospital which just seemed to depressing and drawn out. Which I guess is part of the point the characters either were going to run out of hope or redefine the situation.

Think I will watch the movie later today.

Gretchen, do you find the audiobook easier to follow? From your descriptions, it sounds terribly difficult to read. I feel like I need to look at the paper edition of the book to fully understand. haha

Jordan, I had similar thoughts about the accountant. Once again, though, he was just some dude. There were several characters that, when introduced, I thought would have a bigger influence in the story. Only to find that they weren't anything 'special' in the context of the book. It was an interesting change of pace, as a couple of you have already mentioned. No paranormal phenomena, no heroes saving the day, nothing out of the realm of reality in regards to characters and their personalities.

I think I misunderstood the ending, however. Did the doctor's wife not actually go blind? I thought she did. That was one of the issues that I had with the book. haha A twisting of the story where she went blind when the others had regained their sight didn't make any sense to me. At least not without some kind of explanation. Perhaps I need to listen to that part again.

Danielle, I had to go back and listen to the last couple of minutes because I thought the same thing about the Doctor's wife.

She did not go blind. Paraphrasing... She looked up into the sky and saw white light. She looked down and the city was still there.

It was much easier to listen too than read. I was so glad I changed the format.

Haha I must have missed that last sentence. Did you end up watching the movie?

Yes I did. It has Mark Ruffalo, Julianne Moore, Danny Glover and some others I recognized but not sure what their names are.

The movie was pretty good. Had the same dark feel. Moved a lot quicker and feel like I need to watch again because either I missed stuff or they left some stuff out. The just of it was the same though.

Audiobooks are the way to go, Gretchen. I'd never get through a tenth of the books I read if not for audiobooks. I have an hour commute each way to work, and combined with mowing the grass, exercising, and the other monotonous tasks of life it seemed like I was wasting a lot of time. Audiobooks help make the best of those empty hours.

Does anyone intend to read the sequel?

I agree about the audio books. I still love the idea of curling up with an actual book and spending the day reading. However, life doesn't allow for that most of the time.

I'm interested in reading the sequel. The synopsis sounds intriguing and seems to take a different course all together.