Heteronym
Reader
This week I visited a Jos? Saramago exhibition, which covered his life from childhood to modern times, and presented glimpses at drafts and notes regarding his next novel, called ?The Elephant?s Journey,? based on historical facts about an elephant that was brought to Europe during the Middle Ages. So I thought this was a good time for a thread on my favourite living writer.
For me there is only an equal amongst living novelists: Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez. Both write magical realism in long, deceptively-meandering, sensuous sentences that can run for several pages, ignoring common punctuation marks. On top of that, Saramago weaves his descriptions with unmarked dialogues, asides, proverbs, philosophical ruminations and ironic observations. The best character in any Saramago novel is always the omniscient narrator. At the exhibition I learned he developed this style while writing his third novel, Levantado do Ch?o, which has never been translated in English. This novel was also his last naturalist novel, the end of his formative years, as some critics call it, which includes Terra do Pecado, the first novel he wrote, in 1947, and Manual de Pintura e Caligrafia, in 1977. Saramago says he didn?t publish a novel in 30 years because he just had nothing worth saying. During this time he worked several menial jobs and perfected his writing publishing chronicles, articles and literary criticism for magazines. He also made a living translating from French.
Saramago achieved worldwide fame in 1982, at the age of 60, with Balthasar and Blimunda, a novel which the UK publishers intelligently marketed as a great love story, although it?s actually about the construction of one of Portugal?s most important architectural landmarks, the Mafra Convent (the original title is translated as ?The Convent Memorial?). Next came his first novel I read, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, about one of Fernando Pessoa?s heteronyms; the humour of the novel comes from treating Reis as if he were a real person. The Stone Raft and History of the Siege of Lisbon were his last two novels to deal openly with Portugal?s history and culture.
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, from 1991,resulted in a controversy that made the writer leave Portugal and set up home in Lanzarote, Spain. The novel was seen as offensive to Christians, so the Ministry of Culture vetoed its entry in a European literary prize list, which Saramago saw as an act of censorship. Although this decision was revoked, Saramago asked the prize jury to keep him out of the list to raise awareness over this matter. This novel is also important because it marks the end of his cycle of historical novels and preludes the universality of his latter work by choosing a more international topic.
Starting with Blindness Saramago initiated what is known as his parable period, in which he eschews geographical, historical and cultural references to the real world in favour of universality. The action in the novel could take place anywhere on Earth, in any city, to anyone. Hence the characters have been described as an allegory for Mankind. Next came All The Names, a parable with Kafkaesque contours about alienation and identity. This was the last novel Jos? Saramago wrote before winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998.
In 2001, inspired by Plato?s allegory, he wrote The Cave, an attack on consumerism and the mass production of goods. In 2003 he wrote the poorly-titled The Double (the Portuguese title would be ?The Duplicated Man?, which would avoid immediate comparisons with Dostoyevsky?s The Double), another dissertation about identity and loneliness, about a man who becomes obsessed with meeting a double he finds one day in a movie.
In 2004 there was Seeing, a sequel of sorts to Blindness, and my favourite Saramago novel. The premise is simultaneously simple and astonishing: on a rainy election day, over 80% of the population of a nameless city decides to cast blank votes; and the government, fearing rebellion and acting under the pretence of saving democracy, put the city under siege so that this dangerous idea doesn?t spread to other cities.
Saramago published his last novel in 2005, which according to wiki comes out in 2008 and is titled Death at Intervals.
Has anyone ever read anything by him?
For me there is only an equal amongst living novelists: Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez. Both write magical realism in long, deceptively-meandering, sensuous sentences that can run for several pages, ignoring common punctuation marks. On top of that, Saramago weaves his descriptions with unmarked dialogues, asides, proverbs, philosophical ruminations and ironic observations. The best character in any Saramago novel is always the omniscient narrator. At the exhibition I learned he developed this style while writing his third novel, Levantado do Ch?o, which has never been translated in English. This novel was also his last naturalist novel, the end of his formative years, as some critics call it, which includes Terra do Pecado, the first novel he wrote, in 1947, and Manual de Pintura e Caligrafia, in 1977. Saramago says he didn?t publish a novel in 30 years because he just had nothing worth saying. During this time he worked several menial jobs and perfected his writing publishing chronicles, articles and literary criticism for magazines. He also made a living translating from French.
Saramago achieved worldwide fame in 1982, at the age of 60, with Balthasar and Blimunda, a novel which the UK publishers intelligently marketed as a great love story, although it?s actually about the construction of one of Portugal?s most important architectural landmarks, the Mafra Convent (the original title is translated as ?The Convent Memorial?). Next came his first novel I read, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, about one of Fernando Pessoa?s heteronyms; the humour of the novel comes from treating Reis as if he were a real person. The Stone Raft and History of the Siege of Lisbon were his last two novels to deal openly with Portugal?s history and culture.
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, from 1991,resulted in a controversy that made the writer leave Portugal and set up home in Lanzarote, Spain. The novel was seen as offensive to Christians, so the Ministry of Culture vetoed its entry in a European literary prize list, which Saramago saw as an act of censorship. Although this decision was revoked, Saramago asked the prize jury to keep him out of the list to raise awareness over this matter. This novel is also important because it marks the end of his cycle of historical novels and preludes the universality of his latter work by choosing a more international topic.
Starting with Blindness Saramago initiated what is known as his parable period, in which he eschews geographical, historical and cultural references to the real world in favour of universality. The action in the novel could take place anywhere on Earth, in any city, to anyone. Hence the characters have been described as an allegory for Mankind. Next came All The Names, a parable with Kafkaesque contours about alienation and identity. This was the last novel Jos? Saramago wrote before winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998.
In 2001, inspired by Plato?s allegory, he wrote The Cave, an attack on consumerism and the mass production of goods. In 2003 he wrote the poorly-titled The Double (the Portuguese title would be ?The Duplicated Man?, which would avoid immediate comparisons with Dostoyevsky?s The Double), another dissertation about identity and loneliness, about a man who becomes obsessed with meeting a double he finds one day in a movie.
In 2004 there was Seeing, a sequel of sorts to Blindness, and my favourite Saramago novel. The premise is simultaneously simple and astonishing: on a rainy election day, over 80% of the population of a nameless city decides to cast blank votes; and the government, fearing rebellion and acting under the pretence of saving democracy, put the city under siege so that this dangerous idea doesn?t spread to other cities.
Saramago published his last novel in 2005, which according to wiki comes out in 2008 and is titled Death at Intervals.
Has anyone ever read anything by him?
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