José Saramago

[Heteronym]

Terra do Pecado has nothing to do with religion. The title was forced on a young Saramago by the publisher. The original title was The Widow, which is what the book is about: a widow who falls in love again.

[Raphael Lambach]

Terra do Pecado has nothing to do with religion. The title was forced on a young Saramago by the publisher. The original title was The Widow, which is what the book is about: a widow who falls in love again.

I did not know about that.

[Bjorn]

Publisher tells paper novelist Saramago has died - Yahoo! News

[Heteronym]

Yes, he passed away shortly before one in the afternoon. Portuguese TV news have been talking about him for the past hour.

This is a very sad news. He was my favorite writer and in my opinion he was also the best living writer.

[DouglasM]

All the portuguese language is mourning his death today.

[Raphael Lambach]

Publisher tells paper novelist Saramago has died - Yahoo! News

I've just known it. I am paralized here in my house.

[miercuri]

Very sad news indeed. He lived a long life, yet it seems that his death came too soon.

[Raphael Lambach]

Very sad news indeed. He lived a long life, yet it seems that his death came too soon.

Saramago's work is such an important thng that we can't believe his death really happened.

[peter_d]

The death of legend. Learned it just 45 minutes ago. Very sad news.

It?s a comforting thought, however, that he left so many wonderful books that he will never be forgotten.

[Raphael Lambach]

I lay it on the line that by we don't?have any writer (on Porguese) as perfect and sofisticate as Saramago was. After Machado de Assis had only Saramago, but now this place is empty.

[Scott89119]

What sad news. Right after hearing it I got my copy of Blindness off the shelf and started reading it for the first time. What a stunning writer, readable in his pacing and surprising in the little things he puts in the middle of his long paragraphs. This sentence has for some reason got me going:

"Virtue, should there be anyone who still ignores the fact, always finds pitfalls on the extremely difficult path of perfection, but sin and vice are so favored by fortune that no sooner did she get there than the elevator door opened."

Wow. RIP.

[mesnalty]

So sad. But at least he left behind quite an extensive bibliography. Maybe his death will lead to some of his early works being translated into English, but in the meantime I look forward to reading some of the translated ones I haven't gotten around to (The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, The Double).

[Heteronym]

I'm going to start re-reading Seeing today in his honor. It was one of the first novels I read him and it's one of my favorites.

[Bjorn]

Here's a nice obit:

Jos? Saramago, master of what-ifs | Maya Jaggi | Books | guardian.co.uk

[waalkwriter]

I got this news a little late it appears, but I saw on Wikipedia he had died at age 87. A long life, but yes it does seem short, maybe because he was still so active, and maybe because he didn't really get noticed as a writer until he was nearly 60 years old.

I've only ever read Death With Interruptions, but I liked it a lot. Blindness has been on my list for some time, I shall have to try to pick it up this summer, though first I want to make my way through T.H. White's The Once and Future King series of books which have come very highly recommended to me.

Certainly one of the greatest living European writers.

I wonder what the Portuguese people on here think of President Silva skipping the funeral, (though he was vacationing just a few miles away). I'm personally inclined to think that Saramago would have preferred it that way. I don't think he would have liked to see a right-wing critic of his come to his funeral and wax kindly on his grave, especially a man who tried to censor him and take various awards away at one time, if my understanding is correct, (which it probably isn't).

[Liam]

Certainly one of the greatest living European writers.

Um, well, not anymore, .

I've only ever read Death With Interruptions, but I liked it a lot.

Yes, I remember liking it too, especially the part about the dog.

Blindness has been on my list for some time

Ugh, I hated Blindness. Three hundred pages of absolute filth to tell me... what, exactly, that human nature is inherently beastly? You DON'T say!!! I hated the movie version as well.

[waalkwriter]

Yeah, Death With interruptions was good, but it made me very angry. When I came across my first reaction was, SHIT, and then I had to cross out an idea for a future novel, it was a, 'Note to self, someone beat you to this" moment.

Hmm, hated Blindness you see? Quick, tell me a novel that you've read and loved and I will spout a completely trivial reason for disliking it

The movie version i didn't see, but it did help prove to me that America is way too sensitive and obsessed about political correctness; the American Blind society or whatever attacked the film and launched a public campaign against it because it "demonized the blind", talk about totally missing the point and mischaracterizing the work at the same time.

[Heteronym]

I got this news a little late it appears, but I saw on Wikipedia he had died at age 87. A long life, but yes it does seem short, maybe because he was still so active, and maybe because he didn't really get noticed as a writer until he was nearly 60 years old.

A quick clarification: Saramago published his first novel in 1947, at the age of 25. It was awful and he felt he had nothing to say so he gave up fiction indefinitely. He published his second novel in 1977, and started writing full-time in 1979. His third novel, which for the first time reveals his unique style, came out in 1980. His fourth novel, the 1982 Baltsar and Blinunda, brought him international fame. As you can see, the world had no reason to take notice of him before he was 60. But what is amazing is that between his becoming a full-time writer and a Nobel Prize winner only 18 years passed.

I've only ever read Death With Interruptions, but I liked it a lot. Blindness has been on my list for some time, I shall have to try to pick it up this summer.

A very good novel, one of my favorites. Full of imagination and humor.

I wonder what the Portuguese people on here think of President Silva skipping the funeral, (though he was vacationing just a few miles away). I'm personally inclined to think that Saramago would have preferred it that way. I don't think he would have liked to see a right-wing critic of his come to his funeral and wax kindly on his grave, especially a man who tried to censor him and take various awards away at one time, if my understanding is correct, (which it probably isn't).

Cavaco Silva is a piece of scum, quite simply. And, as Saramago once said of him, a banal man. He was the prime-minister of the right-wing government that censored Saramago and led him to exile himself in Spain. So there was no love between the two. Still, I think he should have been there. He followed the pope around like a puppy when he visted Portugal, but couldn't waste a morning attending Portugal's greatest writer's funeral.

[Liam]

Quick, tell me a novel that you've read and loved and I will spout a completely trivial reason for disliking it

Well, I remember reading and really, really loving The Sound and the Fury, .

the American Blind society or whatever attacked the film and launched a public campaign against it

I hope they had watched it, at least, before launching the campaign.

[waalkwriter]

Hmmm...damn you Touche, way to turn that around on me, couldn't use a book like Me, myself, and my Penis