José Saramago

[Heteronym]

This week I visited a José 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 García Márquez. 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 Chão, 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 José 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?

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Heteronym

Has anyone ever read anything by him?

No, not yet. He is someone that I've been wanting to read for, oh, a couple of years now. But I never get around to buying any of his books. Blindness is one that really interests me, though, and since, on my blog, I'm doing a very loose - i.e. non time-scaled - reading of 1,001 books you must read before you die, where he is represented by a few titles, I'm sure I'll get round to him one day.

[Heteronym]

Blindness is arguably his best novel. It's simultaneously a meditation on human frailty, a modern dystopia and a horror novel. If you do read it, you should next get Seeing, which recovers some characters from the first novel.

A perfect introduction to his style, however, would be Death at Intervals. It's the shortest, funniest and most magical of his novels.

[nnyhav]

Originally Posted by Heteronym

Has anyone ever read anything by him?

Yes, in approximately this order: All The Names, History of the Siege of Lisbon, Balthasar and Blimunda, The Cave, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, Blindness, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ ...

No doubt the best thing to happen to Portuguese literature since Pessoa; I was hooked after the first above (moreso than with GGM, who's over-rated in my book), but I wouldn't go so far as to say peerless amongst living novelists (I mean, Pynchon & Eco are still kickin', just f'rinstance). Sometimes his voice seems a tad too predictable, falling into an easy pattern of knowing, qualified asides, which has made me hesitant to exhaust his writings ... is there anything I've missed that you'd particularly recommend?

[Heteronym]

Looks like you've missed The Stone Raft and The Double, both of which even I found taxing. I do understand what you mean with predictable: after eleven novels, I find myself guessing his sentences; but this happens with every writer I've read too extensively, from Márquez to Philip Roth to Borges (especially Borges, who never had a problem cannibalising himself in essays).

But I would recommend Seeing and Death at Intervals: they're short and humorous; the former is especially relevant nowadays with Democracy becoming more and more totalitarian; and the latter is simultaneously a meditation on death, a warning about immortality and a celebration of life.

[miriring]

Hello heteronym,
A good idea to open a thread upon the great writer Jose Saramago.
Yes, I've read all his books - novels, short stories, diaries etc.
Fortuantly I can read Portuguese...
I wrote a monograph upon Saramago which is to be published soon, so I'll be happy to discuss this author (any of his books).
When people ask me from where to start the reading of Saramago's work, I always recommend to start The Gospel according Jesus Christ...if you overcome this book all the others will be easy to read.

[Paul]

I'm fairly new to Saramago, having only read Blindness - which is quite amazing. (Apparently a film has recently been made of that book, by the way).

My plan was to read All the Names next, but having read the synopsis of The Gospel According to Jesus, I'm intrigued by that book. Miriring, when you say this book needs 'overcoming', what do you mean by that? Would it be a mistake for me to read it so early on? I don't want to be put off Saramago if that book isn't representative of his other novels.

[miriring]

Paul, If you read Blindness and you had no problem in reading it, than you will not have any problem in reading all Saramago's books.
People say they have difficulties in reading the long passages with the minimum ponctuation (comma and full stop only)...
All the Names is a great book, one of Saramago's best novel).
Have a wonderful time in reading

[Paul]

I see, miriring. Thanks. I actually really like the way in which it was written. The style seemed to somewhow provide a real impetus to the story itself. I'm quite pleased to hear other books of his are written like that.

As to which of the two books I'll buy next - I'll probably end up doing what I normally do, and buy both.

[Morten]

I'd agree that Blindness is his best. The Double isn't bad either. He's a writer with an unnerving sense of what lurks beneath the surface of civilization, an idea of how little it takes to break that surface and the consequent horror and chaos that would errupt.

[Kingbee]

I read The Gospel According to Jesus Christ first- it took me a while to get into it, not least because Saramago's style is somewhat unorthodox for me at least, but after I got over that hurdle, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I then progressed onto The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (mainly because I also love Pessoa), and found it incredibly taxing and a bit much. In fact, it took me three years and and off to finish it- mainly because it felt like a bit of a chore!

I am now a tad reluctant to read anymore Saramago- because I don't know whether I'll get a GATJC or a YOTDORR. Would be it too simplistic to say that the latter would be more suitable to a Portuguese audience, along with the Stone Raft, etc? My Portuguese friend said that she loved the Stone Raft but that I, as a Brit/Welsh, would find it a bit alienating.

Also, should Blindness be the next one I should progress onto?

[Heteronym]

Originally Posted by Morten

He's a writer with an unnerving sense of what lurks beneath the surface of civilization, an idea of how little it takes to break that surface and the consequent horror and chaos that would errupt.

He's a lot more than that, though. Blindness is one novel amongst fourteen. Its towering popularity over the others has obscured the fact that Saramago also has great ability to convey humor (Death at Intervals), absurdity (All The Names), romance (The History of the Siege of Lisbon) and family relationships (The Cave). He's one of the most complete writers I know, who understands how humans can simultaneously be decent and vile, ridiculous and special.


If it makes you feel any better, Kingbee, I didn't like The Stone Raft that much either. You'll probably be more comfortable with his post-Gospel work, since the author eliminates all traces of Portuguese culture to make his stories more universal.

[Heteronym]

New novel is coming out soon:

Portugal's Nobel Literature laureate Jose Saramago has announced the completion of his latest work "The Elephant's Journey", based on the real-life epic journey of an Indian elephant named Solomon who travelled from Lisbon to Vienna in the 16th century.

Saramago's achievement marks a rebirth for the veteran writer, 86, whose flagging health, for which he received hospital treatment late last year, sounded alarm bells in the literary world.

The author describes the book as "a story rather than a novel". It will be published shortly in Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan, and opens with the line: "However incongruous it may seem..."

Saramago has been captivated by the tale for last ten years, ever since he made a visit to Austria and went to eat by chance in a Salzburg restaurant called The Elephant, the author says in a long email interview published recently in the Spanish press.

More...

I'm trying to make 2008 the year I finish reading all Saramago novels: with this one, I just have three more to go.

[nnyhav]

James Wood reviews Saramago's Death with Interruptions (trans Margaret Jull Costa):
Death Takes a Holiday: Books: The New Yorker

[Heteronym]

Is it me or do the British and Americans each have their own translation? Because I've held in my hands this novel translated as Death at Intervals.

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Heteronym

Is it me or do the British and Americans each have their own translation? Because I've held in my hands this novel translated as Death at Intervals.

It's certainly Death At Intervals in the UK, by the same translator. Presumably it's just one of those US quirks where they change the name, like the first Harry Potter book or, say, Philippe Grimbert's Secret to Memory.

[Sybarite]

Originally Posted by Heteronym

... Has anyone ever read anything by him

On the basis of your recommendation, Heteronym, I got The Gospel According to Jesus Christ. I started it yesterday and am almost a third of the way through. It's superb.

[Heteronym]

That makes me happy, Sybarite. You'll have to post a review when you're finished.

[Sybarite]

Originally Posted by Heteronym

That makes me happy, Sybarite. You'll have to post a review when you're finished.

I will most certainly do that, Heteronym – and thank you again for the recommendation.

[miercuri]

I read Blindness two years ago and it is undoubtably one of my favourite novels. However I haven't got round to reading anything else by him ever since. I have an English edition of The Double and an older Romanian edition of The Stone Raft. Incidentally, earlier today I ordered All the Names (also a Romanian translation). Which one should I read first?