Blindness

Blindness
José Saramago, 1995

Premise: What happens to a small group of people during an unexplained epidemic of blindness. Content warnings, y'all. LOTS of them. 

This is part of the "read the books already on the shelf" project, although I didn't pick this book. It was a gift, where "gift" means that if I remember right, an out-of-town visitor finished the book while visiting and didn't feel like bringing it home with them. (Not naming names here, just saying that I didn't choose this book.)

I can see why it's an award-winning book, the style is interesting at first, and it feels like it's trying to say something about humanity. 

Unfortunately, what it seems to be saying is that people generally suck, but women can somehow both bear horrific treatment and efficiently hold society together, but without actually getting any respect or sympathy.  

It started out promising, but by the end, the style was oppressive and annoying to read, the fact that none of the characters had names was now tiresome, and if I had to read the narration comment one more time about how surprising you-the-reader might find it that the young escort actually had sensible thoughts in her head given her occupation I was going to scream. 

The characters don't just lack names, they lack any specificity or actual character beyond the most superficial details. There's no reason to care about them in specific or in general. The plot is tedious, often lingering on scenes of physical or moral degradation to a ludicrous extent. The lengthy, graphic gang rape scene is something I could have happily gone without ever reading. 

I get that it's a metaphor, the blindness makes people less-than-human. But then they all get their sight back with no explanation or follow-up. Okay, what are we supposed to take from that? Some people are horrible. Some aren't. Some can't handle crisis. Some can. And? (Not to mention that I don't blame communities of visually impaired people for having some real issues with this book's whole premise.)

The more I think about it, the more it annoys me. So yeah, this one doesn't get to stay in the house. 

1 Star - Didn't Like It.