It immediately took me back to so many other novels of Saramago. I think most would see it as a political satire or allegory, and it is that I suppose, but the very fact of how little detail his gives and how little resolution he offers, makes it more like there is a politically charged situation which he exploits for one of his typical stories. But what is that issue? That’s really never very clear in the novel, and that I liked. Saramago just has a wry and witty way of dealing even with a very serious issue. Yet the subject matter of the novel is in no way funny. He’s gentle, clever and soft-spoken, but he can’t help giggling softly at his own jokes, and sometimes a single sentence, some little quip, is just so richly funny that I, on my side, am guffawing out loud. I get this almost creepy feeling his is there in the room, and he’s telling me a funny story. In this work he adds a most subtle and hilarious touch in dealing with the reader. I have always enjoyed that feature of a bit of chat with the author right in the middle of the novel. Saying things like: “Now you may wonder, dear reader, why she did that. In nearly all of Saramago’s novels he stops the flow of action and has chats with the reader. Ranslated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa from the 2006 Book review - Jose Saramago SEEING SEEING Jose Saramago
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