Blindness Book

The quick paced nature of this book lends well to its subject matter, drawing the reader in to the tension that is evoked by the lack of punctuation and speech marks.

Although this story explores the dark side of human nature, the strength and compassion of the doctors wife shines through; the doctors wife is the only one in the mental hospital who can see, however this is a secret to everybody apart from her husband. She begins to care for the other blind people, including an abusive and manipulative car thief whose leg is injured by a fellow blind person who he was trying to molest on a guided trip to the bathroom.

As the hospital degenerates in to disorder and filth (toilets back up, food deliveries become sporadic; there is no medical treatment for the sick and no proper way to bury the dead) the reader asks themselves would it better to be blind in such a state to not see the suffering and also be someone with the responsibility of everyone rather than being able to see.

As expected, social conventions quickly disintegrate leaving the blind with primal instincts of survival; all witnessed by the doctor"s wife.

One group of blind inmates decides to hold the food deliveries to ransom and demands jewels as payment for food. After the jewellery and money run out the wards are asked to sacrifice their women's bodies in return for food.

Eventually a small group of blind people are led to freedom by the doctor"s wife......but what has happened to the world outside if the mental hospital?

This book explores the acts of kindness and brutality of human nature, inadvertently posing questions to the reader about how far you would go to survive. How strong are the human bonds to society before we degenerate in to little more than beasts that are merely trying to survive?

This is a book that, although dark, sparked my imagination and caused endless intrigue. Although I devoured this book in record speed I would also drift away to ask myself 'what would I do?"

If you want to read something that will spark your imagination and leave you with a head full of questions about society then read this book.

A driver waiting at the traffic lights goes blind. An opthamologist tries to diagnose his distinctive white blindness, but is affected before he can read the textbooks. It becomes a contagion, spreading throughout the city. Trying to stem the epidemic, the authorities herd the afflicted into a mental asylum where the wards are terrorised by blind thugs. And when fire destroys the asylum, the inmates burst forth and the last links with a supposedly civilised society are snapped. No food, no water, no government, no obligation, no order. This is not anarchy, this is blindness.

Jose Saramago, Giovanni Pontiero (Trans)