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Harder to get into than Blindness. There just isn't a whole lot of action in the first hundred pages of Seeing. A lot of pontification about the electoral process and the mechanics of politics, but nothing much really happens. I feel like Saramago was a bit too in love with his satire for a bit too long in the narrative, but that's just my take. It does pick up after that, and comes to a conclusion that is probably right for the book, but one that I didn't exactly love.
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HERE BE SPOILERS: Basically, Seeing took all that I loved about Blindness and shattered it like the skull of the poor inspector when the man with the blue tie shoots him in the back of the head. My favorite character, the optometrist's wife, gets treated with the same callous disregard. I know Saramago is telling us that life sucks and the government sucks and people suck, and if they don't, if they are actually decent, then the world will find a way to grind them under its boot heel, but it was disappointing. I'm not averse to sad, tragic endings; Jude The Obscure is one of my favorite books! But with Seeing, there was almost none of the beauty (even in the midst of utter misery) that Blindness contained. Seeing left me feeling hopeless and pessimistic about humanity as a whole. Maybe that's the way I should be seeing things, pardon the pun, but it didn't make for satisfying reading.
******
HERE BE SPOILERS: Basically, Seeing took all that I loved about Blindness and shattered it like the skull of the poor inspector when the man with the blue tie shoots him in the back of the head. My favorite character, the optometrist's wife, gets treated with the same callous disregard. I know Saramago is telling us that life sucks and the government sucks and people suck, and if they don't, if they are actually decent, then the world will find a way to grind them under its boot heel, but it was disappointing. I'm not averse to sad, tragic endings; Jude The Obscure is one of my favorite books! But with Seeing, there was almost none of the beauty (even in the midst of utter misery) that Blindness contained. Seeing left me feeling hopeless and pessimistic about humanity as a whole. Maybe that's the way I should be seeing things, pardon the pun, but it didn't make for satisfying reading.