Las intermitencias de la muerte

This is the first book by this Nobel Prize winner I have read although I have wanted to read ‘Blindness’…my library does not have it. This was a nice introduction to Saragamo’s oeuvre. A very solid 3 stars. Close to a 4 but for the first 2/3rd of the novel. It moved too slow—that section of the book while clever, moved too slow for me.

•tThe book was clever throughout. Imagine what would happen if in a country nobody died. Death takes a holiday literally. Who would be happy? Who wouldn’t be happy—in this novel, religion and in particular those believing in resurrection of the body (how can our bodies rise from the dead at the Second Coming of Christ if we are not dead, yet?) …life insurance companies (nobody will pay for it)…funeral homes (no need for these folks!)…
•tBut Saragamo throws in an added clever “fact” …people do not die but only in one country—in adjacent countries life…and death…go on. You wouldn’t think people would want to willingly go over to the other countries, would you? Well, eternal life isn’t for everybody.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live forever ?
But if eternal life would not coincide with the cessation of bodily degradation that old age entails, the dissapearance of death could suddenly no longer be such an attractive idea.

"The next day, no one died ".

This is how Saramago begins his novel. Obviously, the first reaction is joy, with people feeling like they have just escaped the biggest fear of their lives, and that from that moment on, their whole existence will change radically.
But people continue though, to have all the suffering that disease and old age bring. At this point, people come to realize that the fear felt throughout their life, towards death - it is less intense than that generated by the absence of death. Saramago launches, in this context, in the analysis of human feelings towards the fatality of death. These are put face to face, with peoples position on divinity, the idea being that death has a much more active and powerful presence in people's lives than God. (the spelling folows the one proposed by the narrator).

This quasi-bogumilic thesis aims to reconsider the most intense desires. Ultimately, aversion to death - is just a fear of the unknown.

The moment Death becomes a character, and interacts with people directly - the way we relate to it - changes.
Death becomes an active and visible character when he decides to warn those who are going to die, that they have only one week to live.
The only problem occurs when one of the letters of this type, sent by Death - does not reach the adresant. Here, Death decides to mingle with people, to see why his letter did not arrive.
Thus, we find an interesting character, a violinist - who feels that he has missed his whole life.
Death seems unable to penetrate the intimacy of man who should have another chance at gratitude, to salvation from regret for eternity.
This story being the most beautiful of the novel, I let you discover its finality by yourself.

The initial interpretation can be reconsidered when , at the last sentence, I discover that this is the same sentence with which Saramago begins his story.
So, are we dealing with a cyclical novel ? I think not, which means that the key to unraveling the mystery of the death- defying violinist lies precisely in this suggestion of cyclicity.

In addition to the creativity and novelty of the theme, the novel is worth reading, because it is one of the most beautiful demonstration of how suspence is constructed in a narrative, without becoming commercial, in the bad sense of the word.

I love the cover of this book, the cartoon woman in black, paused on the doorstep of someone's life, her symbolic scythe held aloft. A light switch features in the centre of the illustration as if she might jokingly dim the lights while she fulfills her task. We almost expect to see a grin on her face and the illustrator has kindly left her features blank so that we can fill in that smirk for ourselves. A perfect book cover for a satire about death.
I’m not so keen on the title however; Death At Intervals sounds odd to me. The original title was As Intermitências da Morte, and when the book was translated into English, there were two versions of the title, Death at Intervals and Death with Interruptions the French for 'light switch' is 'interrupteur'. I prefer the second version but I’d have really liked a version that stuck closer to the Portuguese and used the lovely word ‘intermittences’, a word which always make me think of those heart-stopping moments in life when we suddenly recall things that had previously been buried too deep to remember. I’ve taken that idea from Proust, of course, who had many 'intermittences of the heart' moments so it’s interesting to note that Saramago mentions Proust in relation to the 'final' heart-stopping moment of life. Yes, Saramago’s narrator refers not once but three times to the woman in black whom Proust reported seeing in a corner of his room just before he died, so I imagine Proust’s dark figure must have been some sort of trigger for this humorous tale about a woman called death, even if it may not be the sole inspiration. In fact Saramago wrote this book in 2005 at a time when his own health was poor; he was eighty-three and suffering from leukaemia and there was a point around then when his own death was interrupted: he was pronounced dead but recovered and lived on until 2010. Two years before he died, he wrote in The Notebook, The truth is, I feel myself alive, very much alive, whenever for one reason or other I have to talk about death. As we read Death with Interruptions we really appreciate the truth of that statement. It’s as if Saramago managed to access some memory about death that the rest of us have repressed. This allows him to treat death in an audaciously irreverent way, and we are fairly certain that he has a wide grin on his face as he spins out the narrative, aiming delightful darts at his favourite targets in the process; the Church is not spared, nor are politicians; royalty also comes in for some satire, as do many of society’s institutions. It is all so smoothly done that we can only stand back and admire the perfect blend of what is said with the way it is said.
No one writes quite like Saramago.

Pagină cu pagină, frază cu frază, José Saramago mi se furișează irevocabil în suflet.

Cum ar fi dacă, într-o bună zi, moartea ar dispărea pe nesimțite din peisaj, dacă nimeni nu ar mai muri, nici măcar cei aflați la o suflare de tărâmul neființei? Ei bine... se pare că nici măcar biserica (catolică, romană și apostolică) nu e prea încântată de amânarea judecății de apoi și de perspectiva eternului "acum", iar nemurirea (mai ales în absența "tinereții fără bătrânețe") e supraestimată.

Trecând peste tragicomedia implicațiilor dispariției morții asupra firmelor de pompe funebre, azilurilor de bătrâni sau a spitalelor (umorul subtil cu care Saramago ilustrează absurdul, neliniștea și strădaniile acestora este pur și simplu delicios), are oare viața vreun sens, vreo împlinire în absența morții? Sau poate farmecul amar al acesteia se naște din efemer, din conștiința sfârșitului inevitabil? Ei bine... habar n-am. Cred că oamenii sunt printre puținele ființe care își poartă moartea adânc îngropată în sine, știm că e acolo, că fiecare suflare e un pas în direcția ei, ne înspăimântă necunoscutul care o învăluie, căutăm mai mult sau mai puțin conștient să o înfrângem, să o amăgim, "să lăsam ceva în urmă", să ne câștigăm eternitatea prin familie, religie, carieră, cunoaștere sau "fapte bune".

Dar în fine, mă pierd în valuri. Saramago e genial.

This book is unique. It needs a whole new genre to itself, fantasy philosophy perhaps. See All the Names for a review that really covers both these books since they are very much linked. They seem to be the working out of an obsession with Death, but a very unconventional view and ideas indeed.

ماذا يحدث إذا انقطع الموت فلا أحد يموت فى بلدة صغيرة وهل سيكون الناس اسعد حقاُ هل نظام الكون سيستمر بدون خلل وكيف سيكون رد فعل الناس والحكومة تجاه ذلك الحدث الغريب ..تلك هى فكرة سارماجو فى تلك الرواية العبقرية
الجزء الأول من الرواية يستحق خمس نجوم بجدارة ولكن الجزء الثانى به ملل عندما تنزل ربه الموت الى الحياه الواقعية
اول قراءة لسارماجو وأفكاره المجنونة العبقرية

José Saramago's imagination appeals to me: I cherished Death with Interruptions from the first page. It's was not only the author’s incredible creativity or his masterful writing but also the fact that here he deals with something so close to all human beings: n  death.n Who, after all, at some point in life, hasn't asked why do we have to die? The dream of immortality has fascinated humanity forever.

n  n    "The following day, no one died."n  n

So simplySaramago begins: in an undisclosed small European country, without any logic or harbinger, people suddenly stopped dying.

n  n    "Having lived, until those days of confusion, in what they had imagined to be the best of all possible and probable worlds, they were discovering, with delight, that the best, the absolute best, was happening right now, right there, at the door of their house, a unique and marvelous life without the daily fear of parca’s creaking scissors, immortality in the land that gave us our being, safe from any metaphysical awkwardnesses and free to everyone, with no sealed orders to open at the hour of our death, announcing at that crossroads where dear companions in this vale of tears known as earth were forced to part and set off for their different destinations in the next world, you to paradise, you to purgatory, you down to hell."n  n

A dream come through, correct?

But nothing is for free on this earth of ours, and very soon the exultation starts to die down. As the days goes by what we discover in Saramago’s fascinating story is ultimately thousands of people suspended on the edge of dying. Slowly the country finds itself disoriented for what to do, immersed in a new confusion. People lose jobs (no more jobs for undertakers or gravediggers, and so many others that depended on it). Religion has lost its reason and its greatest reward, resurrection. And philosophers are left speechless facing the fact of a n  “society torn between the hope of living forever and the fear of never dying.”n

How everything seems to have turned upside down: life is now the inconvenience: n  "If we don’t start dying again, we have no future."n Apart from any judgment on Saramago's religious feelings that probably dwell underneath his novel or any religion discussion, his unique narration is so superbly delivered that it conquers the reader. And he is always amazing us:

n  n    "Due to some strange optical phenomenon, real or virtual, death seems much smaller now as if her bones had shrunk, or perhaps she was always like that, and it's our eyes, wide with fear, that make her look like a giant. Poor death. It makes us feel like going over and putting a hand on her hard shoulder and whispering a few words of sympathy in her ear, or, rather, in the place where her ear once was, underneath the parietal."n  n

Saramago simply captivates the reader. Read it if you enjoy something that will leave you with much more than with what you started before opening one of his books. As his literature Nobel Prize attests, he knows how to write. He is brilliant, and you won’t forget him after the first taste.
____

“Nuestra salvación es la muerte, pero no esta." Franz Kafka

Debo reconocer que ciertos escritores merecen el Premio Nobel que ganaron precisamente por cada palabra que escribieron, y este es el caso de José Saramago.
Me alcanzó con leer sólo dos de sus novelas, y más allá de su peculiar estilo narrativo, sin guionar o al menos encomillar los diálogos que hacen que uno se agobie un poco con la lectura del texto que tiene enfrente, difieren de cualquier otro autor.
Dejado este detalle aparte, lo que más puedo resaltar de Saramago es su originalidad inigualable a la hora de elegir la temática o el argumento de sus novelas. Que todo el mundo se quede ciego con la excepción de una sola mujer, que un hombre que trabaja en un registro de las personas se obsesione con una en común o como en este caso suceda que en un país la muerte deje de ejercer su histórico permitiendo que la gente siga viva es realmente de destacar.
Celebro la inventiva y la genialidad de Saramago y con cada novela que leo lo voy admirando cada vez con más fuerza.
Ya en "Las intermitencias de la muerte" nos encontramos desde el principio con la noticia de que los que tenían que dejar este mundo no lo hicieron. Todo quedó en suspenso y la muerte se tomó vacaciones, desaparición o vaya uno a saber qué le pasó por la cabeza (y la de su guadaña), pero el hecho es que realmente la gente ahora no se muere.
Al principio todo parece genial. Imaginemos esto solo por un momento, especialmente aquellos (como yo) que le tienen cierto temor a la muerte y les gustaría vivir más años que Matusalén. Suena genial, ¿no? Bueno... parece que no lo es tanto.
Lentamente y con el correr de las páginas, el autor comienza a mostrarnos que no todo es color de rosa, que surgen problemas inesperados, que los que quieren morirse no pueden y los que no quieren morirse y viven en los países limítrofes quieren meterse ilegalmente para no morir y vivir por siempre.
Hay un desconcierto generalizado y una falsa alegría que terminará enfrentando a la población de alguna manera. El supuesto beneficio de "no morir" que la muerte le otorga a los ciudadanos de este país me hizo recordar a la novela "El hombre invisible" de H. G. Wells puntualmente porque esa otra novela Wells nos cuenta que no es tan divertido ser invisible: el personaje de Griffin es invisible, pero está desnudo, sufre frío, tiene hambre porque si come todos verán el alimento en el aire, no puede dormir porque sus párpados son invisibles, todo el mundo lo choca, no lo ve, no puede caminar más porque sus pies están lastimados y muchas otras circunstancias inesperadas se cruzan en su camino.
Lo que sucede aquí tampoco es un don o un privilegio. En cierto modo termina transformándose en un castigo.
Todo, especialmente a nivel institucional queda al borde del colapso. Tengamos en cuenta que los que quieren morir comienzan a querer escaparse para enterrar a sus moribundos en los países vecinos, el Estado no sabe a ciencia cierta cómo resolver la cuestión, la Iglesia pone el grito en el cielo ya que uno de sus principios, además de Dios es la muerte y esta ya no es un problema para los feligreses. Las religiones entran en crisis.
Por otro lado, los geriátricos deben sostener indefinidamente a todos los ancianos internados con los costos que ello acarrea, los seguros de vida no puede cortarse, por ende comienzan a endeudarse ante el hecho de seguir sosteniendo todo el sistema de sus asegurados; los filósofos se quedan a mitad de camino con sus ideales sobre la muerte, las compañías de sepelios quedan al borde de la quiebra y es lógico: nadie se muere. Aparecen un organismo clandestino, la "maphia" (con ph) que se encarga de trasladar a los moribundos para que mueran fuera del país. Todo esto ocupa media novela.
Pero... ¡la muerte vuelve! y aquí encontramos nuevamente un giro inesperado, tan imprevisto como el de la primer línea.
Es maravilloso la manera en que Saramago caracteriza a la muerte, asociándola con una mujer y especialmente en cómo esta decide volver a poner manos a la obra con el lógico resultado: miles de muertos de golpe y un nuevo colapso dentro de este pobre país.
Saramago filosofa, pero tampoco convierte su narración en una cuestión trascendental ni existencial sino que simplemente nos cuenta que es lo que pasa con esta muerte que en el fondo no sabe bien qué es lo que quiere...
La muerte decide la muerte de la gente enviándoles cartas en papel color violeta para que sepan que van a morir.
Imaginen esto: les llega una carta que les dice que tienen siete días y después, al infierno, el purgatorio o el paraíso. ¿Cuántas cosas nos apuraríamos a hacer? Tal vez intentaríamos miles y simplemente haríamos algunas o tal vez nada. Entraríamos en pánico sin saber para dónde ir.
Pero, como en la ficción todo es posible, hasta a la muerte le salen mal las cosas ya que una de estas cartas le es devuelta.
Al parecer hay un violonchelista de cincuenta años que debería haber muerto a los cuarenta y nueve. ¿Cómo? ¡Eso no puede ser! Bueno, para Saramago sí es posible. Entonces pone en marcha su plan final para a última parte de la novela.
Utiliza toda la ironía posible y un finísimo humor negro para caracterizar a la muerte, ésta, desconcertada decide ir a ver al violonchelista convertida en una sensual mujer pero... la involucra sentimentalmente con él al mejor estilo de la película "¿Conoces a Joe Black?" interpretada por Brad Pitt y Anthony Hopkins.
El resultado es un final abierto de una originalidad que a pocos se les ocurriría. La novela termina fantásticamente, entonces yo cierro el libro, me pongo de pie y aplaudo a José Saramago.
Julio Cortázar decía que no hay buena o mala literatura, sino temas bien o mal tratados en la literatura.
En el caso de esta novela, "Las intermitencias de la muerte", Saramago toma un tema tan trascendental para el ser humano como es el de la muerte o como lo son también el amor, Dios o la vida y lo convierte en una novela casi perfecta.