In the kingdom of the blind...

I don’t read much modern literary fiction so José Saramago’s Blindness is not something that I would usually pick up. I am, however, always looking to expand my horizons and so, having heard good things about the book, I decided to give it a go.

Set at an unspecified time in an unspecified country the novel begins with an outbreak of a mysterious illness that makes its victims blind. Thanks to a health minister more incompetent than Andrew Lansley and Jeremy Hunt combined the blindness soon spreads throughout the country – plunging it into chaos. The novel, however, does not focus on the large-scale consequences of this disaster, instead choosing to stick with a small group of people. We see them deal with their initial shock and confusion and try to adapt to the almost insurmountable obstacles that they face, only to witness the fabric of society to begin to collapse around them.

The confusion inherent in universal blindness is brilliantly expressed by the style of the novel itself. Most noticeable is the lack of any speech marks – with dialogue being integrated with the rest of the text. The reader is forced to concentrate to distinguish between speakers, or even between dialogue and narration.

Furthermore, none of the characters are given names, instead being referred to by descriptions like “the doctor” or “the first blind man”. This helps to add to the universal and timeless feel of the novel. Blindness presents a vivid portrait of both how important our sense of sight is and how easily we can begin to lose our humanity when faced with an impossible crisis.