While most people will find disturbing the lack of punctuation and quotations marks, this is used by Saramago to blind us a bit. As we read, we lose all our visual references; there is no point where you can return easily. Saramango did an incredible job making the reader as powerless as the blind were in this book. It’s a deep story about a society that loses their humanity returning to primal instinct. Other than the ending that left me a bit unsatisfied, the book was a hit for me; I would definitely recommend it to anybody willing to get passed the lack of spaces.

This was a very interesting book. I felt like it was somewhat the adult version of Lord of the Flies. For me, the style of writing was a bit confusing at times but it wasn't difficult.

Blindness is a novel about a community that slowly starts to go blind, except for one person. After the city discovers that the blindness is contagious they start to quarantine all the blind people inside an abandoned mental hospital. Eventually human nature sets in. The fight for power, food, and water slowly creates chaos within the hospital. A small group of people manage to escape and soon realize that the whole city has gone blind. Blindness then becomes a story about kindness, friendship, and determination in order to survive against all odds. Jose Saramago provides a unique read for everyone to enjoy.

The crazy chaotic pace and structure takes some getting used to, but when you do, you get sucked in. I personally think the non-structure was a masterful choice. A brilliant crooked mirror of our society.

The concept of this novel is very interesting. A society goes blind( except for one person). When the blindness is found to be contagious, the city starts to quarantine everyone..then human nature sets in. Greed, lust, dominance rear their ugly heads in this novel in a way that will make you have to put the book down to regroup. Not all is bad though ,because kindness, passion and solidarity also surface. This novel made me think and want to discuss many things about the human psyche. Upon starting this book, I wondered "is this poor editing?" or ' did they overlook punctuation in the translation?'.Why don't the characters have names? Well, this style is what will make Jose Saramago a very memorable author . His style is untouched. While this will be different read from what most are used to. It is a tough read but give it a chance.!

I really enjoyed this novel. The most appealing aspect of Saramago's writing was the absence of character names. Undefined speech was also very interesting. These two things definitely influenced how I connected to each character and their situation. Every emotion was touched on as well ... It leads the reader to really think about what it must be like to be blind, but have a sense of awareness (thought the level of awareness is different with each character). You're completely drawn into the story ... I can't wait to read seeing which takes place after the end of this book. As a side note, the movie was not a very good representation of the novel. If you want to see it - watch it BEFORE you read the book.

I often find that certain books that achieve critical acclaim are not for me. This makes me question my "tastes" as a reader. Blindness has won critical acclaim internationally. It is, as many know, a story about a sudden world epidemic of blindness that affects the world - and tells the tale from the view of seven strangers who, all but one, are blind. The book highlights the bad and good that all humans possess. While the ideas and theories about humanity it portrays are thought provoking and riveting, the book is difficult to read. Written in a manner without any grammar, virtually no paragraphs, and identifiers of who is speaking - it becomes too distracting for the reader to contemplate what the author is trying to convey. For that reason, I felt the book was more of a struggle than in ought to have been. I don't mind books that are written "differently", but I cannot find enjoyment in a book that makes me so annoyed and frustrated, I start to sweat.

Blindness was my first encounter with Jose Saramago, and between being beaten over the head with his allegorical commentary, struggling through the lack of punctuation and quotations, and experiencing some of the most horrifying and disturbing scenes I’ve ever read, I am almost at a loss for words. I can only assume that some of the story was lost in translation, or at least I hope so, because even upon reading and re-reading page-long paragraphs, I still didn’t have a clear picture of some of the finer nuances within this daunting narrative. As I gather, this is a statement on the fragility of society, and the weakness of the human condition. It points an accusatory finger at government and authority, and its inability to provide for its citizens in a time of crisis. This of course is brutally honest when considering the disastrous outcome of tragedies like Hurricane Katrina. Its nameless characters are reduced to animal instinct, and as such, spend every waking hour in survival mode, forging for food and water, seeking shelter and protecting their precious lives from others, also just looking to survive, all of this while completely blind. In this regard, Saramago shows us that we are just one small step away from complete and utter chaos, in a world where we rely so heavily on technology and the systems which it has created. Although the main cast of characters are rather one dimensional, they do provide hope that humans can remain civil and loving, even in the most desperate of situations, at least in small groups. Overall, this wasn’t a bad novel, and you do eventually get used to the style in which it was written, but I definitely expected more from it, and find that it was slightly overrated. The plot was gripping, and Saramago’s mind is quite creative, but in the end I just found myself wishing that someone with a different style had produced it. www.booksnakereviews.blogspot.com

I didn't love this book as much as the people who recommended it to me, but it was definitely a worth while read that I would recommend to others. The author doesn't use a lot of punctuation, with long run on sentences and no quotation marks which can make it challenging. Plus some of the content is challenging as well. A city is struck with white blindness. People are quarantined and then that doesn't work when everyone falls blind. The people are trapped in the quarantine under the threat of being shot but what goes down behind the closed doors may be worse than being shot. It was definitely a book that made you think. It will either be a great movie or a simply horrible one!

Blindness tells the story of an unnamed city during an unnamed time hit by an epidemic of 'white blindness'. When disaster hits the unnamed city a disturbing portrait of human nature is painted. Although not all bad most characters revert to a state of dependence and lose their ability to look after themselves.The authour takes you through what is a very vivid and believable example of what an epidemic of blindness would be like. The writing is fantastic and I really enjoyed that the characters remained nameless throughout the novel, except for titles given to them by the circumstances they went blind, or by physical features seen only by the doctors wife. Each character is extremely well developed and their stories are told over the course of the book. The final chapters are beautifully written and cap off the story well. This is a great example of human strength and weakness, loyalty and betrayal, and how we take our senses for granted. I was made aware of this book after seeing the recent movie I Am Legend and see the similarities between the two stories. Having read through and thoroughly enjoyed this novel I would highly recommend it as it is obvious why the authour, Jose Saramago, was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.