Blindness by José Saramago

A few months back, my friend Julie invite me to join her book club. I've never been part of a book club and due to class and work schedules wasn't able to attend until last fall when the group read Eragon by Christopher Paolini. As I had already read the book, I decided to attend the session. Sam led the discussion. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Julie and I carpooled and, on the way home, we chatted about the difference between people who discuss ideas and people who discuss events. It was a mind-expanding evening.

Scheduling kept me away for the following months, which included Ayn Rand. I was crushed to miss that discussion. When the group was looking for international authors, I recommended Blindness by José Saramago. A dense and, at times, graphic novel, Blindness tells of a city where an epidemic of blindness, causing those afflicted to see white, rapidly spreads to all people save a single woman. The novel uses neither names nor quotation marks as it takes you through the experiences of a group of people: a doctor, the doctor's wife, the first man to go blind, the first man's wife, a boy with a squint, a girl with dark glasses, and a man with an eye patch. As society unravels, the actions of the characters in the book force the reader to examine how they would react in such situations, pushing the reader to examine their beliefs about society, humanity, and the sources of good and evil.

The group that attended was small, Julie, Sam, and Jody, but the discussion was wonderful. As I had recommended the book, I led the discussion. I loved the insights that the other readers provided. It was fun to talk with people who could discuss certain elements of the novel, or the style in which it was written, and assert a strong dislike of those elements, yet still maintained an appreciation of and even would say they liked the book. The book Seeing, a sequel also by Saramago, came up, though none of us have read the book. Will be fun to discuss if any of us end up reading.

We wrapped up with fresh berries, angel food cake, and whipped cream. Much to Kristin's delight, I didn't over-whip the cream - she says I tend to make it nigh unto butter - and the berries were wonderful. Blackberries this year are particularly good. And I had everyone out the door in time to watch "Lost" at 10:00pm. It was a delightful evening.

NOTE: Blindness is a haunting and well-written novel that contains scenes not appropriate for non-adults and some adults.