Reading Rocks!

Blindness

Thanks everyone for such a great discussion about Sweetness in the Belly. Despite some mixed reviews (among the book club), I'm quite happy to have read this story. I've learned a lot about Ethiopian history/politics, while also getting a sense for the everyday life of a culture very foreign to me. In the end, I think the book club has been fantastic for exposing me to novels/authors that I wouldn't have read on my own.

NEXT BOOK
Blindness by José Saramago.

PLOT SYNOPSIS
Winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature. A city is hit by an epidemic of 'white blindness.' The blindness spreads, sparing no one. Authorities confine the blind to a vacant mental hospital secured by armed guards. Inside, the criminal element among the blind hold the rest captive: food rations are stolen, women are raped. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers through the barren streets. The developments within this oddly anonymous group -- the first blind man, the old man with the black eye patch, the girl with dark glasses, the boy with no mother, and the dog of tears -- are as uncanny as the surrounding chaos is harrowing. -- Barnes & Noble


THE AUTHOR
José Saramago, born in Portugal in 1922, Saramago is one of the most acclaimed writers in the world today. In 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Saramago lives in the Canary Islands.

posted by MJ @ 4:11 p.m.