BLINDNESS

By: Jose Saramago 

Plot Summary: An epidemic hits in the form of blindness. The book mainly follows the first man infected and his wife, who is able to see the whole time. 

Thoughts: This book was kind of terrifying. It is so realistic and makes you believe that this could actually happen. Which I do believe! Not blindness exactly but maybe some zombie disease. This is definitely the kind of book that makes you think what you would do if you were in that situation and if you would be better than the people in the story or not. It did teach me that I don't want to be the first person infected if I can help it.

I liked the book better and better the more I got into it and I liked the ending a lot more than I thought I would. I also liked the fact that there was at least one person who kept her sight. I don't know which would be worse however. Not being able to see, or seeing all the terrible stuff happening. I recently discovered that there is a sequel (kind of?) and I'm excited to read that. 

Favorite Quotes: “If before every action, we were to begin by weighing up the consequences, thinking about them in earnest, first the immediate consequences, then the probably, then the possible, then the imaginable ones, we should never move beyond the point where our first thought brought us to a halt."

“Words are like that, they deceive, they pile up, it seems they do not know where to go, and, suddenly, because of two or three or four that suddenly come out, simple in themselves, a personal pronoun, an adverb, a verb, an adjective, we have the excitement of seeing them coming irresistibly to the surface through the skin and the eyes and upsetting the composure of our feelings, sometimes the nerves that cannot bear it any longer, they put up with a great deal, they put up with everything, it was as if they were wearing armour we might say.”

Rating: 3/5 Not an enthralling, "I can't put it down" thriller but it makes you think.