I had such high expectations for this book, especially since Blindness was one of the best books I read last year. But this was boring, convoluted, and a chore to read. What a disappointment. ( )

great book!! interesting, fascinating journey/adventure, profound and comical at the same time, excellent writer! ( )

The Iberian Peninsula, encompassing Spain and Portugal, has broken free from mainland Europe and is now floating across the Atlantic. First there is intrigue and panic, but as the huge raft speeds up and seems determined to head somewhere, four people meet.

One man threw a rock an inordinate distance into the sea, a feat physically impossible. Another is followed by a flock of starlings. A woman draws a line in the sand which cannot be erased. And a spanish man can feel the earth shaking, despite there being no tremors recorded.

These strangers are drawn together, and as the world as they know it changes forever, so do their lives.

This was written in the same form as Blindness, the only punctuation being used are full stops and commas, so concentration is required. It takes some time to get into the flow of the story, and not be distracted by the style of the writing, and unfortunately I never found myself able to become as immersed in this as I did his previous book.

While the characters are interesting, and the coincidences that bring them together mean that it stays intriguing to read, I couldn't help but feel I would have enjoyed this more as a more conventional novel. The idea was fantastic, but I remained with the sensation that Saramago was trying to desperately tell me something I just wasn't understanding.

Unlike Blindness, I didn't find the answers clear, and found myself at times wishing the story would speed up a little. I'm glad I have read it, but it didn't pull me in enough to think that I'm ever going to read it again. The storyline and the impact it had on me just wasn't worth the intensity and concentration it required to read.

If you want to try something by Saramago, this isn't the place to start. Blindness is far superior.

In one line: A thrilling idea slightly bogged down in trying to be too much. ( )

What to make of a novel where the unexplained remains a riddle but continues on its own course anyway. The Stone Raft has the Iberian Peninsula (or Spain and Portugal) breaking away from the rest of the European continent and floating out to sea. The characters of Joaquim Sassa, Jose Anaico (both Portugese) meet up with the much older Spaniard Pedro Orce to try to figure out what is going on--each of them believe that some recent event in their lives has led to this inexplicable happening and as they later meet up with two other Portugese women; first Joana Carda who pairs up with Jose and then Maria Guavaira who does the same with Joaquim; and both of whom also believe an event occuring to them has also led to this floating Iberian island. And then there is the nameless dog witness to events of its own that becomes their guide and in particular the friend of the Spaniard Pedro. More or less a--what if--novel which runs the course of the very familiar philosophical preoccupations of the Portugese Nobelist Jose Saramago is what we find. In any case these musings are usually very deftly posed and insightfully thought out. Some might find it rough going--others not entertaining enough. I actually liked it but it is IMO very typical of other works of this writer such as Blindness which is based more on conjecture and less on a real historical background such as The history of the siege of Lisbon--which is my favorite of his works. ( )

Like BLINDNESS, Jose Saramago nimbly spins off another what-if tale in THE STONE RAFT with a tinge of a political overtone between his native country and Europe. The Iberian peninsula simply breaks free from the European continent: drifting away at an awestruck speed of 750 kilometers a day, splitting, parching, stretching the earth and bringing down cables with it and sailing as if it is a gargantuan stone raft.

At the initial stage a most innocent crack manifests at the Spanish-French border and evolves into a 20-meter ditch into which a major river plunges down into an abyss like a waterfall. What follows is an inconsolable shudder of fear that sweeps through the peninsula and nearby Europe. Terror-stricken inhabitants begin to evacuate the region. No sooner than the news make headlines than hundred and thousands of tourists hastily cut short their vacations and fled.

All of the above is so quintessential of the Portuguese writer. But the charivari is too predictable and so tip-of-the-iceberg for an author who is down for delving in deeper meaning of the strange occurrence. Some decide not to leave and accept the event as an irreversible act of fate, a plausible demonstration of mother nature. Some see it as an imperious sign of destiny. Others opt for silence and conform to what future will bring. Among those who brave the danger are five strangers who find company and comfort with one another. A man who throws a rock far out to the horizon of sea. A man who charms a swarm of starlings. A man who is literally a human seismograph. A woman who draws an indelible line that splits the earth with a woodstick. A woman whose thread of her sock never exhausts.

Like in BLINDNESS, Saramago puts his characters face-to-face with an unusual predicament and the outcome of which forever changes their lives. THE STONE RAFT again serves as a steel proof and a confession of humility of human beings at the extreme adversity, which forces the strangers to reflect on their lives, especially their experience accumulated and the mistakes perpetrated.

The scope of this audaciously creative novel transcends the consequences of the unprecedented geological event. It does not make light of the panicky reactions, pandemonium, massive exodus, and the altered contested political spheres. But more profusely it examines the entwined fate of the five sang froid strangers whose surreal experience have conincided to the Iberian fracture. In the midst of risk-savvy milieu, the five recognize their inescapable fate that has overlapped. And as bureaucrats baffle and bungle at handling the crisis, they surrender to what best serves the deeper interest of humanity and human beings: carnal pleasure.

THE STONE RAFT is a passionate questing tale against the backdrop of a world that finds itself in a state of suspense, something that is ulterior to any human being. ( )