Death with Interruptions (original 2005; edition 2008)

I think this is the first José Saramago book I've ever read: I have no idea if it was a good one to start with or not. It caught my interest from the blurb, and kept it despite the run on sentences, disregard for commas, etc. I have no idea how that mirrors the original, given that of course I had to read a translation, but normally I find it just about impossible to ignore. But I got into the swing of it, here.

The book is alternately absurd, satirical, philosophical and tender: the last two pages left me with an odd lump in my throat. It's not really a characters book -- it has a fairly minimal cast, with only death and the cellist really drawn with any clarity, and basically it's not something I would normally enjoy. But I did, very much. I stayed up to finish reading it, even.

I don't know what else to say about it, except that I felt it was very worth the time it took to get into it. ( )

I think this is the first José Saramago book I've ever read: I have no idea if it was a good one to start with or not. It caught my interest from the blurb, and kept it despite the run on sentences, disregard for commas, etc. I have no idea how that mirrors the original, given that of course I had to read a translation, but normally I find it just about impossible to ignore. But I got into the swing of it, here.

The book is alternately absurd, satirical, philosophical and tender: the last two pages left me with an odd lump in my throat. It's not really a characters book -- it has a fairly minimal cast, with only death and the cellist really drawn with any clarity, and basically it's not something I would normally enjoy. But I did, very much. I stayed up to finish reading it, even.

I don't know what else to say about it, except that I felt it was very worth the time it took to get into it. ( )

When one thinks of immortality, they tend to pair it with agelessness - maintaining health, maintaining beauty, maintaining vitality for an eternity. Jose Saramago lends a new version of mortality when death (without a capital D) takes a vacation and allows people to continue living. However, they continue to age without reparation of health of vitality. If the individual was weakened, in a vegetative state when death decided a hiatus was in need, that is how the individual remained - forever in need of external life-supporting machines and persons, only now life is supported solely due to the lack of death. Turns out, people are not as happy with this type of immortality and are once again struggling with euthanasia.

Saramago brings forth the logistics of the current health care, insurance and industry associated with the end of life that are now no longer needed. The discussion of the majority of these industries can even apply to modern reality.

When death reintroduces the concept of ending life, she does so with a twist. Eventually, death must understand what the end of the life means and is forced to confront new emotions associated with the gravity of this realization of responsibility. ( )

I have been reading alot lately...instead of eating, I just devour mainly books now. Anyhow, I'd like to catch up from the past months in the next few days and Saramago seems like a good place to start, especially seeing as how he oddly passed away after I had finished reading his novel Death With Interruptions.

Saramago is no stranger to writing epic stories about massive events befalling Portugal such as Blindness and massive political upheaval, for instance. This story is no different and yet it is quite a bit different at the same time. death decides to take a vacation here (Death is the massive death of the population while death affects individuals.) In any case, both cease for a period of time and Saramago spends a great amount of detail delving into the logistics of what that means for the church, government, and industry (from nursing homes to funeral parlors) In the novel, people don't get better...they just don't die.

I think as it's fault, it should have delved more into the human psyche and gets too laborious with trying to make this a realistic seeming occurrence that the magic is a little lost.

Another jarring thing about this novel is that it goes into great lengths while examining the loss of death on a mass scale and what families will do to get their sick loved ones across the border (as soon as they get across the border to another country, they then die). Suddenly, it switches pace and examines a second approach from death and instead explores a very personal and specific instance vs. the whole country. The problem is, too much time was wasted on the mass scale that the personal examination isn't as effective in my opinion. Still, some very insightful and innovative thinking here as always. I also liked the rich characterizations of death as a woman.

Some quotes I liked:

p.67 "One cannot be too careful with words, they change their minds just as people do."

p.123 "...words move, they change from one day to the next, they are as unstable as shadows, are themselves shadows, which both are and have ceased to be..."

p.160 "...to be honest, we human beings can't do much more than stick out our tongues at the executioner about to chop off our head...Death is angry. It's high time we stuck out our tongues at her." ( )

I’ve long been meaning to read Saramago. His “Gospel According to Jesus Christ” has been staring at me from my bookcase since 1995. “Death with Interruptions” was a 2009 Christmas gift from my family; and, given that it was both recent and post Nobel Prize, I thought that reading it first might give me some absolution for leaving an earlier purchase unread.
“Death” easily confirmed for me that some of the more stylistically creative and thematically thought-provoking literature is coming out of the Luso-Hispanic world. Saramago brings to mind authors like Roberto Bolano or Eduardo Galeano, the former both in terms of style and theme and the latter in terms of theme and world view.
Small “d” death is the primary character of the novel. “The following day, no one died,” starts Saramago. And for seven months in an unnamed country death takes a holiday. Chaos reigns. But her return after seven months does not instantly restore order. And death’s own future is complicated when she falls in love with a non-descript cellist. In the embrace of her lover, death ends the novel as it began: “The following day, no one died.”
Between the beginning and the ending, Saramago never lets the reader wander aimlessly. Embedded in the fabled are new truths and reframed wisdom. “Death” is a great work from a master whom death, unfortunately, did not leave untouched.
( )