It's been some time since I read this, and I don't recall any details. ( )

Literary fiction about a proofreader that significantly alters the meaning of a book by changing one word, such that his revised text states the crusaders did NOT help the Portuguese drive the Moors out of Lisbon in the year 1147. At the suggestion of his newly appointed supervisor, the proofreader then goes on to write his own version of The History of the Siege of Lisbon, using his altered text as a starting point. Since he lives in Lisbon, he can actually visit some of the locations where the Siege took place. The proofreader’s version of history is interspersed with his present-day narrative.

Saramago’s writing is lovely, but the meandering can be distracting. I often had to re-read sections to figure out where the initial thought started and how I ended up so far afield from that thought. He employs long sentences using only commas and periods. Dialogue is embedded in the prose, and there is no indication which character is speaking, so the reader will have to keep track mentally. The author does not differentiate between two story arcs, often moving between them within the same paragraph. There are long paragraphs describing a character’s internal dialogue (for example, of whether or not to make a phone call) that span several pages. The narrator goes off on many tangents, some of which are head-scratchers. In short, this book requires a great deal of patience and concentration.

I found I needed to understand more about Portuguese history to fully appreciate the storyline, so it took me a while to finish this book, since I was constantly looking up events and people that played a role in the actual Siege of Lisbon. Thus, I recommend getting an overview of the historical Siege, as well as the key players involved, before embarking on this novel.

I believe the point of this book is to show how fiction can impact the historical record. Participants often leave no written record of their thoughts and emotions, and Saramago explores whether we can truly understand the reasons behind why people acted the way they did after many years have passed.

I have read two other books by Saramago, Blindness and The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, and enjoyed both. As clever as it is, this one just didn’t work as well for me, primarily due to its structure. I found the present-day story more engaging than the alternate history. It isn’t necessarily fun to read this book, but it certainly engages the brain.
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An exploration of the editing which happens to make history of events and to make stories of life and life of stories. Distanced and intimate the prose requires the reader to actively spool the sentences from the page rather than being pulled along by them and to keep track of the shifting foci to observe what it being said. Also a somewhat corny imbalanced love story. ( )

Published in 1989. Read for Reading 1001 BOTM in January 2022. This is a story of a proofreader charged with correcting. This is a book in which the author challenges the one dimensional view of history. The proofreader alters the story by adding one word "not" to his correction. It is a story of how Lisbon came to be from fighting between Moors and Christians. The author recounts the siege as a historical romance while also the proofreader is in his own romance with his supervisor. It can also be described as a novel about writing. While Kirkus felt this was the author's best work. I enjoyed The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis more than this one. Multilayered. Metafiction. ( )

The power of a simple negation! One of my favorite books of all time, and the one that put Saramago on my favorite authors list. ( )