A few days ago, I read that Jose Saramago had died.

I first came across Saramago’s works nearly 20 years ago, when I chanced upon a copy of “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ”. It was a fascinating and thought provoking book. It was the first time that i read some thing that could be considered ‘blasphemous‘, though it wasn’t the last. Though, at the time I read it, I neither realised the extent of blasphemy nor the price the author had to pay for expressing it.

The Jesus that Saramago wrote about, was deeply human and terribly vulnerable. He wanted the things that everyone else wanted- peace, security, happiness, a partner, and children. However, divine chess between God and the Devil, ensured that he was martyred. Funnily enough, the Devil in the book, comes across as far more sympathetic than God. The God in this book is much more like Indra than like Ram, manipulative rather than beatific.

The next book that I read was Blindness. I reacted to it the same way that I reacted to Lord of the Flies – with a certain kind of nauseated fascination. While theoretically one knows that ‘culture’ and ‘civilization’ are not even skin deep – it is the rapidity and brutality with which it unravels in both stories that disturbed me. It is almost as though morality and conscience are cloaks that we wear, without really internalizing either.

I bought seeing a few years ago, and i have to confess that i still have to read it. Somehow reading Saramago requires a lot of attention and concentration – and the last few years have left me empty of both.

Saramago, has one of the most interesting narrative styles that I have ever read. It is long sentences, with very few full stops. I line is possibly a page:) often sections seem like the inner ramblings of a lead character – but, it is difficult to say, since there are no ” ” marks .

Saramago introduced me an entire range of writers who were writing in Portuguese and Spanish – including Isabella Allende, Marquez, Paz, Llosa – and my life and views are better for that!