Everyone in a small and nameless country becomes immortal, hijinks ensue. death, with a small “d”, shows up, does some stuff then falls in love with a bass player.
The End.
The weakest of Jose Saramago’s work by far.
José Saramago refuses to use quotation marks, question marks and exclamation marks in his writing.
José Saramago mostly rejects the idea that paragraphs are a writing tool that exist and can be used to make a text more readable.
José Saramago mostly refuses to name his characters and chooses to refer to them instead by their job, title or some aspect of their appearance (eg. The “doctor’s wife”, the “girl with the dark glasses”).
Why does José Saramago do this?
Another Jose Saramago banger. In All The Names, we follow the story of Senhor José as he works in, navigates through, and subverts, the bureaucracy of the Central Registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths.
Every paragraph screams Saramago, if you know you know, if you’re into that, you’re into that.