Blindness
José Saramago · 1995
A plague of "white blindness" strikes a city. The social order collapses. One woman who can still see must lead her husband and the blind through the catastrophe. Saramago uses SF's disaster scenario to strip civilization to its brutal foundations.
The case against
Saramago strips out names and quotation marks and runs dialogue together in page-long sentences you must re-parse to learn who is speaking. The asylum section is sustained brutality, including rape scenes that go on past argument into endurance test. The allegory is also not subtle: blindness means moral blindness, and he will make sure you got that.
Science Fiction & Fantasy · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
