All the Names
There’s a line in José Saramago’s All The Names that reads:
“Meaning and sense were never the same thing, meaning shows itself at once, direct, literal, explicit,… while sense cannot stay still, it seethes with second, third and fourth senses, radiating out in different directions that divide and subdivide…”
The funny thing about that line is that is basically sums up my experience reading this book I picked up a month ago.
Saramago so masterfully fills this book to overflowing with metaphors, observations, misdirection, mazes, and more that I found myself a bit overwhelmed by the ever changing “sense” of the novel and focusing more on what would happen next in the plot. And when I was done, I almost felt dumb. As though I’d missed the many, many, many points Saramago was expertly, but also cryptically laying out before me. It’s really the type of novel, I’d probably have to read 2 or 3 times to feel comfortable with the material, which is amazing considering how short the book is. (Unfortunately, for me I guess, I don’t really read books more than once.)
Hmm, maybe I am dumb. I don’t know, but I probably should remember to try to read more studiously if I want to come away with more than who did what.
On a side note, reading through another Saramago novel made me realize more and more just how ham-fisted that play based on Blindness was. Oh well…
Posted in Books
