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• And so we have vampire squids: Michael Thomsen on José Saramago and political allegory

  With the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street's initial encampment in downtown Manhattan drawing closer, Michael Thomsen reviews José Saramago's story collection The Lives of Things, mapping the ways in which it demonstrates the political power of allegory. Gaining philosophical strength from the author's graceful "metaphysical inspection" of dire material premises, Thomsen commends Saramango for revealing "the parallel fragility of authority and idealism" through both his plot lines and his stylistic inclinations:
  
  

  The Lives of Things shows Saramago's sense of language in full bloom, with winding sentences that interrupt themselves again and again, subdividing a simple statement with qualifiers and tangents that make any notion of "truth" seem like a trick of perspective.

  Though clearly shaded by a (perhaps familiar) sense of hopelessness—Thomsen writes of "doomsday scenarios, broken balance sheets, and government debt"—the review alludes to the idea that in Saramago's poetic, winding parallel worlds we find novel ways to frame our own struggles. The stories have a "renewed vibrancy" in our time:

  They remind us that when the law fails, a good metaphor can take its place. And so we have vampire squids, hooded sweatshirts worn in solidarity, tents propped up on sticks because the police say they can't be placed on the ground.

  Visit Bookforum to read the review in full. 
  
  

  By Molly Osberg / 10 September 2012 / post comment

• Exclusive: read the José Saramago short story, Revenge, from The Lives of Things

  The Lives of Things by José Saramago is published today, the 38th anniversary of Portugal's Carnation Revolution. One of the stories, Revenge, is published today in the Morning Star: 

  The boy was coming from the river. Barefoot, with his trousers rolled up above his knees, his legs covered in mud.

  He was wearing a red shirt, open in front where the first hairs of puberty on his chest were beginning to blacken. He had dark hair, damp with the sweat that was trickling down his slender neck. He was bent slightly forward under the weight of the long oars, from which were hanging green strands of water-weeds still dripping. The boat kept swaying in the murky water, and nearby, as if spying, the globulous eyes of a frog suddenly appeared. Then the frog moved suddenly and disappeared. A minute later the surface of the river was smooth and tranquil and shining like the boy's eyes. The exhalation of the mud released slow, flaccid bubbles of gas which were swept away by the current. In the oppressive heat of the afternoon, the tall poplars swayed gently, and, in a flurry, like a flower suddenly blossoming in mid-air, a blue bird flew past, skimming the water. The boy raised his head. On the other side of the river, a girl was watching him without moving. The boy raised his free hand and his entire body traced out some inaudible word. The river flowed slowly...

  Visit the Morning Star to read the full story . 

   

  By Tamar Shlaim / 25 April 2012 / post comment

• Read "Things" from Saramago's The Lives of Things

  In a two-part installment, Guernica Magazine has excerpted "Things" from José Saramago's short story collection, The Lives of Things. To be published on April 25 to coincide with Portugal's Carnation Revolution, The Lives of Things comprises Saramago's sole collection of short fiction and offers a look at his early experimentations with the themes of social decay, alienation, and political repression that would become hallmarks of his celebrated novels.

  Visit Guernica to read "Things" in full.

  By Jennifer Pan / 08 April 2012 / post comment