BOOKS

I find it kind of ironic that so soon after writing a post about Stiff (a book about dead human cadavers) i’m writing a post about Death with Interruptions (a book about what happens when death stops killing).
But since this is the best kind of irony, i will continue.

sorry if my writing is kind of weird today.
generally when I read a book by an author with a distinct writing style, i kind of adopt their style a little bit.
so if i use a lot of comma’s and go off on random tangents….thats José Saramago’s work.

Now then. if any of you remember my post that was practically orgasming about Saramago’s book Blindness, you’ll enter this already knowing how much i adore that man’s writing.
if you haven’t read it…let me enlighten you.
Saramago is a beast.
honestly, he is quite possibly the most talented writer i have ever read, and i’ve read a lot of things by a lot of different people.
his style is so unique, its astounding. he consistantly ignores all rules of literature (such as the use of run-on sentences, the use of comma’s, the use of quotation marks, the use of spaces in between dialogue…i’m sure theres more.) and it WORKS.
of course, it may just work because he’s crazy and Portuguese, or maybe he’s just a genius.
or both.
anyway.

Death with Interruptions is highly highly unique, even more so than Blindness.
While Blindness was very apocalyptic and sad, focusing on the inner workings and nasty details of the concept of man and how people react in dire situations, Death With Interruptions was focused on several things.
1) Be careful what you wish for (cause you just might get it…oh god, i just quoted the pussycat dolls didn’t i. damn.)
2) Put yourself in other people’s shoes
3) about a thousand other things that i have yet to pull out of the book (i just started reading it a second time. its one of those things that you will find a new thing to focus on every time you read it)

Basically, Death with Interruptions is a book about what would happen if, on new years day, only within the borders of one country, death stopped functioning. imagine this for a second. everyone within the borders of your country stops dying.
raise your hand if you think this would rock.
keep your hand up if you think that i’m talking about immortality, in a god-like sense.
did you fall for it?
i know i did for awhile.

the think that Saramago wants you to get out of the first half of the book is that we all think that not dying would rock.
…but what if we kept aging?
if death stopped stealing people from us, how would we know how to miss them?
not only that, but imagine all the horrible car wrecks you’ve heard about. think of all the terrorist attacks, all the awful ways of dying that you hear about every day (because the news wants ratings, and apparently the only way to do that is it talk about the most pitiful and sad things they can find. pathetic, really.) and now think about all those people, all those mangled remains, not being able to die.
so theres that obvious problem.

but also…if we all stopped dying…would life even mean anything anymore?
i’ve thought about this a lot. i don’t exactly know why, but its always facinated me. what if you couldn’t or didn’t or wouldn’t die? why would you ever wish that for yourself? constantly getting old, constantly getting maimed, mangled, not being able to relieve the pain?

awful. just awful.

however…while the first half of the book talks about that, the second half delves into something else entirely.

what if death (thats with a small d, by the way) were to fall in love?

i’ll leave that question open for you. because i don’t want to ruin one of the best books i’ve read all year.

i should really come up with a scoring system.
well, this book would get 5 out of 5 stars, 2 thumbs up, and whatever other units of measure there are out there to rate how good something is.
because really guys, Saramago deserves every ounce of that nobel prize he won for literature.
one of these days i’ll dedicate an entire post to him.
but for now, this will have to be enough.
because i’ve still got a ton of things to do, and i postponed them in favor of reading Death with Interruptions.

it was worth it.

also i would babble more, but my puppy is asleep in my lap and all i want to do right now is cuddle with her. she has that affect on people