Blindness is a novel by Portuguese novelist and winner of the Nobel prize for Literature José Saramago which involves a whole city being engulfed by an epidemic which consumes their sight till all they see is a milky whiteness. The authorities with no action plan on how to deal with such a problem decide to confine the first victims in an empty mental hospital where without the authiorities to help the blind, disorder and corruption start to appear starting with the stealing of food rations from other inmates escalating to the sexual assault of the woman interned there.  All the time this is going on there is one person who can see the nightmare unfolding around them. After seeing and dealing with as much as is humanly possible things come to a head, whereby the outcome is that the gates of the quarantine zone are opened letting the detainees leave and head back into the city. A group led by the seeing walk through the streets of their old home finding first hand the horrors that ensue when a twentieth century city falls in to mayhem and madness.

Although i took quite a while to read the book due to Christmas getting in the way, i really enjoyed it. The style of writing is also quite strange, it took me a while to get used to it but once i did i found it rather easy to follow. Although this is my first book by José Saramago i believe this is quite normal for the author. Taken from wikipedia:

Like most works by Saramago, the novel contains many long, breathless sentences in which commas take the place of periods. The lack of quotation marks around dialogue means that the speakers’ identities (or the fact that dialogue is occurring) may not be immediately apparent to the reader. The lack of proper character names in Blindness is typical of many of Saramago’s novels (e.g. All the Names or The Cave). The characters are instead referred to by descriptive appellations such as “the doctor’s wife”, “the car thief”, or “the first blind man”. Given the characters’ blindness, some of these names seem sharply ironic (“the boy with the squint” or “the girl with the dark glasses”).

My only trouble with the book is the ending and that’s not saying i didn’t enjoy it, its just that i found the questions raised within the book to be much more interesting than the ending. I’ve also tried to come up with an ending that i would prefer and i still haven’t come up with anything bettter and i’m not sure there is. that said maybe he address’s this in the sequel to blindness called Seeing. I’ll let you know when i get around to reading it…

7/10

Someone just sent me this and i thought i just had to post it myself. I wasn’t really sure what to expect with the title but i have to say it made me giggle like a little girl. I know nothing about it apart from the fact that the animation is by Henry Edmonds and the music by Robert Clouth. Enjoy!!

Now here’s something pretty cool if not pretty dangerous. Stephen J Anderson has created a synthesiser used some old electronics and everyday kitchen utensils. Damn! I really wish i had paid attention in School so i could do stuff like this…

I love Rube Goldberg machines and i’m not afraid to admit it. Who wouldn’t love them? They are pointless and over the top whilst at the same time highly engineered and just plain amazing. Check out this video by Joseph Herscher and tell me you wouldn’t love this to happen every morning…

Well here it is DJ Woody’s new mixtape! I posted his last mix in the series which was a bobby belter and this little puppy is more of the same. Come on! Dive on in and get your feet wet!!

Now i know some graffiti boys who like to get out on the street and if anything they say is to be believed this is exactly what it’s like on those cold hard streets…

On Monday night I went to the SouthBank Centre to watch ‘The Bollywood Trip’ which has apparently just arrived from Denmark amidst a flurry of 5* reviews. I can’t say i’m overly knowledgeable about Bollywood but I know what I like and I like the craziness and energy that can be found in many a Bollywood film. Therefore this easily convinced me to give this a go on a dark and miserable Monday evening…

The story follows a young man who is incarcerated in a Danish mental institute whilst the authorities try to ascertain exactly who he is. He claims to be a Bollywood star called Haroon and after a few days at the institute starts to make the patients more excitable. If I was to sum it up in one sentence it would have to be the description used in their literature of ‘One flew over the cuckoo’s nest meets indian dance’. Haroon’s effect on the patients is matched only by his effect on one of the doctor’s whom he attempts to assist in his attempts to woo the girl of his dreams. Overall i quite enjoyed it somehow expected more overall. Maybe I was hoping the dance scenes to be a bit more crazy, colourful and larger than life. Maybe i was hoping the play part would be a little more humourous. I’m not sure but either way it didn’t quite deliver for me.

After a little internet research there is a famous British Pakistani singer called Haroon who has sold millions of albums worldwide. I’m sure i’m only displaying my ignorance but perhaps the character of Haroon is based on him?? My lack of knowledge will prove my downfall some day…

6.5/10

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!

On a small side note – and just while i’m on the subject of Bollywood – I thought I may as well share my favourite film (although as i said earlier my knowledge is far from complete) which is Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! which i caught earlier this year. It’s a lighthearted look at the trials and tribulations of a lovable thief called Lucky and is based on the real life exploits of Devinder Singh who was, by all accounts, the bane of the Delhi police until his capture in 2007. Give it a watch!

8/10

Tell No One by Harlan Coben

I have just finished my second Harlan Coben book (i forgot to do a review of the first one – d’oh!) and have got to say I really enjoyed it. It’s a fairly quick read and is a definite page turner. It picks you up straight away and carries you along to the end.  The story revolves around a Dr David Beck who buried his wife 8 years previously after she was killed by a serial killer nicknamed ‘KillRoy’. Then, one day, he gets an email that can surely only be from his dead wife. And so the intrigue begins…

There are lots of dramatic reveals, twists and turns and by the time it’s finished you’ve just about caught up with what’s going down. In his other book I read, Long Lost, there was a supporting character called ‘Win‘ who was basically a psychopathic millionaire preppy whom I liked very much. In this book there is a drug dealing street criminal called Tyrese who fulfils pretty much the same function as Win and helps the main character out of a couple of sticky spots whilst dishing out some casual violence. With plot twists, lies, murder, and deception this was definitely down my alley.

8/10