Death at Intervals

At first I was really interested in the story - a country where death stopped. Ok, you've got me. So the first half of the book is sort of the social implications of what would happen if we didn't die, which was really interesting. And I was impressed that Saramago could carry a fictitious thing so completely into fruition. But then, we find out that death is a woman who is going to start killing people again, only through violet colored letters that come a week in advance. Ok, there's possibilities for that, I was still with him. Then, a letter gets returned to death, and Saramago writes 40 pages about it aaaand...he lost me. It seemed to me there were two different stories being told, each would be very interesting if flushed out - but they weren't. His writing style was very interesting. He uses a lot of commas, so I read fast, but had to re-read because I missed things. I like a traditional grammatical work better, unless the author throws out the rules for a reason - but it didn't seem like Saramago had a reason, it seemed like he was just lazy. The book had a lot of promise, but it didn't deliver. And by the end, I was left wondering which story he was really trying to tell.

A satirical social commentary written in the ever idiosyncratic Saramagoan style that feels freeing. He's quickly becoming one of my new favourite authors. Loved the dry wit.