The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago

Synopsis

The year: 1936. Europe dances while Spain edges toward civil war and an invidious homegrown dictator establishes himself in Portugal. The city: Lisbon--gray, colorless, chimerical.

In the midst of this surreal setting is Ricardo Reis, a middle-aged doctor and poet who has returned to his native country after sixteen years in Brazil. Instead of receiving patients in an office, he spends hours walking steep, rain-filled streets. He has a love affair with the hotel chambermaid who slips into his bed at night. He is haunted by a young woman with a mysterious paralysis of her left hand. And he is visited by the ghostly presence of a celebrated Portuguese poet, recently deceased. Can Ricardo Reis live in a world bent on destroying itself?

In this novel, Jose Saramago, follows the exploits of Ricardo Reis who has returned to Portugal from Brazil. Ricardo Reis is actually a heteronym or secondary identity of Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. I found the narration interesting. It seems more voyeuristic than most novels that I can remember. All through the story the struggle between Communism and Fascism is playing out. Reis a monarchist and is torn in the struggle. As the General Franco's army is advancing upon the Leftist government of Spain he cannot decide whether he takes pleasure in the victories of the Fascists or the defeat of the Lefists. His feelings are summed up by the line, "To be pleased that my enemy is beset doesn't mean that I applaud the besetter."

This morning I woke up with about fifty pages of this book left to read and I found myself distracted time after time. For instance, I had to eat breakfast, I'll finish that program I was watching, I need to order a ticket for the Braves game that I'm going to during vacation, I wonder who is pitching in the Braves game, etc. etc. But finally I finished.

So next up is Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert.