A Tribute to Jose Saramago

Jose Saramago is dead. Dead with him is an era.

His narrative, very often, was an exploration of the possibility of fiction. If there was a global novelist, it was surely Saramogo. He wrote in Portuguese;but his works are being translated into several languages.

Saramago's 'The Gospel according to Jesus Christ' raised many a hackles for its bold treatment of Christ and Christianity. He posits Christ along the fault line between devil and God. His Christ is a man of flesh and blood just like you and me. Thus he challenged hagiographic biography and attempts to instill heterodoxy into the framework of organized Christianity.And raises questions about orality and texuality. His treatment of the relation between Jesus and Mary Magdalene is human and morally outrageous. I have liked this book more than Kazhanjaki's 'The last temptation'.

'The Double' is branded as an existential novel in which the protagonist meets his own lookalike. They are so alike that their voices too are same. The story unfolds with many twists and turns and opens before us a surreal world.

'The History of the siege of Lisbon' will surely interests those who are passionate about alternative history. The story involves about a proofreader's mistake , his effort to rewrite the siege of Lisbon and in the process he writes his own love story.

Most profound is his 'Death in intervals'. A novel suffused with magic realism. On the first day of the year in an unnamed country no body dies. It is a bizarre situation. If there is no death, there is no resurrection, if there is no resurrection, there is no Christianity...no one buys insurance,hospitals are full...people are in 'suspended life' or in 'arrested death'.The novel shows how important the death is for us. Also raises question:Is temporality a necessary condition for existence? He equates death with God...like God death is omnipresent(I may die now while writing this). Most interestingly he personifies death as a mysteriously clad woman.
I will not go any further lest your curiosity cools. Just read it.

In the hurly-burly of our collective lives, his death went unnoticed. No Assamese paper mentioned( I will be happy if I am proved wrong) his death even in the last page.(And also no Assamese news channesl who extol one special Assamese as 'thinker' (Chintabid) who was caught red handed while stealing materials for a school level textbook on environmental sciences).

I feel all genuine literature should aspire to the condition of the narrative that Saramago ushered in.

I think I can not expect a second Saramago in this life.