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<\/p>\n\n\n\nby Jos\u00e9 Saramago, 1998, Kindle Edition, 1998, Mariner Books, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I read this book because it was on the suggested reading list for our tour of Portugal and Spain this year. The recommendation read:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe Nobel Prize-winning author’s compelling love story set in 18th-century Portugal at the height of the Inquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
I was looking for a book of fiction that would shed light on the history of a country that I didn’t know much about. In addition, how could I go wrong when it was written by a Nobel prize-winning author? I was greatly disappointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The author attempted to weave the relationship between these two characters into the larger scene of what was transpiring in Portugal at the time. Unfortunately, the book didn’t develop the characters or their relationship very well. During much of the story Baltasar and Blimunda were not even together as it meandered through various disconnected scenes and characters. Also, Blimunda had a peculiar ability to see inside other person’s insides if she didn’t eat when she woke up in the morning. Nothing resulted from this other than she was eventually put to death in the end by the Inquisition. The love story didn’t seem to be at all compelling!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The author didn’t provide any background on how the Inquisition started or any details on how it was implemented. Some additional context might have helped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The book was written in a stream of consciousness form with no punctuation or paragraphs. The sentences just went on and on. I had a hard time following the text at first, but this got better as I got used to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I managed to finish the book with a sigh of relief. The best I can say for it was that I am able to add it to the list of books I have read, but that doesn’t seem to be at all fulfilling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jos\u00e9 Saramago, 1998, Kindle Edition, 1998, Mariner Books, I read this book because it was on the suggested reading list for our tour of Portugal and Spain this year. The recommendation read: The Nobel Prize-winning author’s compelling love story …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[15,19],"class_list":["post-4202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-fiction","tag-historical-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4202"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4205,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202\/revisions\/4205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}