(p.1-2)Ĭain, as we know from the Bible stories we were told when young, was jealous of Adam because God preferred Adam’s sacrifice, and so Cain bumped him off, earning himself a place in Biblical history as the first murderer. From the texts which, over the centuries, have provided a somewhat random record of these remote times, be it of events that might, at some future date, be awarded canonical status and others deemed to be the fruit of apocryphal and irredeemably heretical imaginations, it is not at all clear what kind of tongue was being referred to here, whether the moist, flexible muscle that moves around in the buccal cavity and occasionally outside it too, or the gift of speech, also known as language, that the lord had so regrettably forgotten to give them about which we know nothing, since not a trace of it remains, not even a heart engraved on the bark of the tree, accompanied by some sentimental message, something along the lines of I love eve.
In an excess of rage, surprising in someone who could have solved any problem simply by issuing another quick fiat, he rushed over to adam and eve and unceremoniously, no half-measures, stuck his tongue down the throats of first one and then the other.
Like many who can’t find anyone to blame but himself, he gets into a temper: Saramago sets the tone from the start with God’s realisation that he has forgotten to give Adam and Eve the power of speech. I didn’t mind it, I was too busy laughing… But - quite apart from the author’s provocative stance on the Old Testament God and his deeds - although there are chapters to break up the text, there’s barely a paragraph to be seen and the other punctuation crimes include run-on sentences, the absence of quotation marks to signal speech and the lack of capital letters to signal proper names. There are some very funny moments in this reimagining of the story of Adam and Eve's fratricidal son.*chuckle* I was going to place a cultural warning that readers who are very religious might not like this book or my review of it, but I see from consumer reviews at Library Thing that a punctuation warning might be more important to some readers!Ĭain, the final novel from José Saramago, (1922-2010), is at 159 pages more of a novella than a novel, so it fits the brief for #NovNov (Novellas in November). Saramago's breathless prose, expertly rendered into English by Margaret Jull nveys the sheer enjoyment of a writer bowing out at the top of his form Sunday Times José Saramago's final novel is an inventory of God's less noble moments.as flawed and wonderful a place to inhabit as the world his cosmic nemesis created Sunday Herald Every page raises difficult questions.as the final testament of Portuguese master, it is suitably disturbing and a pleasure to read Scotsman Cain reminds us why Saramago's work remains vitally important MetroĮvery page of this novella, translated with a fluent and light touch by Margaret Jull Costa, has its charm.
0 kommentar(er)
