Blindness and Seeing by Jose Saramago (Harvest, $10; Mariner $14). My favorite books for some some years now. Stories in allegorical form by the late Portuguese writer about the manner in which western democracies exercise repression aided by the media. They are also galloping tales with wonderfully drawn characters.
Look at Me and A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Anchor, $15; Knopf, $26). This American writer dazzled with Look at Me, which describes, among other things, the manipulation of images by the increasingly abstract versions of capitalism that have replaced manufacturing industries. Egan’s books cover an astonishing range of themes, all inter-related, global as well as personal. Written before 9/11, Look at Me reveals an extraordinarily prescient vision. A Visit from the Goon Squad follows a group of diverse characters across several decades, going back and forth across time. We’re always conscious of their future lives, so different from anything they could have imagined. Only a writer with Egan’s gift for intricate structuring could have pulled this off.
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