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Death with Interruptions
Death with Interruptions | Jos Saramago
Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago's brilliant new novel poses the question -- what happens when the grim reaper decides there will be no more death?On the first day of the new year, no one dies. This of coursecauses consternation among politicians, religious leaders, morticians, and doctors. Among the general public, on the other hand, there is initially celebrationflags are hung out on balconies, people dance in the streets. They have achieved the great goal of humanity: eternal life. Then reality hits homefamilies are left to care for the permanently dying, life-insurance policies become meaningless, and funeral parlors are reduced to arranging burials for pet dogs, cats, hamsters, and parrots.Death sits in her chilly apartment, where she lives alone with scythe and filing cabinets, and contemplates her experiment: What if no one ever died again? What if she, death with a small d, became human and were to fall in love?
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WildAlaskaBibliophile
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Joshuamc
Death at Intervals | Jos Saramago
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Pickpick

This book is one of the most special gifts I ever received and I plan to read it annually not only for the pleasure of reading it, but also because the purple prose influenced the way I have written all my college papers the past few weeks, and even more importantly was that I fell in love with the friend who sent me this book who has reciprocated my feelings during the time it has taken me to read the book. I Love You, Meine Frau.

joyce.btr I'm holding this review very close to me because it means so much to me. Seeing you like the book was the greatest pleasure and I'm so glad you found value in it. I love you too, mein schöner Mann!
p.s.: Your new profile pic on spotify is gorgeous, I can‘t stop looking at it ;)
5mo
Joshuamc @joyce.btr I been admiring yours for some weeks now;) 5mo
joyce.btr @Joshuamc What a coincidence, the picture is already on its way to you ;) 5mo
1 like3 comments
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ChaoticMissAdventures
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Who is your favorite Death?

I absolutely LOVE a book where #death is a character, not just an idea. Death with Interruptions is not only one of my favorite interpretations of Death but is also one of my favorite books. I loved how Saramago wrote - all of his books are a bit stream of consciousness, and a whole lot of lyrical prose.

#scarathlon #photochallenge #teamwhoyagonnacall

Soubhiville Discworld‘s Death is my favorite so far, but I‘ve read a lot of literary Death‘s that I enjoyed. Piers Anthony‘s On a Pale Horse was one I loved in the early 90‘s. 6mo
FlynnDewey It's such a neat concept! 6mo
25 likes2 comments
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Schwifty
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Pickpick

This was a sort of dark comedy about the ways in which society is upended in unforeseen ways when everyone stops dying. And that‘s not to mean not aging or not being sick, just unable to die in a particular country after the grim reaper or death (with a little d) decides to finally give humans what they‘ve longed for: immortality. Later, death is reinstated, but is frustrated by a man to whom she cannot deliver. Overall, witty and philosophical.

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she.hearts.horror
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💀🖤💀🖤💀🖤 #backonmybooshyt👻

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ChaoticMissAdventures
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#conflictedworlds #death
One of my favorites, haunting, beautiful, and thought provoking.

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @eggs

IuliaC I really enjoyed this one 👍 3y
marleed Your home is beautiful! 3y
ChaoticMissAdventures @marleed thank you ❤️ 3y
Eggs Love the colors, table runner and your decor❤️👍🏼🙌🏻 3y
22 likes4 comments
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keepingupwiththepenguins
Death at Intervals | Jos Saramago
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Mehso-so

If you can grit your teeth and put your grammar-pedantry aside, Death At Intervals is a really interesting book. It‘s a modern satire dressed up as magical realism. It might force you to confront all kinds of heavy questions you weren‘t expecting – could humanity exist without mortality? what about religion or philosophy? – but Saramago manages to keep it fun. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/death-at-intervals-jose-saramago/

41 likes1 stack add
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TheGremo
Death at Intervals | Jos Saramago
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Pickpick

Compelling, paradoxical in its writing, in its communication, in its digressions, in the narrator's comments during the story, in the story itself.
If you read with the right eyes, with a look that goes beyond reality, you can understand the author's denunciation of the materiality of modern man, the church and politics. And he does it with biting sarcasm (which I personally love).
Definitely love it
#josesaramago #deathatintervals #saramago

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ChaoticMissAdventures
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#AlphabetTitles #LetterD

Some heavy hitters with Dear Martin and Difficult Women.
Cheeky books of Deadeye Dick and Denton Little.
Drive Your Plow is a wonderful sleeper book while The Dreamers drew me right in, I really enjoyed the writing of both.
My favorite though is Jose Saramago's story about what happens when Death takes a break. ❤️

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Hooked_on_books
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Pickpick

In an unnamed country, people suddenly stop dying. No one knows why, and aging and illness continue, leading to a comedy of errors of logistical problems. We then pivot to death personified, as she figures out how best to move forward. This is a cheeky, whimsical look at death written in the twilight of Saramago‘s life. I enjoyed it.

#ReadingEurope2020 #Portugal

BarbaraBB Sounds good. For me Saramago is always a complete hit or miss! 4y
Librarybelle This sounds good...stacking! 4y
Hooked_on_books @BarbaraBB I can see that. I‘ve read this and Blindness and both are unusual. That‘s always a risk. I‘m sure I‘ll find one of his books I don‘t like as I continue his catalog. 4y
55 likes2 stack adds4 comments
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ChaoticMissAdventures
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7days, 7 books I love.

Day 1

I was nominated by a friend on Facebook and thought this would be good here too!

Saramago is 1 of my favorite authors. I love his writing style, how he writes like my brain things, with lots of beautiful rambling and not much punctuation. This book is especially beautiful, all about how we should appreciate death and how if death were a woman what would she be like.

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ChaoticMissAdventures
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Book Death With Interruptions 😍
Author Caitlin Doughty
TV Derry Girls
Singer Dolly Parton of course

#manicmonday #letterD with @JoScho

JoScho Thanks for playing 🤗💚 4y
14 likes1 comment
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alexa_d

This "oldest of the pessimistic philosophers" sounds *nothing* like Baudrillard, Saramago you hack ?????

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alexa_d
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How appropriate that I started reading this book on September 11th… (which since this book was first published in 2005, I kind of assume the resemblance was intentional.)

(Also TIL that the flagpole outside my office building was literally erected after/for 9/11, so yeah.)

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alexa_d

So first I learned that Spain Rodriguez was not actually Latino, because his dad was a Spaniard, but whatever, still Hispanic, that's fine. Now I'm finding out that José Saramago was not Brazilian, but just plain old Portuguese. And MY Portuguese-heritaged ass knows all too well that we are not considered either Hispanic OR Latinx (oh well, I'm still reading his book during #LatinxAuthors month 😝)

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JoScho
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On the first day of the new year, no one dies. They have achieved the great goal of humanity: eternal life. Then reality hits home—families are left to care for the permanently dying and life-insurance policies become meaningless.

Death sits in her chilly apartment, where she lives alone with scythe and filing cabinets and contemplates her experiment: What if no one ever died again?
#death #newhogwartsadventure

Zelma That sounds fascinating! 6y
Geeklet I love this book so much. Jose Saramago was such a fantastic author. I‘m happy to see it get some love on Litsy. 6y
vkois88 Wow 😮😮😮 6y
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jessinikkip Oh wow!! It sounds amazing, I wish my library had it so I could read it :( 6y
tracey38 Wow, very interesting. 6y
JoScho @Zelma @jessinikkip @tracey38 I thought it sounded pretty interesting as well. 💜 6y
JoScho @Geeklet oh so glad to hear someone has read it and like it 💜 6y
Velvetfur Oh that sounds great! I was reading a Saramago when I first joined Litsy, and I really loved it ('The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis'), but never reviewed it as I wasn't in the flow of things.... Anyway I'm happy to find someone who's also read his work! 😀 6y
106 likes9 stack adds8 comments
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emilyesears
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Mehso-so

I enjoyed the 1st part of this a lot—a fictional country wakes up on Jan. 1 to find that nobody dies. Various different death-related entities are explored: impact on funeral & nursing homes, religion, & the government. We then shift to the POV of Death and a rather convoluted story about her wanting to be human. Saramago has a very strange writing style that I found hard to read. I would have liked it to be more of an actual novel vs. a treatise.

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Divinenanny
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Pickpick

Saramago takes some getting used to with his run on sentences of several pages but this was another treat about a country where there are no deaths, and what happens if one person refuses to die. #read&buy2008 #MountTBRChallenge (does it still count for the MBTR challenge if you read it right after buying it? 😂😂😂)

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TheKidUpstairs
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Pickpick

It has been a while since I read any of Saramago's works, so it was a pleasure to fall back into this one. His style can take some getting used to, but if you can give yourself over to the rhythm, it becomes quite beautiful. This is one of his more approachable novels, but it still holds many layers. Part satire, part literary exploration of philosophy, religion, life, love, and of course death

TheKidUpstairs And with that, I did it! #Booked2018 winter complete 😁 I would say a story about death falling in love with a cellist is quite the Unconventional Romance, wouldn't you? Thanks for the fun challenge, @Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage - I'm already planning for the next set of prompts! 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage Definitely an unconventional romance! I‘m intrigued. Thanks for the review! 6y
alisiakae Congrats!! I have read only one Saramago‘s, Blindness, but I loved it. I keep meaning to go back and read more of his books. 6y
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RealLifeReading I love his books! 6y
PagesOfKate This sounds interesting. I've not read any of his books. Definitely one for the list. 6y
TheKidUpstairs @4thhouseontheleft I loved Blindness, it was the first of his I read. 6y
TheKidUpstairs @PagesOfKate this is definitely a good starting point! His style can be tough to get used to (long paragraphs, no quotation marks or line breaks for dialogue), but it can really be worth it! 6y
Cinfhen Well done 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 6y
96 likes3 stack adds8 comments
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TheKidUpstairs
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A little light #lunchandabook

MommyOfTwo Yum 6y
RaimeyGallant I'll take a doggy bag of that. 6y
JaclynW Looks delicious! 6y
99 likes3 comments
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TheKidUpstairs
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A beautiful, simple, heartfelt dedication. Amazing how so few words can conjure such depth of feeling.

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BeezleMcfly
Death at Intervals | Jos Saramago
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Because, sir, in case you don't know it, words move, they change from one day to the next, they are as unstable as shadows, are themselves shadows, which both are and have ceased to be, soap bubbles, shells in which one can barely hear a whisper, mere tree stumps. #death #dark #josesaramago

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TheKidUpstairs
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"The following day, no one died. This fact, being absolutely contrary to life's rules, provoked enormous and, in the circumstances, perfectly justifiable anxiety in people's minds..."

#Death #QuotsyNov17 @TK-421

callielafleur I need to read more by this author. I didn't think I loved Blindness when I read it originally, but it has really stuck with me over time. 6y
TheKidUpstairs @callielafleur I'd recommend trying this one. Beautifully written, and one of his more accessible works. 6y
73 likes3 stack adds2 comments
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TheKidUpstairs
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Just a few three word titles for today's #riotgrams prompt.

Natasha.C.Barnes Those top 2 are definitely on my TBR 6y
DrexEdit Excellent stack of books! 📚 Or is it stack of excellent books? 📚📚 😊 6y
66 likes2 comments
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brookerhi
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Day 20: A Translation - Death with Interruptions, a Portuguese translation, is one of those rare books that I actually purchased because my library didn't have it. I bought it, and I still haven't read it. But it sounds really good! The Grim Reaper decides to quit her day job, and all of a sudden, people aren't dying on Earth anymore. But, of course, that comes with its own demons ... #septinbooks17 #translatedbooks #TBR

11 likes1 stack add
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GoneFishing

One cannot be too careful with words, they change their minds just as people do.

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GoneFishing

Whether we like it or not, the one justification for the existence of all religions is death, they need death as much as we need bread to eat.

20 likes1 stack add
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horadelevitar
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Férias é sinónimo de boas leituras na praia 😊

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jade_sil
Death at Intervals | Jos Saramago
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Dawn, coffee and a book...

What else could I want!?

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jade_sil
Death at Intervals | Jos Saramago
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What would happen if death stopped doing it's job?

AMAZING book so far!

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janeycanuck
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This title came to my mind immediately upon seeing today's #death challenge for #junebookbugs. This was such an interesting read, highly recommend it.

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TheKidUpstairs
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What if #death decided to stop and experience life and love instead?

While it does explore the darker side of life with no death, this is probably one of Saramago's lighter and more accessible novels.

#junebookbugs
@RealLifeReading

RealLifeReading Love Saramago's books! 7y
54 likes6 stack adds1 comment
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Canadian.Reads
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I blame this on you Litsy! But pretty excited by my latest library haul and #januaryreads #tbr lots of 🎉NEW🎉 (or new to the library rather) books. Gaslight is looking a little top-heavy.

Reviewsbylola I wouldn't know where to start! 7y
23 likes1 comment
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ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled
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This is all Im stacking for January's TBR. The rest is serendipity! Can't clip these wings, man! I will not be bound by planning 😂 #thismonth'sTBR #readjanuary

BookishMarginalia 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 7y
tricours Have you read anything else by Saramago? I've only read one of his books, but it earned him a solid spot on my hate list 😁 7y
bookishkai @tricours hahaha, I'm with you! I read Blindness for a book club and everyone else thought it was all kinds of wonderful and I just sat there thinking "oh my god, every page was like torture". 7y
See All 11 Comments
tricours @bookishkris I hated that book so much! 😤 7y
BookishTrish I'm the other way, I adore Saramago's writing. Blindness was much bleaker than his other titles. I adore 7y
RealLifeReading Oh yeah I am so bad at sticking to plans. I make a TBR stack and never read it 7y
maximoffs The Mothers is great! 7y
ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled @tricours @bookishkris Oh no! I just picked it up because it sounded interesting! Ive never read him before. Now Im curious if you both hate it - and I wanna see why @BookishTrish likes it! Controversy! Ooooo!! I have Baltasar and Blimunda in my tbr too. 7y
bookishkai @ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled.com if I remember right, Blindness was stream of consciousness, which in general makes me crazy. So I had a really hard time getting into the story. But I do remember wondering at the time if some of my issue was because it was translated. I've had similar disconnect with other translated books, where the writing just feels . . . distant. 7y
tricours I felt the characters in Blindness were all without substance, especially the women were poorly written and the story had this constant aim of slight misogyny or lack of understanding of women about it. And I just hate moralizing books that are supposed to teach you something "deep" that is really just obvious from page 1. I remember being so furious when I wrote my Goodreads review of that one ?@bookishkris 7y
Flaneurette I really loved All the Names but could not finish Blindness 7y
52 likes11 comments
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Amemal95
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Pickpick

Notes are there because it's required reading for my philosophy of death class - it's such a good book, I'm so glad my professors put this on the list for class! Beautifully written, provocative, funny, and all-around lovely

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Meli-chanBooks24
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Chill weather, coffee and a good book... SUCCESS!!

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aloslibrary
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Midnight Book Girl's mini challenge. This book brings me the memory of when I knew I wanted to become friends with my best friend. I invited her to start a bookclub with me and this was our first book.💚🦄 @DeweysReadathon #readathon

Mcoun That's a pretty heavy choice for a first book! 7y
49 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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Mcoun
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Pickpick

This is not the kind of book I would normally like. I'm not even sure how to classify it. It's kind of satirical, but also kind of sad. Death (or I should say, death) is personified as a woman in her 30's who can interact with humans. All in all, it's very weird, but in an interesting way! #NobelPrizewinner

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koppelwoman
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Pickpick

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this novel. Darkly funny for a novel about death. The relationship between the cellist and his dog makes me smile even now. :)

Mcoun I liked the dog and the cellist too! 8y
6 likes1 comment
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darynne
Pickpick

I am drawn to books with Death as a character. This Death experiments with the rules, mails lilac-coloured letters to the nearly dead, and falls in love - all written in Saramago's signature strange, elegant, and graceful style. My favourite book from one of my favourite authors.

1 like1 stack add