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Title: The Tale of the Unknown Island by Jose Saramago, Margaret Jull Costa, Peter Sis ISBN: 0-15-100595-8 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 08 November, 1999 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (18 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A tale that will keep you thinking
Comment: The Tale of the Unknown Island was a very short read but there were important points to be made in the story. In my opinion, this book had an underlying moral which said that what you are really looking for may be right in front of you. In the case of this book, the man who is searching for the island may not realize that he could find true satisfaction, and happiness with the cleaning woman who joins him on his journey. The tale also implied that you should always believe in a dream, nomatter what or who discourages you. The man in the story was persistent when he was preparing to search for the island and I believe that this was very significant. Even after I read this book, it kept me thinking about how you may not have to search very far for what you really are looking for. Sometimes the most important things that you need may be very close to you.
Rating: 3
Summary: It Could Have Been and Should Have Been So Beautiful
Comment: Jose Saramago's book, The Tale of the Unknown Island is a little book that presents a little story. Both a love story and a fable, The Tale of the Unknown Island presents an elegant and exquisite premise that is disappointingly flawed in its execution.
The book begins beguilingly enough, when a man with a quest knocks at the door of a king and begs for a boat to make an expedition to an unknown island. The king is not immediately agreeable but our hero finds an unlikely ally in the king's cleaning woman and, after receiving the ship he has asked for, he and the woman join forces.
There is one problem. There are no unknown islands. All that exist have already been mapped and claimed by the king. When the harbormaster attempts to dissuade the man from his dream, and no one signs on board as crew members, the hero of this little tale finds that only the cleaning woman will help him pursue his seemingly impossible dream.
The island is discovered, but unfortunately, the journey taken is literally one of which the stuff of dreams are made. REM sleep and narcoleptic love play a big part in this story. It is here, in the land of dreams, where the story really falls apart and our suspension of disbelief grows harder and harder to suspend.
Nobel Prize winner, Jose Saramago, is the author of breathtakingly beautiful books such as Baltasar and Blimunda and The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, and works of stunning originality like Blindness, so I expected far more from The Tale of the Unknown Island. Perhaps these high expectations were a part of the problem.
The book is written in Saramago's signature style: a breathless, barely punctuated, almost stream-of-consciousness manner that is, as always, flawless, and that captures the innocence and high spirits of the protagonist perfectly. The metaphors created, however, are highly overstated and, at times, highly irritating.
Thematically, The Tale of the Unknown Island should have worked so beautifully. There is a lazy and wicked antagonist in the guise of the king, there is the pure and innocent hero, there is the classic quest necessary for the hero to prove himself and become whole and there is the requisite healing power of true love. The key to the ending is faith and the key to that faith is love.
With all of the required elements of fairy tales and fables, why, then did this book fail to hit the mark?
Fairy tales and fables are, by their very nature, simple little tales. The Tale of the Unknown Island is quite complex but told in a simplified manner. And, as we all know, "simplified" does not quite equal the beauty inherent in "simple." Saramago's abrupt switch from satire to allegory was jarring, to say the least, and definitely detracted from the book's could-have-been charms.
The gemlike playfulness and grace embodied in a tale such as The Princess Bride or The Last Unicorn is sorely lacking in The Tale of the Unknown Island.
The illustrated edition, however, is still well worth the time and money. Peter Sis' drawings, composed of clean lines and classical beauty have a fey air of antiquity about them and achieve all that the story set out to do but did not.
Saramago is a world class writer. That cannot be denied. The fact that The Tale of the Unknown Island failed to make the grade is a flaw as tiny and insignificant as is the book itself.
Rating: 5
Summary: from the teens point of veiw
Comment: I read this book in maybe 20 minutes, but it was the most enjoyable 20 minutes that I have ever spent reading a book. Now, I'm not going to write a long, flourishing review that the people before me have done, because I'm a teenage girl that really isnt into writting reveiws, but I am going to tell you that it is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. Jose Saramago has a way of writting that just captures you. There are no quotation marks, and few periods. None of the characters have birth names, but I felt that things like "The king, the cleaning lady, and the man" where perfect enough. I even read it outloud, and gave everyone a voice, imagining that I was there with them. It was really quite a marvelous read, and I encourage anyone to read it. Do it for yourself - you and your mind deserve it :)
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Title: The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago, Giovanni Pontiero ISBN: 0156996936 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: All the Names by Jose Saramago, Margaret Costa ISBN: 0156010593 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Cave by Jose Saramago, Margaret Costa ISBN: 0156028794 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 15 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Baltasar and Blimunda by Jose Saramago, Giovanni Pontiero ISBN: 0156005204 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 05 November, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Stone Raft by Jose Saramago, Giovanni Pontiero ISBN: 0156004011 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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