http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780156028790-2 - I've been meaning to read a Saramago book since college, but this was my first introduction to the Portuguese author. The Cave tells the story of aging potter Cipriano Algor who lives in a small village with his daughter and son-in-law. As the world changes, Cirpriano finds that his pottery is no longer in demand and that his daughter, now pregnant with her own child, wants to move to the more modern "Center" in town. As Cipriano comes to terms with change, he takes in a stray dog, falls in love with a widow, and comes up with a new clay product to sell to the masses. Not much actually happens in this book in terms of plot (other than a diabolical discovery made in the last 20 or so pages), but Saramago's ability to capture familial relationships, the sense of loss, and the concept of love is well-worth savoring. I particularly enjoyed the passages about the stray dog (named Found) and his relationship with Cirpriano and the world around him. At times the book is hard to follow - much of it is told in conversations between the characters, but Saramago doesn't use quotation marks and new paragraphs and so the words run together, such that it is often difficult to discern which characters are speaking (and perhaps this is the point). At the end, Plato's concept of "The Cave" is referenced, and there are moments of trying to figure out what is real, and what is simply a shadow on the wall. At times I found Cirpriano's character heartbreaking in his effort to find meaning, or to be meaningful, in a world that seems to have left him behind. But, at the same time, he is a reminder that change is not always good, and that "progress" without heart, is not always worth waiting around for.
(* - winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature)
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