The Portuguese novelist, Jose Saramago, died last Friday.

        In 1998 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature, which doesn’t necessarily mean that he was a great writer, but he was, and one of my favorites long before he became a Noble Laureate.

         An article about his death in an American newspaper compared him to Philip Roth.  This was apparently meant to be a compliment, but is provincial myopia.  Philip Roth, the author of PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT, is to Jose Saramago as Norman Rockwell is to Rembrandt.

        There are many advantages to my divided life, but not having my favorite books always with me is not among them.  I have a half dozen of Saramago’s novels, all on THE HAWKE OF TUONELA.

        Saramago was born into a poor family in 1922 and thus spent much of his life living under the Salazar dictatorship, which lasted from 1932 to 1974 and turned him against the establishment--as original artists usually are--including the Catholic Church.  One of his more controversial novels, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS CHRIST, depicts the title character as flawed and human, and was suppressed by the government.

        Many of his books develop a fantastic premise realistically.  in THE STONE RAFT, the Iberian Peninsula breaks off from Europe and drifts around the Atlantic Ocean;  In BLINDNESS, an entire population simultaneously loses sight.   

        My two favorite Saramago novels are BALTASAR AND BLIMUNDA, a love story set in the 18th Century at the time of the Inquisition, which includes two historical figures, the composer,  Domenco Scarlatti, and Bartolomeu de Gusmao, a priest who was trying to invent a flying machine; and THE YEAR OF THE DEATH OF RICARDO REIS.   

        Ricardo Reis was one of the identities used by the Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa, to write poems.

        In the novel, Dr. Reis, a physician, returns from Brazil upon learning of Pessoa’s death in 1935.   He lands at the Alcantara dock in Lisbon.  The basin behind the dock is now a marina in which I stayed for a month in 2001.  I found myself sitting in THE HAWKE OF TUONELA’s cockpit imagining I was watching Ricardo Reis come down the gangway.  Reality and fantasy blur in this novel with Reis engaging in conversations with Pessoa and eventually following him literally to the grave.

         Perhaps there are other novelists still living who are Jose Saramago’s equal; but I can’t think of any.

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        The final round of matches in World Cup group play are deliberately scheduled to take place in simultaneous pairs so no team has the advantage of knowing before the start what result is needed in order to advance.   I solve this by simultaneously watching one match on the television and the other Slingboxed to my computer.

        Once England scored against Slovenia this morning, the United States/Algeria match became increasingly exciting.  I was glad the U.S. finally got the goal and won because they played well enough to deserve to win. 

        That single goal was the difference between being eliminated and finishing first in their group.  It also was enough to bring tears to many of the players and a voice choked with emotion to former President Bill Clinton who was present at the match. 

        In A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN, Tom Hanks famously said, “There is no crying in baseball.”

        Well there certainly is in other sports.

        I think men are becoming too sensitive.

       

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        While not watching soccer, I did notice that General McChrystal has been relived of duty following his comments in an article in ROLLING STONE magazine, and let my imagination run.

        At other times and other places, generals have not always accepted dismissal.

        Dissatisfaction with the government is great.  Imagine that dissatisfaction becoming even greater among both the populace and a military elite who feel hindered and betrayed by civilian authorities.  Imagine a general who decides for a combination of ego, ambition, and perhaps even his concept of the public good, that he knows best and that he shouldn’t step down,  Imagine that his troops, also alienated by the existing government and perhaps by the civilian population, as they certainly were during the Viet Nam War, follow him.

        It is the story of Julius Caesar and General Franco, among many, many others.

        I don’t expect that to happen now.  But project a continued American decline for twenty or fifty years, and wonder if it is beyond imagination.