Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese writer, who does not hesitate to challenge everything that exists with his contradictory pen, equipped with a critical perspective, and breaks all stereotypes with magical elegance.
Have you ever had a writer whose lines you became attached to with curiosity and admiration, that you felt the need to bow down to with respect, and in the back of your mind, you imagined him sitting at his desk writing the words you are reading now? If not, you haven't met José Saramago yet. Let's get to know him better.
José Saramago was born on November 16, 1922, in Azinhaga, a small village in the province of Ribatejo, northeast of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. He was born into a family of landless peasants fighting against poverty. His father was José de Sousa and his mother, Maria da Piedade.
José de Sousa Saramago, (16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010), was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony [with which he] continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality." His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the theopoetic human factor. In 2003 Harold Bloom described Saramago as "the most gifted novelist alive in the world today" and in 2010 said he considers Saramago to be "a permanent part of the Western canon", while James Wood praises "the distinctive tone to his fiction because he narrates his novels as if he were someone both wise and ignorant."
Perhaps he met the ironic side of fate when he was still a baby, thanks to a drunken census taker. The officer felt compelled to add another surname to his; Saramago was the name of a wild herbaceous plant that grew in the village of Azinhaga and was a food source for the poor. Until elementary school, no one realized it was just another surname. The father, who had problems with the official authorities when he was at school, found the solution by taking the surname Saramago for himself.
His father left farming in 1924 for more comfortable living conditions and moved to Lisbon and became a police officer. This gave them some relief, but it wasn't enough. A few months after they moved to the capital, his older brother Francisco died. When Saramago's family first settled in Lisbon, they were living in shared houses where they shared rooms with other families because they had financial difficulties. For this reason, Saramago mostly spent time with his grandfather, Jerónimo Meirinho, and his grandmother, Josefa Caixinha, until he came of age and settled in a house where they lived alone.
In his future Nobel speech, he referred to his grandfather as "The wisest man I have ever known in my life; "He was illiterate," he would mention and add, "Sometimes, on hot summer nights, after dinner, my grandfather would say to me, 'José, tonight we will sleep under the fig tree.' As bedtime got late, my grandfather would start telling stories. Legends, ghosts, stories, old dead, petty fights, proverbs, and endless gossip kept me awake and sounded like a lullaby. I don't know if he would shut up or continue talking when I fell asleep. When there was a long silence, I would ask, "What happened next?" He would retell the story, perhaps for himself, perhaps to remember it, perhaps to enrich it each time. “At that age, I thought my grandfather Jeronimo was the only person in the world who knew everything.”
Thus, the seed that would germinate and bear fruit in the future was planted by Saramago's grandfather and grandmother, who were illiterate and learned wisdom by simply adapting to life and going with the flow.
The Road to Nobel
Saramago, who was very successful in primary school and was noticed by his teachers, continued his education at a technical school due to financial difficulties. He even enjoyed reading textbooks, seeing them as doors opening to literary fruition. Since he did not have money to buy books at that time, he developed his taste for reading by frequently going to the public library. When he finished his education, he worked in many jobs, from technical draftsman to proofreader, editor, and translator.
He married İlda Reis in 1944. During those years, he was working as an administrative officer in the Social Assistance Service. In 1947, he had a daughter with İlda Reis, and his first book, The Widow, was published under the name Sin Country for editorial reasons. Although he worked on a few more projects, he realized that he had nothing valuable to say and stopped his work by listening to his inner voice. Afterward, he did not write for exactly 19 years.
He became unemployed in 1949 for political reasons. Thanks to his former teacher, he found a job in a metal company. In the late 1950s, he worked as a production manager at Estúdios Cor, a publishing company. Thanks to this task, he had the opportunity to meet different writers. He started translating in 1955. Colette translated the works of writers such as Pär Lagerkvist, Jean Cassou, Maupassant, André Bonnard, Tolstoy, Baudelaire, Étienne Balibar, Nikos Poulantzas, Henri Focillon, Jacques Roumain, Hegel, and Raymond Bayer. He returned to literature in 1966 by publishing the book Os Poemas Possíveis (Possible Poems). He worked as a literary critic for a short period in 1967. In 1970, the book Maybe Joy was published.
He divorced in 1970 and had a long-term relationship with Portuguese writer Isabel da Nóbrega. He worked as a manager and editor in different newspapers until 1977. His book, The Painter's Diary, was published in 1977. His book of short stories, Vicious Circle, was published in 1978. The Awakening of the Land was published in 1980, Baltasar and Blimunda in 1982, The Year Ricardo Reis Died in 1984, The Story of the Lost Island in 1986, and The History of the Siege of Lisbon in 1989.
In 1986, he fell in love with Spanish journalist Pilar del Río and married her in 1988. When The Gospel According to Jesus was published in 1991, it attracted the reaction of the Catholic Church and people who believe in the story of Jesus that has been told to this day. Saramago, who was pressured by the Portuguese government and prevented from being nominated for the European Literature Award, left Portugal with his wife and settled on Lanzarote Island in the Canary Islands. He spent the rest of his life on this island.
In 1993, he began writing his five-volume diary called Lanzarote Chronicles. Blindness in 1995, All Names in 1997, The Story of the Unknown Island in 1997, The Cave in 2000, The Copied Man in 2002, Seeing in 2004, Death Once Upon a Time in 2005, Little Memories in 2006, The Elephant's Journey was published in 2008, and Kabul in 2009. In addition to his books, he wrote many essays, diaries, plays, and poetry books throughout his writing career.
Nobel and beyond
After his book Blindness, José Saramago was awarded the Camões Prize for Literature in 1995 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998.
José Saramago, who increased his public activities after the Nobel Prize, traveled to five continents, attended conferences, received academic degrees, and attended literary, social, and political meetings and congresses.
In 2007, he decided to establish a foundation in his name in Lisbon, aiming at the defense and dissemination of contemporary literature and the necessity of complying with and defending the Charter of Human Rights. The José Saramago Foundation opened its doors to visitors in July 2008 with the donation of Casa dos Bicos in Lisbon.