The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago

The History of the Siege of Lisbon tells the story of a proofreader, Raimundo, who changes an affirmative sentence to the negative by inappropriately adding a "not" to a sentence in a historical work. As a result, the book then read that the crusaders refused to aid the Portuguese in their siege on Lisbon, which was then controlled by the Moors. Although the publishing house inserts an errata into the published novels correcting the mistake, Raimundo's decision to insert that "not" changes his life.

As a result of the intentional insertion of an error, the publishing house hires a new woman, Maria Sara, to oversee the proofreaders to make sure that such a mistake does not occur again. Although the relationship between Raimundo and Maria Sara starts as one full of tension, underhanded criticisms, and awkwardness, it slowly normalizes, eventually leading to a fantastic love story between the two. Saramago does a fantastic job of describing the beginning tension and the slow realization that both characters have as they begin to accept that they truly love each other. The tension-filled relationship is not a result of their working relationship; rather, it is because of mutual attraction from the very time that they meet.

The secondary storyline surrounds Raimundo's new version of the History of the Siege of Lisbon, which acts as a book-within-a-book. It is the result of Maria Sara's suggestion that Raimundo work off of the incorrect version of the original book to create a novel telling how the history would read had the crusaders not stayed to help the Portuguese retake Lisbon. The book seems to mirror Raimundo's own life, as he includes his own love story between a Portuguese soldier and an officer's concubine. The result of the two stories is a novel that, I believe, successfully intertwines the present with the stories of the past.

I will, however, caution any potential readers. Saramago often includes discussions about his doubts about the validity of written history (for example, it was rather easy for a proofreader to, for reasons unknown, insert a single word that can change what future generations may see as the truth), the importance of words and word choice to create a meaning and mutual understanding, and various other philosophical and historical issues. Personally, I really enjoyed some of these discussions; as a historian, I was particularly interested in Saramago's discussions about history and historical knowledge. He led me to really think about the sources of certainty within history, who writes the history that I personally read and discuss, and just how we know today about what happened in the past. I've always had it drilled in my head that you have to use multiple sources to ensure that you're not continuing possible misunderstandings or contextual issues with older sources, and Saramago's book definitely reinforces that idea. That being said, at times, the asides can get distracting from the actual telling of the story. In addition, Saramago utilizes long sentences and minimal punctuation, which can, at times, make the novel a difficult read. It requires a lot of concentration to actually understand rather than to just read. Still, the effort is totally worth it.

My rating: 9/10