All the Names
by Jose Saramago, Margaret Costa
List Price:
Our Price: $2.64
You Save: $11.36 (81%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Jose Saramago, Margaret CostaEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-10-05
ISBN: 0156010593
Number of pages: 264
Publisher: Mariner Books
Book Reviews of All the Names
Book Review: A Book of Many Themes
Summary: 5 Stars
I was made aware of Jose Saramago after he won the Nobel Prize for Literature a few years back. "All the Names" is the first book of his that I have read. I admit that, despite the mere 238 pages, I was put off by the pages-long paragraphs. Saramago has his own way of putting his words together and, as I found out, he doesn't use quotation marks. However, once I started reading the book, I became at ease with these peculiarities and found his style rather easy to follow.
This is a book about a lot of things and I suspect many more than I picked up on. For me the theme was the anonymity of people in todays society. We focus our attention on the celebrities of the world at the expense of the lonely person down the street. The main character in "All the Names", Senhor Jose, is a man who works in a large government office. His job is to assist is keeping track of the vital statistics of the people, past and present, of his political division. The book and character reminded me a lot of Ismail Kadare's "The Palace of Dreams". As in that book, the main character goes against the grain and discovers things in the process. His passion is collecting information about celebreties. In the process of looking over his clippings, he realized that he had obtained an information card about some common, unknown citizen. He began to wonder just who this person is and that curiosity evolved into a compulsion. His clandestine investigation serves as the bulk of the story. His curiosity about an unknown fellow citizen makes a mystery out of the seemingly commonplace. Therein was the crux of the story as I understood it; we are surrounded by people who all have an interesting story to their lives. However, we bury the multitudes in favor of the rare person of fame. In doing so, we not only grossly overrate the lives of the famous, we end up trivializing our own lives as well.
That's my take on "All the Names" but I could tell that there were many other directions in which this short novel could be interpreted. Saramago's style, peculiarities aside, reminds me a lot of one of my favorite authors; B Traven. Obviously, I will be reading a lot more of Jose Saramago.
Literary Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literary Books
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Angelsby Marian Keyes
William Morrow; Published: 2002-05-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.31
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.86
Price in other shops:
The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptationby Paulo Coelho
Harper; Published: 2006-07-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
Boonville: A Novelby Robert Mailer Anderson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2003-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Carameloby Sandra Cisneros
HarperAudio; Published: 2002-10-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Headhunterby Timothy Findley
PERENNIAL PUBLICATIONS; Paperback; Book
The Crimson Petal And The Whiteby Michel Faber
Harcourt, Inc./Harvest; Published: 2003; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Seeingby Jose Saramago
Harvest Books; Published: 2007-04-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.83
Price in other shops:
The Gospel According to Jesus Christby Jose Saramago
Mariner Books; Published: 1994-09-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.55
Price in other shops:
Behind the Red Mist: Short Fiction by Ho Anh Thai (Voices from Vietnam)by Ho Anh Thai
Curbstone Books; Published: 1998-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.81
Price in other shops:
God's Bits of Woodby Sembene Ousmane
Longman; Published: 2008-08-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops:
Life with a Star (Jewish Lives)by Jiri Weil
Northwestern University Press; Published: 1998-11-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.55
Price in other shops:
Death with Interruptionsby Jose Saramago
Mariner Books; Published: 2009-09-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.98
Price in other shops:
Respected Sir, Wedding Song, The Searchby Naguib Mahfouz
Anchor; Published: 2001-12-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.92
Price in other shops:
The Elephant's Journeyby Jose Saramago
Mariner Books; Published: 2011-05-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.91
Price in other shops:
Baltasar and Blimundaby Jose Saramago
Mariner Books; Published: 1998-11-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.67
Price in other shops:
The Caveby Jose Saramago
Mariner Books; Published: 2003-10-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.04
Price in other shops: