Book Review: Cain by Jose Saramago
In a different age, he might perhaps have wept, he might perhaps have despaired, he might perhaps bitten his chest or his head, but things being what they are, with the world so recently begun, we still lack many of the words with which we can begin to try to say who we are and cannot always find those that will best explain it, and so he contended himself with repeating what he had said until the words ceased to mean anything and were just series of a incoherent sounds, meaningless babbling.After Adam and Eve have been cast out of Eden, Eve decides to go back and ask the angel guarding the gate if he will give her some of the fruit that is going to waste inside. The angel agrees, and although Eve swears to Adam that she offered the angel nothing in return, their first child is suspiciously blond and fair-skinned. Cain, in his wandering, overhears a strange conversation between a man named Abraham and his son Isaac - and manages to prevent the father from murdering the son. The angel appointed by God to prevent the murder arrives late due to a wing malfunction. Cain brushes off his apology. 'What should have happened if I hadn't been here?' Cain demand to know. 'And what kind of God would ask a father to sacrifice his own son?' ...
Cain by Jose Saramago is a witty and provocative satire of The Old Testament. While Cain is projected as the sympathetic human protagonist, the book projects God as vindictive character who is also likely to make miscalculations and committing unimaginable wrong doings. The book is fast, interesting and unique in tone. Closing the book with an argument between the two voices, of God and Cain, of whether there will be an alternate new human race altogether, the book forms part of Saramago's long argument with religion. Although the book might hurt sentiments of the strictly religious reader, this humorous alternative of The Old Testament was indeed a delightful read.
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Interesting and Unique. I had received the review copy from Random House India. Thank you Random House India for giving me this opportunity. You can buy this book at Flipkart in case you live in India.
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