***SPOILERS***It's a 3.75...So many beautiful lines and I enjoyed the way he worked in his social commentaries within the story (just fitting them in whereever he could). The story was definitely disturbing and felt authentic, and metaphorically, the idea of "white blindness" and people going blind because they "do not want to see" was a very interesting topic.
That being said, I loved the entire book until I got to the end...it just felt like Saramago took the easy way out. As I got closer to the end, I was wondering how he would tie up the plot and the characters loose ends. In face, he just didn't. The book was vague as to the reason why everyone went blind, non-metaphorically speaking, but I wish there had been more explanation after their sight was regained. After the slow reading of this book (I guess the subject matter made it difficult to speed through like normal) I felt like I deserved more. I heard the rights were sold on this, and it will probably be a better movie than a book, and coming from me, THAT is extremely RARE! Haha
I DO plan on reading another of his books, just to see if I like something else of his more, because his style of writing is beautiful and haunting, kind of a cross between Cormac McCarthy and Carlos Ruiz Zafon.