First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

Cipriano Algor, an elderly potter, lives with his daughter Marta and her husband Marcal in a small village on the outskirts of The Center, an imposing complex of shops, apartment blocks, offices, and sensation zones. Marcal works there as a security guard, and Cipriano drives him to work each day before delivering his own humble pots and jugs. On one visit, he is told not to make any more deliveries until further notice. People prefer plastic, he is told; it lasts longer and doesn’t break.

Unwilling to give up his craft, Cipriano tries his hand at making ceramic dolls. Astonishingly, The Center places an order for hundreds of figurines, and Cipriano and Marta set to work. In the meantime, Cipriano meets a young widow at the graves of their recently departed spouses, and a hesitant romance begins.

When Marta learns that she is pregnant and Marcal receives a promotion, they all move into an apartment in The Center. Soon they hear a mysterious sound of digging, and one night Marcal and Cipriano investigate. Horrified by what they discover, the family, which now includes the widow and a dog, sets off in a truck, heading for the great unknown.

Suffused with the depth, humor, and above all the extraordinary sense of humanity that marks each of Saramago’s novels, The Cave is sure to become an essential book of our time.

The weekend has finally come! Happy Friday everyone! Another work week is in the books. I hope everyone is ending the work week on a high note. I hope everyone was able to accomplish all the tasks they started during the week. I hope that we are all diving into the weekend carefree; except perhaps for my friend who had to take home some documents and work on them over the weekend. If the work week went the other way around, I hope the weekend will provide a reprieve, even if just a quick one. It is time to ditch those office clothes and don some more comfortable articles of clothing. Which reminds me, today is the second to the last Friday of May. I can’t believe that we are nearly halfway through the year. As we approach the sixth month of the year, I hope we will all be showered with more blessings and positive energy.

Before I dive into the weekend, let me wrap up the work and blogging week with a fresh First Impression Friday update which has evolved into a weekly tradition. For May, I pivoted to works of European literature, particularly the works of European Nobel Laureates in Literature; this was after spending two months venturing into the works of female writers. Actually, I already commenced this journey toward the end of April when I closed the reading month with three works of female laureates: Herta Müller, Doris Lessing, and Annie Ernaux. So far, I have been able to expand this list with the works of Herman Hesse, Halldór Laxness, Knut Hamsun, Imre Kertész, and Patrick Modiano. The latest addition is my current read, José Saramago’s The Cave.

Like most of the writers whose works I read over the past decade, it was through must-read lists that I first encountered Portuguese writer and 1998 laureate José Saramago. I have since acquired some of his works and in 2019, I read my first Saramago novel, The Double. It was a great start to exploring his oeuvre. However, it would take me about four years to expand this reading list; Raised from the Ground was part of my 2023 Beat the Backlist Challenge. For this year, I planned to read a different Saramago novel. Blindness has long been tickling my imagination. However, I have yet to obtain a copy of the book. As such, I ended up with the only other Saramago novel that is available to me, The Cave.

Originally published in 2000 in Portuguese as A caverna, The Cave was the first novel Saramago published after he received one of the, if not the most prestigious literary prizes. The novel charts the story of Cipriano Algor, his daughter Marta, and his son-in-law Marçal Gacho. The three main characters live in the Portuguese countryside. The story’s backbone is Cipriano who is a widower in his mid-sixties. With the assistance of his daughter, he is also a professional but free-lance potter creating ceramic crockery; he has done pottery for a long time. It was through pottery that he supported his family. Cipriano is selling his produce to the Center which is literally the center of commerce. Meanwhile, his son-in-law is a security guard working for the Center.

The Center, a large complex in an anonymous city, is a powerful force in the story. It decides which products will sell and which will not. It can unilaterally cancel any order. It was at this quandary that Cipriano found himself in. The Center decided to stop buying Cipriano’s pottery. This also means that Cipriano is out of business. This is one of three major developments that impact the lives of the three main characters. Marçal was on the cusp of being promoted to a residential guard. As such, he can be granted a flat at the center where he and his family, including his father-in-law, can live. This was a huge opportunity for Marçal because he would be earning more. However, this also means that Cipriano must give up his profession in order to move to the city.

The third major event that shook the main characters’ lives was Marta’s pregnancy. As they await Marçal’s fate, father and daughter brainstorm on how to earn money as they can no longer produce ceramic crockery; Cipriano is still passionate about his pottery, hence, his inability to give it up. Marta proposed making painted figurines. This was a shout in the void as they were unsure if the Center would accept their products. The story then followed the process of how the tandem discussed and planned their new project. I made it as far as this point. I am still curious about the book’s title as there seems to be no cave on the horizon. I guess this is one of the things that I will be looking forward to in the story. This is on top of how the characters’ lives will change.

Honestly, I cannot come up with a plausible conclusion to the story. It is strangely interesting because the pottery section does throw me off; Rushdie’s Fury also gave the same feeling. Nevertheless, I am more than willing to give Saramago the command. I can’t wait to see how the story develops. I guess I am looking at a happily ever after, or at least I hope so. I am midway through the novel so there is still a big room to fill up. How about you fellow reader? What book or books are you going to take with you this weekend? I hope you get to enjoy whatever you are reading right now. Happy weekend!