A sudden epidemic of "white blindness" strikes an unnamed city, starting with a man in his car and spreading rapidly through the population. The government internments the initial victims in a filthy, overcrowded asylum where social structures collapse into violence and squalor. Among the interned is a doctor’s wife who secretly retains her sight, serving as a witness to the moral degradation and physical suffering of the group. As the breakdown of sight leads to the total disintegration of urban infrastructure and basic human decency, the characters must navigate a landscape of starvation and predatory behavior.
This book is for readers interested in the fragility of social contracts and the psychological reactions to systemic collapse. It appeals to those who study the tension between base survival instincts and communal ethics. The reader walks away with a grim understanding of how easily empathy vanishes when physical sensors are removed and institutions fail. It provides a stark look at the dependency of modern civilization on visual order and the cruelty that emerges when that order is stripped away.
Deep, inward-looking, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Literary Connoisseur. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1995
- Language
- EN
