Small Memories [Hardcover]

Jose Saramago (Author), Margaret Jull Costa (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 2011

José Saramago was eighteen months old when he moved from the village of Azinhaga with his father and mother to live in Lisbon. But he would return to the village throughout his childhood and adolescence to stay with his maternal grandparents, illiterate peasants in the eyes of the outside world, but a fount of knowledge, affection, and authority to young José. 

Shifting back and forth between childhood and his teenage years, between Azinhaga and Lisbon, this is a mosaic of memories, a simply told, affecting look back into the author’s boyhood: the tragic death of his older brother at the age of four; his mother pawning the family’s blankets every spring and buying them back in time for winter; his beloved grandparents bringing the weaker piglets into their bed on cold nights; and Saramago’s early encounters with literature, from teaching himself to read by deciphering articles in the daily newspaper, to poring over an entertaining dialogue in a Portuguese-French conversation guide, not realizing that he was in fact reading a play by Molière. 

Written with Saramago’s characteristic wit and honesty, Small Memories traces the formation of an artist fascinated by words and stories from an early age and who emerged, against all odds, as one of the world’s most respected writers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Weaving together memories of his Portuguese childhood, Nobel Prize–winner Saramago (1922–2010) presents a lyrical portrait of the artist as a young man. Born in the small village of Azinhaga and raised in Lisbon, Saramago recounts his early days not in the traditional linear fashion but as snippets of reminiscences that flow from one topic—and time period—to another. The days spent in Azinhaga, exploring the countryside with a child's keen eye for adventure and spending time in his maternal grandparents' cottage, are beautifully depicted and resonate even more deeply when Saramago describes the modernization that has made his boyhood home unrecognizable. Readers will also recognize the trademark undercurrent of wit in Saramago's stories, such as how a village joke resulted in his surname being recorded incorrectly on his birth certificate ("Saramago" means wild radish) and how an early attempt to master French was actually a childhood introduction to Molière. Yet all is not merry as Saramago recalls the tragic death of his older brother, Francisco, at age four, which causes him to explore the concept of so-called "false memories," as well as his family's poverty. With its poetic style, this posthumous memoir is the perfect coda to Saramago's distinguished career. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* The Portuguese recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature died in 2010, leaving for posthumous publication his last novel, the rousing, delightful Elephant�s Journey, and this equally charming memoir of his childhood (�the small memories of when I was small�), which is certainly one of the most sheerly beautiful writing exercises in any mode or genre of the season. In common with other writers who take backward glances at life, Saramago spends time�and in his case, lush time�remembering being raised amid idiosyncratic relatives and neighbors, who, if not directly supplying fodder for future writing endeavors, at least gave Saramago an early sensitivity to the fact that the best drama is about ordinary folk (one man is described as someone who �lacked the intelligence to know which way the wind was blowing, or if indeed there was any wind�). What makes the book so distinctive and charming is that Saramago admits that certain of his memories have a fuzzy provenance�did he actually experience this or that event or just hear about them later?�yet at the same time, he simply lets the narrative roll along in verbal splendor and poignant intimacy, leaving the question of truth-rooted accuracy versus hit-or-miss impressions a moot point. --Brad Hooper

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (May 11, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151015082
• ISBN-13: 978-0151015085
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #307,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #20 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Portuguese

More About the Author

JOSE SARAMAGO is one of the most acclaimed writers in the world today. He is the author of numerous novels, including All the Names, Blindness, and The Cave. In 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wonders Of Memory, April 10, 2011

By 

Louis N. Gruber "Author of Jay" (Lexington, SC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Small Memories (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Famed novelist Jose Saramago, in one of his last works, takes us on a dreamy, rambling trip through his memories of childhood and adolescence. He grew up in a small village, but lived for many years in Lisbon as well. He shares with us the rustic atmosphere of his birthplace, his wise but unlettered grandparents, his child's understanding of history, his introduction to letters, his discovery of --girls, and much much else. Some of his memories are tinged with pride, others with eternal embarrassment, shame and guilt. On occasion he treats the reader to a tiny glimpse of his creative process--how some incident or other became the nexus for one of his great novels.

There's no plot, just a collection of poignant little vignettes strung together in no particular order. Fortunately, the author includes punctuation and even quotation marks, unlike in his great novels. The book concludes with some precious family photographs. If you've read any of the great man's works, better yet, if you're a fan of his writing, you won't want to miss out on these few pages of meeting the man himself. I enjoyed Small Memories and recommend it highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fragmented memories do little more than give a Polaroid snapshot of life in pre WWII Portugal, June 15, 2011

By 

Brian Hawkinson (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Small Memories (Hardcover)

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Small Memories is certainly something that handles small matters, both in the nature of the memories as well as in the size of the book. I found that in some respects it certainly has some redeemable qualities, but in others I didn't really care for what I was reading.

The cons are that you get zero insight into the adult Saramago. What you get instead are small clipped memories, ending just as quickly as each one began, from his childhood. I couldn't help but wait for that aha moment where he finally turned his childhood into something that would help understand his life better. Instead you are given the insight into the life of a poor family growing up in Portugal. Additionally I couldn't help but be slightly annoyed with his constant reference to "that may not quite be how it happened", "this memory may never have happened at all", to "I might not be remembering that person exactly how it happened". His constant reference to the possibilities that everything he is telling us could be completely false devalues the value of a memoir such as this.

The pros are that you get a nice view into the life and times of the peasant class growing up in a pre World War II time. How he travelled, how he ate, how he lived, how he interacted with other families. It is rather eye opening in that respect, so there is some worth behind a memoir that is nothing more than fragmented memories pieced together that ultimately have little connection with one another. I can't help but be impressed by how he writes and look forward to reading some of his works, but this very small book did little to show me who Saramago was. If you feel you need to purchase this book, certainly wait for the paperback addition since the 100+ pages isn't worth spending the money on a hardback.

2.5 stars.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Small Gem By A Great Writer, July 9, 2011

By 

H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Small Memories (Hardcover)

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Although Jose Saramago's memoir of his childhood, SMALL MEMORIES, is short, it contains many moving passages. I had decided that it was basically musings of a great writer-- BLINDNESS is a book I would take on an island--who was in his twilight and that his muse for the most part had left him. Then I came upon his description of his beloved grandfather (and wished I could read Portugese) that is as good as anything I can remember reading: "He is a man like many others on this earth, in this world, perhaps an Einstein crushed beneath a mountain of impossibilities, a philosopher, a great illiterate writer. Something he could never be."

Saramago's remembrance of his grandmother is just as good: "There you were, grandma, sitting on the sill outside your house, open to the vast, starry night, to the sky of which you knew nothing and through which you would never travel, to the silence of the fields and the shadowy trees, and you say, with all the serenity of your ninety years and the fire of an adolescence never lost: `The world is so beautiful, it makes me sad to think I have to die.'"

Poor by the world's standards and from a family of illiterates, Saramago recounts his falling in love with language and literature to become, against all odds, one of the great writers of all time.

SMALL MEMORIES is in short a little treasure.