Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Modeled on his own family history, this mid-career novel by Nobel laureate Saramago starts with the prediction that drunken shoemaker Domingos Mau Tempo will end up dangling from a noose of his own making. His son Joao, too young to wield a mattock, is left at the mercy of the latifundio, the system of minimal land-ownership that has plagued Portugal for centuries. Even as it dangles promises of paradise to distract the workers on the feudal estates, the Church largely ignores them in its scramble to fawn upon the landowners. Saramago does not use dates for the events of his novel, but veteran translator Costa provides footnotes that guide readers through the cataclysms of the past century. At length, Joao embraces the communist ideas that begin to percolate through his world, and on a new-risen day, the workers agree to get into trailers and head for the Mantas estate, which they plan to occupy. VERDICT A rich story of serfdom and possible redemption told by a master storyteller. [See Prepub Alert, 6/3/12.]-Jack Shreve, Allegany Coll. of Maryland, Cumberland (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

An early, epic novel by the late Nobel Prize winner, for completists steeped in knowledge of the author's work and his native Portugal. Though this novel won the City of Lisbon Prize upon publication in 1980 and has since been praised as both seminal stylistically and deeply personal, this translation represents its first publication in English, more than three decades later. And even fans of the fables and parables of Saramago (Blindness, 1998, etc.) will likely find the novel a mixed bag, with flashes of brilliance offset by stretches of tedium, amid oblique references to Portuguese politics and culture that brief footnotes can barely illuminate. The novel encompasses three generations of the agrarian peasant Mau Tempo family, treated little better than cattle by the landowners who employ them. "These men and women were born to work, like good to average livestock," writes the author, whose own family origins were similar. At times, the narrative slips into first-person from different characters, at other times, it offers the perspective of an ant, and yet other times, the distinction between the ant's view and a human's might be obliterated. Similarly, the authorial presence is very much in evidence throughout, with a droll tone, though the lack of any progress over the course of decades and generations seems tragic. "[W]e're so used to laughter turning into tears or a howl of rage so loud it could be heard in heaven, not that there is any heaven," he writes, of a conspiratorial exploitation that finds the church and government in league with each other, supporting the status quo, exercising power over the powerless. Even the natural order can't provide solace, since "nature displays remarkable callousness when creating her various creatures." As in the American naturalism of Frank Norris and Stephen Crane more than a century ago, the characters are but cogs in a big, cold machine, born to die but supplying their own replacements before they do. A novel that offers insight into the renowned author and his native land.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Though Saramago wrote his first novel in 1947 at the age of 24, critics viewing his long career in retrospect have suggested that Raised from the Ground, first published in 1980, was the novel in which Saramago found the distinctive voice that would lead him to literary prominence. Coincidentally or not it is also said to be one of his most personal works. A multigenerational epic set in the vast farmlands of southern Portugal, this story portrays the hardscrabble lives of the Mau Tempo family, defined by never-ending toil set to the harsh rhythms of the agricultural calendar. The bleakness is apparently permanent; world wars and an attempted assassination of dictator Salazar cannot dispel it. Only with the coming of communism and with it the promise of equality and an eight-hour workday might change be possible. Saramago's poetic and political fans of the English-speaking world will unite in appreciation for this long-awaited translation. st1\:*behavior:url(#ieooui) --Driscoll, Brendan Copyright 2010 Booklist