The first half of the story focuses on the struggles of the government and its various nameless members as they try to simultaneously understand and destroy the amorphous non-movement of blank-voters.

Writing for The Guardian, Ursula K. Le Guin gave Saramago's Seeing high praise, noting that, "He has written a novel that says more about the days we are living in than any book I have read.

He writes with wit, with heartbreaking dignity, and with the simplicity of a great artist in full control of his art.

But rather than tangle the narrative, these techniques propel it – the next pair of parentheses you encounter will feel heavy, unnecessary.

"[2] Ultimately, The Globe thought that "Saramago has always pointed us to in lieu of literature's standard endings: the rare beacons of goodness that cut through the murky darkness of mankind.