Cain, by Jose Saramago

I’ve read several books by Saramago, maybe half a dozen.  Why am I drawn to his writing?  Is it the way he treats human foibles, pointing out absurdity in a matter of fact sort of way?  Maybe it’s because he delves into serious matters like religion.  He seems to have a beef against God, and consequently against the insistence by people that God exists.  Regardless, his work is serious and thought-provoking.  

In this book he starts with the generally accepted Christian version of Cain’s life, and then places him on the spot as a witness to other key events of the Old Testament.  As a consequence he happens along just in time to stop Abraham from killing his son to prove his obedience to God; he shows up in the city of Ur to pleasure Lilith at the height of her sexual appetites; he watches Job as God permits Satan to kill all his family, destroy all his wealth, and cover his body with painful boils, again as a test of loyalty; he sees the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah killing all the innocents along with the sinners; and he rides with Noah in the ark as the flood destroys all mankind.  

Saramago pitches God as an ugly, flawed character--jealous, mean, vengeful, petty, unjust.  Anything but loving.  I suspect it would be easy to see the Old Testament that way, in fact hard not to.  I can’t say I’ve read the Bible in its entirety, just certain passages, but I did go to Sunday School and heard a lot of the stories retold.  It seems to be a sort of history of the Middle East, with God as the leading character, appearing occasionally, sometimes in person, sometimes as angels, archangels and the like, handing out edicts, passing judgment and delivering rewards and punishments.  The consistent theme seems to be his powerfulness, and the lesson is that we should offer praises and cower in fear....or he’ll kick our ass.  It fits that the first five of the ten commandments are all about ME, ME, ME.  

Saramago is merciless in his retelling of familiar stories that are supposed to teach us to worship God.  For instance, he describes the situation when Cain arrives at the mountain where Abraham has been told to sacrifice his son Isaac.   “Yes, you read that correctly, the lord ordered Abraham to sacrifice his own son, and he did so as naturally as if he were asking for a glass of water to slake his thirst, which means it was a deep-seated habit of his.”  Repeatedly Cain appeals to God and argues for justice, to no avail.

How does Cain get to all these places and times?  After killing his brother Abel, he becomes a wanderer and just shows up.  Saramago has presented events in other books that are far more inexplicable than that, and besides, the Bible is full of inexplicable events anyway.  

This book, published in 2009, is a sort of companion to The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, which was published in 1991, almost twenty years earlier.  Saramago died in 2010 so Cain was his last book, a final statement, one might conclude.  There remain a few that I haven’t read.  I look forward to them and, possibly some re-readings.