Death at Intervals is a story set in an unnamed country where, without notice, one day no one dies. What would you do if the entire country was in a state of suspended death? What would you do with the terminally ill who would be forever terminally ill? Would this be a blessing, or a dire encumbrance?

Death at Intervals, written by Jose Saramago, explores the surreal scenario of the absence of death, and through this seeks to display the motivations and behaviours of the individuals and society who are faced with this unusual predicament. The novel has an interesting dialogue with Death herself as she explains her motives for her behaviour, and continues to meddle in the normal schema of the dying.

Jose Saramago is a Portuguese Nobel-laureate who was born in 1922 to a poor rural family in a small village in northern Portugal. He has had over two dozen works published over the last four decades. Death at Intervals is his latest work to be translated into English.  Saramago is the author of Blindness, which was recently made into a major motion picture starring Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, Saramago’s works grapple with the human condition, community, and social ordering, often in situations of extraordinary circumstance. Many see him as one of the greatest writers of our time, and he has received much critical acclaim for his work to date.

The novel begins with the first day that no one dies and its style and content both typify Saramago; an 87 year old man preoccupied with the idea of death. The strong themes of religion, faith, morality, and familial bonds also hint at the outlook and ideas of a man born in the 1920s looking at the changing society in front of him. There is significant critique of the state of the modern extended family and the role of the church in a life without death.

Another strong theme in Saramago’s novel is the concept of governance and order. The difficulty with this idea in the context of Death at Intervals, was it was easy to find yourself presupposing or second-guessing the role of the government in this nameless state. This detracted from the overall continuity of the book and one’s already tenuous suspension of belief. When portions of the story focussed on a policy problem that seemed quite implausible, that is, more implausible than death being absent from one country for a period of time, or simply disinteresting, the reader was further pushed to go along with impossible idea of the suspension of death.

The commentary regarding organised crime and the government, or regarding the funeral industry and the government, wasn’t particularly compelling. There were levels of humour in these descriptions that made for interesting reading, but it remained impossible not to approach the sub-plot of the government’s role in dealing with death’s absence without much scepticism.

The most interesting aspect of Death at Intervals was the way in which Saramago describes and utilises Death herself. While it might seem trite for Death to discuss her administrative duties with her scythe, it was through these interactions that the reader was provided with a much more interesting insight into our own concepts mortality. As death faced her own problems towards the end of the novel, a strange twist provides the reader with an interesting question of what role death might play into the future.

Perhaps because Saramago is so well renowned it is possible to approach this book with unreasonably high expectations. The book was slightly disappointing, primarily because many of the themes had little resonance with me. However, the latter portion of the novel was thoroughly enjoyable, as to whether this made up for the first three-quarters is not so certain. It is sure to say, however, that when Saramago connects with his reader his story is truly extraordinary. However, when the connection is missing the text is otherwise forgettable.