SOURCE: "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," in New York Review of Books, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 17, October 24, 1991, pp. 20-22.

[In the following review, Wood discusses the almost-palpable sense of history in The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis.]

… "One can be a monarchist," a character says in José Saramago's capacious, funny, threatening novel [The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis], "without clamoring for a king." The man who speaks in this way has just arrived in Portugal after a long spell abroad, and earlier in the book has signed a hotel register: "Name, Ricardo Reis, age, forty-eight, place of birth, Oporto, marital status, bachelor, profession, doctor, last place of residence, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil…." "It reads," the narrator comments, "like the beginning of a confession, an intimate autobiography, all that is hidden is contained in these handwritten lines, the only problem is to interpret them." This is a problem...