''The Blinding Order '' ( sq, Qorrfermani, lit=Curse It) is a short novel written by
Ismail Kadare in 1984 and published in 1991, shortly after the collapse of the
hoxhaist
Hoxhaism () is a variant of Anti-revisionism, anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninism that developed in the late 1970s due to a split in the anti-revisionist movement, appearing after the Sino-Albanian split, ideological dispute between the Chinese ...
regime in
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
.
Set in the 19th-century
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
, ''The Blinding Order'' is a parable about the use of terror by authoritarian regimes,
and it is linked through its main subplot to the author's banned 1981 novel ''
The Palace of Dreams
''The Palace of Dreams'' ( sq, Pallati i ëndrrave) is a 1981 novel by the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare. Set ostensibly in the Ottoman Empire, but in a deliberately imprecise past shaded by myth and intended to represent the modern totalitar ...
''.
Background
Kadare wrote ''The Blinding Order'' in the aftermath of a terror campaign in Communist Albania.
Plot
The plot centres on a religious order issued by a Sultan, calling for all people with the "dubious power" of the
evil eye to be blinded, and the subsequent terror campaign that follows. All this is narrated in a "fable tone of one thousand and one nightmare nights''"
Reception
Describing the novel as "superbly plotted" and "charged with bitter black humor," ''
Kirkus Reviews
''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...
'' praised it as "a masterly parable worthy of comparison with José Saramago's Nobel-anointed fiction.
from ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' described it as "a chilling fable of inscrutable tyranny and collective surrender".
Wolfgang Schneider from ''
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'', while reviewing ''Der Raub des Königlichen Schlafs'' – a volume of 12 stories, novellas and short novels by Kadare, published in German –singled out ''The Blinding Order'' as the best one, describing it as a "grandiose story". According to him, it gives "literary form" to the "horror of the sabotage-accusation"-which numerous people in socialist countries fell victim to.
See also
*
Albanian literature
Albanian literature stretches back to the Middle Ages and comprises those literary texts and works written in Albanian. It may also refer to literature written by Albanians in Albania, Kosovo and the Albanian diaspora particularly in Italy. Alba ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blinding Order
1991 novels
20th-century Albanian novels
Novels by Ismail Kadare
Novels set in the Ottoman Empire
Novels set in the 19th century
Onufri Publishing House books