The Double (2002)

My 2nd Saramago. He's a keeper. College teacher obsessed with his discovery of a doppelgänger. All sorts of intrigue slowly played out. Author uses few paragraphs and no dialogue cues, but again I wasn't bothered by this once I got into the flow. I read this early 2013. ( )

I thought this book was one of his most creative books and I really liked its exploration of identity. The protagonist sees a man who looks just like him as an extra in a film and goes on a mission to track down this person. Honestly, I'd probably give this one a 4 1/2 out of 5 but this format doesn't really allow it. I thought it was incredibly original even though it wasn't necessarily as profound as some of his others and I enjoyed it immensely. A word of warning for those not familiar with Saramago: his writing style takes a bit of getting used to because he doesn't use quotes to indicate when people are talking so it feels very confusing and stream of consciousness at first. A great example of experimental fiction! ( )

En este libro el autor narra, de manera muy lenta en un principio, la vida de un hombre que tenia una vida muy común, la cual llegaba a ser hasta aburrida. Un día el está viendo televisión y su vida cambia para siempre y ahí es cuando la historia se torna interesante y muy dramática, dejándole al final al lector un sabor agridulce con respecto al texto. ( )

What would you do if you were watching a movie and noticed that one of the small-part characters looks exactly like you? There s/he is on the screen, same body build, same face, same hair, same voice, same everything. Think about it: short of being identical twins that were separated at birth (which isn’t the case), is this even genetically possible? Can there be another person out there who is identical to you in every way? How would you react? What would you do?

Read more: http://btweenthecovers.com/2011/05/07/the-double/ ( )

A no-star rating on 292 pages, actually. And tedious. But then I suppose having a double would be tedious, especially if you were a boring, misognynist, snob like the character in this book. It is awful enough that there is one of him, worse that you have to read about him, appalling that you are given his innermost thoughts (if they can be credited with that term) and a positive atrocity that there should be two of him. This is the worst of Saramago's books that I have read, like a rejected Almodovar script. And it isn't the translator's fault; Margaret Jull Costa simply had very little to work with in this one - nor it seems did Saramago, because the novel doesn't have much idea where to go after its basic, 'that would be interesting' premis. Saramago usually manages to hold my attention despite his distinctive style, invoking concentration and producing some startling insights, but this book I just wanted to finish. It is basically the kind of story that Ray Bradbury would have condensed into at most twelve pages, more probably four, here extrapolated to a long, dull, uneventful and unappealing 292 pages. And Bradbury would have told us more in that space than Saramago manages in this book. Maybe it was a bad time in his life. Anyway, all of the others of his that I have read are in a different league. ( )