The Double
by José Saramago
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Renting a recommended video to ease his depression, divorced history teacher Tertuliano Maximo Afonso is unsettled to see a man in the video who looks exactly the way he looked five years earlier.Tags
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The Double by Jose Saramago is the story of a history teacher who, while watching a film, spots a minor actor who is his exact physical double. This sends him into a frenzy of renting videos to try and find out who this actor is all the while hiding this activity from his lover, his mother and a suspicious colleague. When he finally discovers the identity of the actor, he first suggests a meeting.
These two men are much more than simply look-alikes, they share the same birth date, have the same birth mark and each one has a scar on a knee from a childhood injury. The history teacher becomes obsessed as to what will happen to one when the other dies. The actor is not happy with having a mirror image and the story escalates into a show more competition which does set the stage for the dramatic closing.
This was a very interesting story but unfortunately I had a difficult time with the reading. The author writes in long winding sentences, using a lot of commas but very few periods. The result is a rambling, often confusing narrative. There were also the author’s frequent asides to the reader which didn’t help to keep my concentration on the story. Although the author’s style was not to my taste, I did find the story very intriguing and one that I needed to keep reading to find out what happened next. show less
These two men are much more than simply look-alikes, they share the same birth date, have the same birth mark and each one has a scar on a knee from a childhood injury. The history teacher becomes obsessed as to what will happen to one when the other dies. The actor is not happy with having a mirror image and the story escalates into a show more competition which does set the stage for the dramatic closing.
This was a very interesting story but unfortunately I had a difficult time with the reading. The author writes in long winding sentences, using a lot of commas but very few periods. The result is a rambling, often confusing narrative. There were also the author’s frequent asides to the reader which didn’t help to keep my concentration on the story. Although the author’s style was not to my taste, I did find the story very intriguing and one that I needed to keep reading to find out what happened next. show less
A what-if, school-exercise - which the narrator self-reference in the novel itself - detective thriller, the novel is as if The Parent Trap were a sort of spy thriller indie film about identity crises, y'know, if Lindsay Lohan I creepily stalked Lindsay Lohan II for no apparent reason - instead of being amazed and overjoyed by the amazingness of meeting someone who looks just like you - and suffers feelings of potential inferiority because the other one was technically the original zygote. It raises somewhat profound questions about identity - what makes people individuals, whether personalities and inward characters are enough to distinguish you, and on a broader scale, how individuals fit into society. It's unfortunate that the show more protagonist is such an unlikeable character who feels himself superior to others, thinking he alone has seen through the futility of life and had his ego crushed by the appearance of a doppelganger. I quite enjoyed the ending, the protagonist's methodical research and the inexplicable nature of The Double.
Recommended only after you have experienced and liked Saramago's other works, and enjoy a sprinkling of magic realism. show less
Recommended only after you have experienced and liked Saramago's other works, and enjoy a sprinkling of magic realism. show less
Saramago was a unique literary magician, and this is one of his most hauntingly memorable books. This one is a real slow burner, which demands great patience of its reader, but like so many of Saramago's books it is full of dry humour.
The first part of the book might even be described as dull, as the long and apparently rambling sentences, conversations without quotes, and occasional asides from his omniscient narrator set up a picture of an unsympathetic and drab antihero, a depressed history teacher who watches a video recommended by a colleague and sees a bit part actor who is his exact likeness.
As in his modern parables Blindness, Seeing and Death at Intervals, Saramago takes an implausible scenario and slowly and inexorably show more explores the consequences - this one is a more personal story.
The last 100 pages or so are absolutely gripping and the denouement is very clever - many readers may not get that far, but those who do may find the book unforgettable. show less
The first part of the book might even be described as dull, as the long and apparently rambling sentences, conversations without quotes, and occasional asides from his omniscient narrator set up a picture of an unsympathetic and drab antihero, a depressed history teacher who watches a video recommended by a colleague and sees a bit part actor who is his exact likeness.
As in his modern parables Blindness, Seeing and Death at Intervals, Saramago takes an implausible scenario and slowly and inexorably show more explores the consequences - this one is a more personal story.
The last 100 pages or so are absolutely gripping and the denouement is very clever - many readers may not get that far, but those who do may find the book unforgettable. show less
I picked this up from the remaindered table at Barnes and Noble. Interestingly, it was on a tabel labeled "Beach Reads." I can imagine some every confused folks lying about the sands of Myrtle Beach. This is one trippy mind-bending book. Saramago has a way of asking some really ingenious "what-ifs" and takes them on a crazy ride. In this book a teacher, a rather Milquetoast sort of fellow, finds he has a double, a not very successful actor. His quest to find his double has consequences he never imagined. Saramago was one of the greatest writers of his generations, certainly one of the most creative. That said his style is challenging. While taking break from reading, I left it laying on my bed; my eleven year old daughter picked it up show more and began reading it aloud. After a page, she declared, "has he ever heard of periods." To which I replied, he wasn't a big fan. She noted, "you can't stop anywhere, it's comma, comma, comma." Yes, but he has his reasons." She answered, "Yeah, it becomes addictive. It's like hypnosis." It does that, and more. show less
A history teacher is recommended a film which he rents from a video-rental store...he becomes obsessed with finding the actor who looks uncannily like himself. Their lives become intertwined. I really enjoyed this book, the frustrating inner thoughts not expressed by the protagonist due to his personality, the relief when he tells his mother, the interactions between him, his girlfriend, the video store staff, the school staff are quite literally brilliant. The plot written in such a way you are not sure what might happen next - even the last few pages of the book you can see the author could have ended the story more than once, but added another ending, and another, all equally entertaining. The humour in it is quite dark, but one show more couldn't help smiling at things such as the headmaster's misunderstanding over the suggestion history should be taught backwards, then asking the history teacher to devise a plan to see this in action. The props too - the false beard, moustache, wedding ring all play an essential part of the story. Some of the fascinating contents of the book I found were:
The quotes, "Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered", and "For want of a shoe the horse was lost, for want of a horse the battle was lost." The teacher comparing his situation to the Lernaean Hydra, who appeared in this world on false pretences to occupy a place not his own, which is why Hercules killed it; he was also reading a book about the Amorites and their king, Hammurabi and his code of law; and he named his family dog Tomarctus, after the original dog fossil from fifteen million years ago.
(Oh yes, I appreciate the cover illustration by Tom Gauld). show less
The quotes, "Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered", and "For want of a shoe the horse was lost, for want of a horse the battle was lost." The teacher comparing his situation to the Lernaean Hydra, who appeared in this world on false pretences to occupy a place not his own, which is why Hercules killed it; he was also reading a book about the Amorites and their king, Hammurabi and his code of law; and he named his family dog Tomarctus, after the original dog fossil from fifteen million years ago.
(Oh yes, I appreciate the cover illustration by Tom Gauld). show less
If this book had been written by another author, it would likely receive 5 stars from me; it's a brilliant book. However, in comparison with Saramago's other work -- notably Blindness and The Gospel According To Jesus Christ -- this book could only receive 5 stars if I could give them 10. The Double is a dark comedy of manners, and as such it is a higher entertainment; the other books mentioned are penetrating works of genius of the highest order.
This is not to fault Saramago for having written this book; it is a proud accomplishment in his canon.
This is not to fault Saramago for having written this book; it is a proud accomplishment in his canon.
Another in my [b:Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World|138505710|Doppelganger A Trip into the Mirror World|Naomi Klein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1689105362l/138505710._SY75_.jpg|167494133] series of reads, following the Dostoevsky novel with the same title. Having not been as impressed with [b:Blindness|40495148|Blindness|José Saramago|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1528481068l/40495148._SY75_.jpg|3213039] as expected from some of the reviews, I approached this Saramago with some skepticism, but was greatly impressed this time around. Loved the narrator(s) commentary, the uncertainty of just how much was known, the Gogol-esque build-up to obsession, show more the reflections on identity, love, fate...So, yes, I'll be reading more Saramago (and probably more from the Doppelganger works cited). show less
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Author Information
240+ Works 53,188 Members
José Saramago was born on November 16, 1922. He spent most of his childhood on his parent's farm, except while attending school in Lisbon. Before devoting himself exclusively to writing novels in 1976, he worked as a draftsman, a publisher's reader, an editor, translator, and political commentator for Diario de Lisboa. He is indisputably show more Portugal's best-known literary figure and his books have been translated into more than 25 languages. Although he wrote his first novel in 1947, he waited some 35 years before winning critical acclaim for work such as the Memorial do Convento. His works include The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, The Stone Raft, Baltasar and Blimunda, The History of the Siege of Lisbon, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, and Blindness. At age 75, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998 for his work in which "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony, continually enables us to apprehend an elusory reality." He died from a prolonged illness that caused multiple organ failure on June 18, 2010 at the age of 87. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Double
- Original title
- O homem duplicado
- Original publication date
- 2002
- People/Characters
- Tertuliano Máximo Afonso; António Claro; Helena; Maria da Paz
- Important places
- Portugal
- Related movies
- Enemy (2014 | IMDb)
- Epigraph
- Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered
The Book of Contraries.
I believe in my conscience I intercept many a thought which heaven intended for another man.
Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. - Dedication
- For Pilar, until the last moment
For Ray-Güde Mertin
For Pepa Sánchez-Manjavacas - First words
- The man who has just come into the shop to rent a video bears on his identity card a most unusual name, a name with a classical flavor that time has staled, neither more nor less than Tertuliano Máximo Afonso.
- Quotations
- He lives alone and gets bored.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)He stuck the pistol in his belt and left.
- Blurbers
- Updike, John
- Original language
- Portuguese
Classifications
- Genres
- General Fiction, Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 869.342 — Literature & rhetoric Spanish Literature Literatures of Portuguese and Galician languages Portuguese fiction 20th Century 1945-1999
- LCC
- PQ9281 .A66 .H6613 — Language and Literature French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese literatures Portuguese literature Individual authors, 1961-2000
- BISAC
Statistics
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- 2,756
- Popularity
- 6,672
- Reviews
- 63
- Rating
- (3.81)
- Languages
- 18 — Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 79
- ASINs
- 22