The Double by Jose Saramago (2002)

The novels I have read by Portuguese Nobel laureate Jose Saramago have all been allegorical in nature, this one included. Here he explores the concept of the double or duplicate, which is a motif that occurs with some frequency in literature. In fact, Dostoyevsky published a novella of the same name with the same theme back in 1846. According to the accepted concept, the existence of an exact duplicate is a threat or danger to one or both persons involved, being against the basic laws of the universe -- or something like that. I don't pretend to understand completely.

In Saramago's story, a mild mannered history teacher watches a DVD of an old movie and sees that one of the bit players looks and sounds exactly like him. He becomes obsessed with finding his double, going to great lengths to meet him. When the two finally come together, they find they are, indeed, exactly the same, and both embark on a quest for dominance, with surprising results.

I did not enjoy reading this book very much. It seems to bog down in the details, with the meeting of the two men not occurring until halfway through. It is difficult and slow to read, because Saramago only occasionally uses periods, instead stringing together sentence after sentence with commas. His frequent dialogues do not contain quotation marks or paragraphing to signal change of speakers, so they must be read with care to decipher who is saying what. But I was mostly put off by the tone, which is mocking, making this almost seem like a parody of the theme. Surely that was not Saramago's intention -- or maybe it was.

Did you ever read a book and afterwards feel like you missed the point somehow? That's how I feel about this one.