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Overview
Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is a divorced, depressed history teacher. To lift his spirits, a colleague suggests he rent a certain video. Tertuliano watches the film, unimpressed. But during the night, when he is awakened by noises in his apartment, he goes into the living room to find that the VCR is replaying the video. He watches in astonishment as a man who looks exactly like him-or, more specifically, exactly like he did five years before, mustachioed and fuller in the face-appears on the screen. He sleeps badly.
Against his better judgment, Tertuliano decides to pursue his double. As he roots out the man's identity, what begins as a whimsical story becomes a "wonderfully twisted meditation on identity and individuality" (The Boston Globe). Saramago displays his remarkable talent in this haunting tale of appearance versus reality.
Synopsis
Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is a divorced, depressed history teacher. To lift his spirits, a colleague suggests he rent a certain video. Tertuliano watches the film, unimpressed. But during the night, when he is awakened by noises in his apartment, he goes into the living room to find that the VCR is replaying the video. He watches in astonishment as a man who looks exactly like him-or, more specifically, exactly like he did five years before, mustachioed and fuller in the face-appears on the screen. He sleeps badly.
Against his better judgment, Tertuliano decides to pursue his double. As he roots out the man's identity, what begins as a whimsical story becomes a "wonderfully twisted meditation on identity and individuality" (The Boston Globe). Saramago displays his remarkable talent in this haunting tale of appearance versus reality.
The New York Times - Richard Eder
It's tempting to think of [The Double] as his masterpiece. Certainly it is one of two or three, the allegory here not so tumultuously grand as in others, but more perfectly maneuvered.
Editorials
New York Times
[Saramago's] take on the theme is clever, alarming and blackly funny—Richard Eder
San Francisco Chronicle
"Saramago's observations come in small bursts that lift themselves up in startling truth and beauty."The New Yorker
[Saramago is] a writer, like Faulkner, so confident of his resources and ultimate destination that he can bring any improbability to life—John Updike
Los Angeles Times
THE DOUBLE begins by intriguing us, proceeds to entertain, charm and engage, and ultimately manages to disturb.—Merle Rubin
The New Leader
"THE DOUBLE is another haunting book... from a writer who seems to produce masterpiece after masterpiece"Trenton Times
"What satisfying pleasure it is to be told this cautionary tale by a teller at the peak of his wisdom and sly wit."Los Angeles Times -
"THE DOUBLE begins by intriguing us, proceeds to entertain, charm and engage, and ultimately manages to disturb."New York Times -
"[Saramago's] take on the theme is clever, alarming and blackly funny"The New Yorker -
"[Saramago is] a writer, like Faulkner, so confident of his resources and ultimate destination that he can bring any improbability to life"Richard Eder
It's tempting to think of [The Double] as his masterpiece. Certainly it is one of two or three, the allegory here not so tumultuously grand as in others, but more perfectly maneuvered.— The New York Times