By Jose Saramago, 2005

ISBN 0156032589

The double motif, which has fascinated authors as diverse as Poe, Dostoyevski and Nabokov, is revived in this surprisingly listless novel by Portuguese master Saramago. Tertuliano M ximo Afonso is a history teacher in an unnamed metropolis (presumably Lisbon). Middle-aged, divorced and in a relationship with a woman, Maria da Paz, he is bored with life.

On the suggestion of a colleague, one night M ximo watches a video that changes everything. The video itself is a forgettable comedy, but the actor who plays the minor role of hotel clerk (so minor he isn't listed in the credits) is Afonso's physical double. Soon Afonso is feverishly renting videos, trying to find the actor's name, while hiding his project from his suspicious colleague, his lover and his mother.

Finally tracking the man down, he suggests a meeting. The actor, a rather sleazy fellow, resents Afonso's presence, as if his identical appearance were a sort of ontological theft. Soon the two are in a competition that involves sex and power.

Narrating in his usual long, rambling sentences, Saramago suspends his characters and their actions in fussy authorial asides. Afonso has several hokey "dialogues" with "common sense"; his situation, which might be the germ for an excellent short story, is stretched out far beyond the length it deserves. This semi-allegory is certainly not one of Saramago's more noteworthy offerings.

Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. The Double received decidedly mixed reviews.

Certain critics applaud the urgency with which Saramago questions the nature of identity in our current age and the "what if" scenario. Others believe that Shakespeare, Dumas, and Nabokov have more effectively employed the twin construct. No one denies that Saramago is a brilliant, engaging writer who has earned his eminent standing.

However, most reviewers conclude that neither Afonso nor his double, Claro, are fully developed characters with vital inner lives. They are little more than devices through which Saramago funnels his existentialism. Although Costa receives across-the-board kudos for her faithful and elegant translation, many readers will ditch Saramago s labyrinthine prose halfway through.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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