The Double

In this novel from Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago, a depressed teacher rents a movie from a video store and discovers on the tape an actor who looks exactly like him. He then becomes obsessed with finding the doppelganger.

Everyone of us is unique. No two persons are identical. Or so we think.

In Jose Saramago’s book a convoluted world is created where the author yet again delves into a hypothetical ‘what if’, the kind we only see in science fiction books and movies. In an earlier book entitled Blindness, he asks us: What if the whole nation went blind? In The Double, he asks us: What would happen if one person came face to face with someone of his own likeness?

Haunting in its beauty and beautifully haunting, The Double treats the theme of shared identity. It clearly defies one immutable law in nature; that two persons cannot exist in two places at the same time. Should it happen, a man and his double cannot both remain alive for one of the two must inevitably perish for the order of the universe to be respected.

And so happens that Mr. Saramago puts his readers at such a deep unease with this book, which, I daresay, might be his ultimate goal. As expected from a Saramago book, the chapters are characterized by run-on sentences, and the lack of punctuation. There is indeed a sense of haste as no space is wasted; each speaker’s line is differentiated by the simple expedient of a capital letter.

The protagonist in the story is Tertuliano Máximo Afonso. The Double starts with this thirty-eight years old, divorced and depressed high school history teacher who views a class B film given to him by a colleague. Watching the film, he discovers an actor who looks exactly like him in every physical detail. Immediately his life is transformed. He finds himself pondering on the possibility of the existence of absolute doubles and embarks on a journey to find his double.

Saramago does not offer explanations as to the existence of this supernatural miracle, but gives his audience the ramifications of such occurrence. The apparent possibility of sameness brought about the probability that the sameness continues, and whatever change that occurred between Tertuliano and the actor was simultaneous. “He is a mistake.” Or at least, the one who was the copy was the mistake.

Driven by a surge of curiosity and a hint of apprehension, Tertuliano decided to rent all the films in order to be able to identify the actor. Several searches led him to a name: Daniel Santa-Clara. Through clever maneuverings, Tertuliano enlisted the help of his girlfriend, Maria da Paz, in writing a letter to the production company and ultimately, in obtaining information about Daniel Santa-Clara without disclosing to her about his double.

The story is told by a narrator who is playful, who loves to digress, and who has an unexplained predilection towards Tertuliano. This narrator thinks of Tertuliano as one who has little significance, that to leave the storytelling to the protagonist would mean “declaring that all our hard work these forty or so dense, difficult pages, null and void.” So the narrator decides to continue narrating the story, and in doing so, the narrator weaves a thick fabric of philosophical conversations between the characters and their mental indigestions into nauseating run-on sentences.

One interesting character in the book is Common Sense. It was with this disembodied voice that Tertuliano freely discussed the discovery of his double. Common Sense advised Tertuliano that he was under no obligation to go looking for his double. In the off chance that both of them would pass in the street, “the best thing you can do is to just look the other way.”

But Tertuliano was determined not only not to look away, but to go out of his way to search his double. With the letter from the production company, he finally got a name: António Claro. The letter opened a lot of possibilities for Tertuliano. Suddenly, the thought of his day job seemed awry. In such a short space of time, his life had been transformed. He had to talk to this António Claro. Tertuliano got the telephone number of Antonio. As both men talked over the phone, their “voices repeat themselves as a mirror repeats itself when placed in front of a mirror.”

They compared moles and scars that were in exactly the same spots. And something dawned on them: “The impossibilities of a coincidence are infinite. But the possibilities [of a coincidence] are infinite too.” Unease and creepiness set in. Coincidences are fine as long as they respect the minimum degree of probability demanded by common sense. But in this never-before-seen case of the duplicate man, the unimaginable become reality, and the absurd is reconciled with reason.

Their meeting was inevitable. It was to take place in a country retreat. Their meeting was “like a science fiction film written, directed and acted by clones under orders from a mad philosopher.” Removing all their clothes, they found out they were identical. Even their birthdates were identical. However, a wave of defeat swept the spirits of Tertuliano. He was younger than Antonio by precisely thirty-one minutes, making him the duplicate.

“Everytime you look at yourself in the mirror you will never be sure whether you are seeing your own virtual image or my real image.” Pondering on their sameness drove out any sense of amazement. The shock of the sameness of their bodies had stolen something from the identity of each. They were both monsters. And until one of them perished, the ultimate violation of territory, that is of shared identity, was simply unforgivable.

Destiny did govern that Tertuliano find about his double. To be fair, Destiny has its way of making amends, and of offering forgiveness and salvation. One very short-lived salvation found its way to Tertuliano. Just when the reader finds relief from this metaphysical chaos and emotional upheaval, Tertuliano once again finds himself where he stood before.

The Double was written in 2004. In the year 2006, the writer spent two days reading this book. And until now, the reader was debating over picking up this book for a second reading. She did manage to read bits for this review. She remains, to this day, visibly and emotionally shaken.

The Double is translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa.