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The Double
by Jose Saramago


9.0

based on 18 reviews
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based on 5 votes
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Official Publisher Site

In an existential novel from Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago, a depressed history teacher rents a video on which he sees his double and goes in search of him. Which one is the original and which one the duplicate? Is one a mistake? This is what the two men must get to the bottom of.

Harcourt, 336 pages
10/04/2004
$25.00

ISBN: 0151010404

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

NOTES:
Translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa.

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Kirkus Reviews

The theme of shared identity, treated by such masters as Poe, Stevenson, and Dostoevsky, animates the 1998 Nobel winner's latest.

The Independent Amanda Hopkinson

The Double is Saramago at his most practised and polished. It is philosophy and thriller rolled into one with - as ever - a tight cast of characters.

The New York Times Richard Eder

It is Mr. Saramago's idiosyncratic post-Marxist dialectic: materialist but only as a way to ground the soul

San Francisco Chronicle Christine Thomas

[O]ne ... must wade through the long digressions to reach the climax and be willing to be immersed in the anonymous city Saramago has designed -- where women are weak, hysterical objects, men are controlled by trying to be manly and society's imposed order eliminates creativity -- through to the book's seemingly effortless, neat and inevitable conclusion.

The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Lee Henderson

The Double is Saramago's most suspenseful story since Blindness , and is, strangely, his most optimistic as well. [6 Nov. 2004, D5]

The New Yorker John Updike

The novel, with its farcical elements, does not quite deepen into the dizzying vortex of identity issues that may have been intended; it remains more comic than not, and lacks the unforced momentum and resonance of "œBlindness."

London Review Of Books Daniel Soar

If it were possible to treat his novels independently, you would have to say that The Double isn't Saramago's best; but that would be true only because its limitations are consequences of its premise.

Los Angeles Times Merle Rubin

"The Double" begins by intriguing us, proceeds to entertain, charm and engage, and ultimately manages to disturb. [4 Oct. 2004, E9]

Booklist Brad Hooper

[A] cerebral yet shockingly personal exploration of what truly makes an individual unique and the concept that somewhere in the world it's possible that one's exact physical double exists. [1 Sept. 2004, p. 7]

Boston Globe Scott W. Helman

He may have written deeper and more profound satires, but "The Double" succeeds in probing that human core we think we know until a master artist forces us to reconsider.

Daily Telegraph Julian Evans

[T]his novel, as much as the previous novels of this morally well-weathered and uniquely seductive writer, is not only a contemplation of what one might call the art of the impossible, but a lyrical foretaste of the future.

Daily Telegraph Max Davidson

The Double is a brilliantly ingenious story, simple in conception, but developed with real aplomb. It is like Kafka with jokes.

Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling

Saramago might've dug deeper into the premise than he ultimately does, but a last little twist, delivered in a final paragraph of a mere two pages, is delicious.

Library Journal Mark Kloszewski

Too ponderous for the average reader and lacking the intrigue that the premise implies, this will appeal mainly to fans of the Nobel-winning author.

The New York Times Book Review John Banville

If Saramago believes what he has his omniscient narrator declare -- that ''every ordinary person is unique, truly unique'' -- he might have devoted some writerly energy to making his characters more lifelike. Even doubles will be different in their hearts.

The Guardian Alberto Manguel

In The Double, the writer appears less willing, more inclined to know better than his characters who they are and what they should do, and stubbornly refuses to explore with them the hidden, murky corners to which they so obviously lead him. The loss, of course, is the reader's.

Washington Post Jonathan Carroll

Throughout The Double there is an obvious archness, an authorial sneer at the fantastical subject matter that quickly distances the reader from any emotional involvement with either the character or his situation.

Publishers Weekly

This semi-allegory is certainly not one of Saramago's more noteworthy offerings.

The average user rating for this book is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Becky A gave it a9:
I think I just finished a stream-of-consciousness from the author's pov. Interesting. Decent plot with lots of literary allusions leading to metaphors and ultimately a weakish allegory (I think). Not as good as Blindness but a definite work to consider in light of Saramago's oeuvre.

JOAN C gave it a9:
Are we unique beings? Do we have an unduplicated life? We like to think so, but Saramego raises the question "What if one were not unique? What if there existed another of us?" The Double is well written and brings out some clever discussions of the use of language to attempt to explain feelings, opinions and thoughts.

Dave O gave it an8:
Apparently, there are people in the world who are not entranced with Saramago's authorial voice--the digressions, qualifications, folk wisdom, and dialog that might be said, will be said, would be said, or sometimes actually is being said, all strung together in immense run-on sentences and chapter-long paragraphs. I am not one of those people. I found this novel nearly perfect in its way. The score of 8 simply reflects my view of its merits relative to "Blindness" and "The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis," which I consider Saramago's two masterpieces.

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The Double by Jose Saramago

The Double
by Jose Saramago