But I soon had to dismiss them, because some of the considerations made by the narrator following what I had perceived as clues deemed them impossible. While reading, I kept coming up with crazy ideas that could possibly explain the existence of two equal men. However, in some (rare) occasions, they can become a little boring, simply because I wanted to get quicker to the core of the enigma that intrigued Tertuliano Máximo Afonso so much that it develops almost into an obsession. Most of the times, the narrator’s asides offer interesting moments of reflection about various subjects. There is an attempt to replicate the way in which we communicate orally through the use of asides by the narrator which generally-speaking fit well into the rest of the story and don’t make it confusing, lose its focus or become excessively slow-paced. The interactions between Máximo Afonso and the man who works at the video rental store are subtly funny, as are some of the narrator’s asides.
He is intent on watching them all if need be to discover the name of the actor who looks like a carbon copy of himself. The following day, he returns to the store where he rented the VHS tape to know if they have more films from the same production company as the other one. This discovery affects Tertuliano Máximo Afonso profoundly, although deep down he knows it is nonsensical to feel that way. The two of them look exactly the same after all. When he finds one, he sees that at the time he also had a moustache and the same haircut as the actor. He then remembers that the film was actually released five years before and goes looking for a photograph of himself from that period. He takes his colleague advice and goes to a store to rent a VHS tape.Īfter watching the film that was recommended to him, he realises that the actor who played the short role of a hotel receptionist looks a lot like him, despite having a moustache and a different hairstyle. One of his colleagues, a Mathematics teacher, advises him to watch some films, so he can get distracted from his troubles. He has been suffering from depression since he got divorced and started to live alone. Tertuliano Máximo Afonso, the main character in this novel, is quite a peculiarly named History teacher at a secondary school in an unidentified city. O Homem Duplicado, The Double in the English translation, is mainly a book about the human condition, in the sense that it delves into how people want to feel like they are unique and so struggle to come to terms with being equal to others and not particularly original. José Saramago really knew how to play with words and convey a socially relevant message without overlooking the plot.
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