Since THE DOUBLE was my first Jose Saramago book, it was eagerly
anticipated. I had heard high praise about THE CAVE. The author's
name had been mentioned in some surprising circles. So I'm not sure
what I expected here. What I got was a book like no other --- in
some ways incredible, in other ways bewildering.

Just the lead character's name, Tertuliano Maximo Afonso, strikes a
discordant note from the beginning. And Saramago rarely uses less
than all three names, and almost never uses the pronoun. He
emphasizes the name's rarity first, among many instances, when
Tertuliano Maximo Afonso has to identify himself for the clerk at a
video rental store. He rents a video from this previously mentioned
clerk at the suggestion of a teacher of mathematics at the school
where he, Tertuliano Maximo Afonso, teaches history. The video is
unremarkable but for one aspect: A supporting actor with barely a
speaking part is identical in appearance to Tertuliano Maximo
Afonso. Identical.

Tertuliano Maximo Afonso, recently depressed and lethargic --- too
depressed and lethargic to extricate himself from a lackluster
relationship with long-time paramour Maria da Paz --- discovers a
renewed purpose to his days. He embarks on a mission to locate this
actor with his face. He muses whether identical looks (right down
to years-old scars and mole placements) means identical times of
death. He muses about other things, too. In fact, Tertuliano Maximo
Afonso muses, it seems, all day long.

Engulfed in his quest for at least a glimpse of his double,
Tertuliano Maximo Afonso neglects not only Maria da Paz, who is
recently asking some hard questions, but his mother as well, who is
also asking some hard questions, just not the same ones. Tertuliano
Maximo Afonso's obsession leads him to neglect most areas of his
life that do not involve the actor. He may, it turns out, have
taken his mission too far.

This is a book to pay attention to. While at first Saramago's style
may be off-putting to some (a spectacularly run-on sentence may go
on for a full page; paragraphs may go on for three, no quotation
marks are used, very few speaker tags, and you will never see a
dash or an interrogatory), it brazenly dares the reader to look
beyond proper grammatical conventions and simply read the message.
It defies all the rules. Saramago has a rhythm to his writing that,
once you have it, propels you into the story with enthusiastic
speed. THE DOUBLE provides excellent fodder for provoking thought.
It is perplexing, comical, even absurd. A guaranteed head
shaker.