Regular marked price: $14.00Discount Price: $11.20
Cost Savings: $2.80 (20%)Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 869.342
EAN num: 9780156032582
ISBN number: 0156032589
Label: Harvest Books
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: October 03, 2005
Publishing house: Harvest Books
Sale Popularity Level: 37564
Studio: Harvest Books
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is a divorced, depressed history teacher. To lift his spirits, a colleague suggests he rent a certain video. Tertuliano watches the film, unimpressed. But during the night, when he is awakened by noises in his apartment, he goes into the living room to find that the VCR is replaying the video. He watches in astonishment as a man who looks exactly like him-or, more specifically, exactly like he did five years before, mustachioed and fuller in the face-appears on the screen. He sleeps badly.
Against his better judgment, Tertuliano decides to pursue his double. As he roots out the man's identity, what begins as a whimsical story becomes a 'wonderfully twisted meditation on identity and individuality' (The Boston Globe). Saramago displays his remarkable talent in this haunting tale of appearance versus reality.
(10/10/2004)
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
This was the very first Saramago book I read and I really enjoyed his train-of-thought prose. I felt it fit well with the main character's indecisive nature. Unlike the slower, contemplative first, the second half of the book is like a roller coaster ride with an interesting ending. The only reason I gave it three stars is because the doppelganger theme has been done before and better. That doesn't mean this isn't smart or enjoyable (it's both), I just think your better off with Dostoevsky's 'The Double' or Dumas' 'The Man in the Iron Mask' or Nabakov's 'Despair' or 'Pale Fire'. So, despite a few flaws, I still recommend this book (especially for Saramago newbies).
Rated by buyers -
If you hate paragraph breaks this book's for you! Hardly any paragraphs and no quotation marks makes us think more deeply about who is talking ie identity. Part philosophy/part thriller, I enjoyed reading this book and loved the ending, but felt left behind a bit in the middle, and my life wasn't changed at the end like I'd hoped. I didn't think Tertuliano got as much out of it either ... shouldn't he have been more moved also? Ie in a good, life-affirming way? Maybe I was picturing a different kind of book ... this one's double? 3 1/2 stars
Rated by buyers 
-
This book gave me a headache, literally.
The wording is not beautiful or clever. It is just plain awkward and annoying. I had to put the book down and take medicine and lay my head down for awhile.
I don't care how good his story idea is. This book hurt me. And it gave my friend a similar headache, which is why she gave to me for free.
I'm used to reading drawn-out, convoluted, cryptic writing, both prose and poetry, however...
This book just hurts.
Rated by buyers 
-
I read this book 2 years ago, and to this day I still think about it. Honestly, I'm not one who likes to read a lot, but Jose's books are so amazing that I get sucked in. His stories and writing style are exceptional. I liked this book more than the very first one I read (Blindness). At the end of the store I got chills! You gotta love Saramago!
Rated by buyers -
There are some writers who once you come upon them, its as if you have just come through exotic purple wilds on a four day jaunt hands out between palm fronds making your way through dense forage and then suddenly, there you are in front of a magnificent clearing and yes, the waterfall is there. Jose Saramago deserves even more praise than he is getting, if that is possible. Tertuliano Maximo Afonso takes the reader by the heart not the hand. There is almost a fierce whispering of the character's mind going on here as I read this book. I simply could not get over the sheer genius of this storyline. Yes, it's simple enough, but what Saramago does with this idea of Tertuliano having a double is sinister. The inner dialogue shoots along the pages like a locomotive on a mission. This is elegant, emotional, and heart stopping writing at its best. There are lines that become stops along the way: at one point in the novel Tertuliano is listening to a voice mail from his girlfriend Maria da Paz and she says that she wishes he would just call for no reason, and not just because he is calling her back:
"sometimes, I imagine how wonderful it would be if you were to phone me just because you felt like it, like someone who suddenly feels thirsty and goes and drinks a glass of water..."
How Tertuliano chooses to respond to this phone message is one of the stellar moments along the way. The nuances of their relationship and Antonio Claro's and Helena's relationship are watercolour brushstrokes that have touched us all in one way or another.
Reading about the twists and turns is almost like taking a trip through a galaxy of stars with Saramago and you never want it to end. The ending comes bitterly and harshly enough only as it could, still, there is a lone reed of hope held out by Helena, Antonio Claro's wife, and Tertuliano chooses to hang on to it.
To explain this book as a simple case of twins leading seperate lives who come together with catastrophic events is an understatement. Saramago brings such excitement and an everyday humanity to his brilliant turns of phrases and events that no one will be left out.
The Double is a gem with no chance of diminishing on the horizon.
Find other books like this one:
