Greg Boyd's nifty annotated novel, The Double,
surely ranks as one of the coolest works of fiction around. There's
good reason why Stephen Dixon and Harry Mathews, two superstars of
experimental writing, judge Greg Boyd as inventive, imaginative,
enterprising, adventurous and funny.
If you're up for innovative,
you've come to the right place. The basic story consists of the
narrator continually being bushwhacked by an unseen double causing havoc
for him at work, at home, in his love life and everything in between.
Poor dude follows his normal Mr. Nice Guy routine but suddenly he's a
prime target for beatings, abuse, torment, even prison.
The Double, novel as Russian nesting dolls featuring the following highlights -
Kooky
Kickoff - Our narrator/hero, chap by the name of Jeff Marsh, tells us
it all started with his coming across a long out-of-print short story
collection, Lies and Annotations, by one George Body (gotta love
that Greg Boyd-ish GB) where the author got himself arrested after
setting fire to his books at the printer's shipping dock and then a fist
fight with the publisher - these facts related by the publisher's wife,
who calls the author a nut-case and says his book is just plain crazy.
Fourteen
Stories Forming Appendices - The first story Jeff reads in George
Body's crazy book is about a writer by the name of Hugo who thinks
Victor Hugo is stealing his ideas for stories telepathically. The story
prompts Jeff to have a nightmare about some guy sneaking up on him and
putting a sheet over his head. Ahhh! Jeff has a panic attack.
The story in George Body's book is called A Tale of Two Hugos and this short story, recounted in its entirety, is the first of fourteen stories appearing in the Appendices at the end of the very novel we're reading.
More
Icing on the Cake - In addition to those fourteen stories at the end,
there's six stories embedded in the novel. The first of these embedded
stories, a weird tale entitled Hair, is about a guy's girlfriend who, probably as an act of vengeance, cuts off all her own hair.
Cherry
on Top - At one point Jeff watches a bizarre movie on television about a
woman who suspects her husband having an affair. She hires a private
detective to follow him on his business trip. The detective finds out
the husband isn't cheating but he's involved in gun-running,
drug-smuggling, white slavery, extortion and murder. When the detective
reports back to his client, she says, "And now you must be paid for your
trouble." Shes pulls out a pistol from her purse and shoots him between
the eyes.
Lovely Ladies - Even Jeff's relationship with
girlfriend Gina has been ambushed. "Jeff, you bastard," Gina cries. "I
can't believe you'd have the nerve to call back after what you said to
me." Then she hangs up. Bad news, Jeff. Your double told Gina that she's
nowhere near as good looking as her roommate Tina.
Meanwhile, the
doppelgänger went to work on Tina.: "I'm so glad you called," she
whispered sexy as hell. Her voice was like a tongue inside my ear. "I've
been thinking a lot about what you said, baby. Right now I'm lying on
my bed in just my robe and panties, like you told me to, waiting for you
to call back. My nipples are hard from thinking about you, Jeff." Jeff,
baby, try working your way out of this jam!
Double Trouble - Greg Boyd puts a special twist of the word doppelgänger by subtitling his novel Doppelangelgänger.
I urge you to pick up this dandy novel and witness the ultimate
showdown between Jeff One and Jeff Two - Eros and Thanatos in full
bloom.
American author and artist Greg Boyd, born 1957
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