Mandel’s Reviews > The Double and The Gambler > Status Update

Just finished The Double. What a claustrophobic, bleak novel. The socially inept, nervous clerk Mr. Goliadkin slowly goes mad, convinced his life has been usurped by a doppelgänger more talented, charismatic, and cunning than he. His final descent is especially heartbreaking: one moment, the pity of those around him seems like love, and the next, they burst out in applause as he's dragged to the madhouse...