The Book of Chameleons, Agualusa

 Hello everyone! This weeks book is The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa. It is narrated by a Gecko named Eulálio, who lives in Felix's house and witnesses all the people who go through the home. 

I was originally confused about the title including "Chameleon" because the narrator is a gecko, and I thought these were two different animals. I did look this up and they share similar traits but are ultimately different animals. One fact I found interesting is that geckos are the only type of lizards that possess a voice which made sense that Agualusa would choose for the narrator to be a gecko. Upon completion of the book and reflection, I really like the title because it related to pretty all of the characters in the book. Chameleons are able to adapt to their surrounding by changing the colour of their skin to camouflage, which is essentially what Felix helps people to do as he creates pasts for people. Furthermore, the stories of each of the other characters become muddy, as we try to discern whether it's truly theirs, or something Felix had made up or dreamt. 

Throughout reading, our main point of view as readers is through Eulálio who acts as sort of a fly on the wall, just witnessing interactions. Because of this we don't get to really know whats going on with the other characters until the big reveal moment that occurs in Eulálio's dreams. The dreams were an important part of the story to escape the only setting being in Felix's house. 

My favourite part of the book might have been Felix and Eulálio's friendship, how Felix would come home early and talk to Eulálio and it reminded me of how I would talk to my dog. I really enjoyed the inclusion of the dreams, so that Felix and Eulálio could actually speak to each other and I was saddened at the end to see Eulálio die. In these dreams, Felix speaks of how he feels familiar to this man and I thought this could be because he senses the familiarity in the man because he spent so much time with the gecko version of him. Furthermore, due to Felix's job of inventing new identities for people, when we see the interactions between the two and Eulálio's backstory, I started to wonder whether due to Felix's job and his relationship with the gecko, he had made up Eulálio's life story. I thought this in his final diary entry especially, when he fears having dreamt the whole story and says "yes, I've made a dream" (page 180). 

My question for this week is: Do you think Felix made up or dreamt this whole story?


Comments

  1. Daniel Orizaga26 March 2024 at 19:30

    Ah, good question! We are already used to these mysteries of fiction. Could Felix have dreamed about a gecko who dreamed that he was a human...? It is a very interesting parody version of the “Coleridge dream” that Borges writes about.

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