Hi everyone!

This week I read “The Book of Chameleons” by José Eduardo Agualusa.  I am going to be very honest and say that I did not enjoy this book, mainly because I found it difficult to follow and mildly uninteresting. However, this book discusses important themes of identity, truth and historical impact.

One character who seems to be struggling with their identity as a person living in Angola is the main character Felix Ventura, as an Albino man living in predominantly African county, meaning that majority of its residents have a darker skin pigmentation. However, as an Albino man due to a genetic mutation, his skin lacks the pigment meaning that he is still a black individual but with lighter skin and other issues concerning things like vision. Being albino puts him at odds with those around him, as they do not accept him as a black individual but he wants to be accepted by a group so he consistently reassures his identities as a black individual. Somehow, it seems that those who are white (the colonizers) will not accept him because he is ethnically black and those who are part of the black community do not accept him because he is not considered “black enough”.

Felix says: “No, No! I’m black. Pure black. I’m Native. Cant you tell that I’m black? (Agualusa 18)”- (This is an example in which he needs to consistently reaffirm his identity as a black individual)

Therefore, he is stuck in a cognitively taxing state in which he does not know which group to belong to. I think this might be part of the reason why he fabricates false identities for others, to help them be who they want to be, to fit in and to find where they belong. He does this for  Jose Buchmann in a way, fabricating new documents, photos and a picture perfect life, to cope with his own doubts and isolation.

However, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel in which Buchmann helps him find  his long lost sister, and he seems to formulate more of his identity and familial connection once again. Knowing that there is someone out there genetically related to him, who he thought he had lost as a result of the war decreases this feeling of isolation that he attempted to mitigate through the fabrication of these new pasts.

How do the other characters identities change throughout the novel?

*This is a revision*

Thanks,

Nadia 🙂