few papers carefully lined up. Senhor Jose did not need to approach in order to find out what they were, the two forged letters of authority, the unknown woman's report cards, his notebook, the cover from the Central Registry file containing official documents. Come in, said his boss, it's your house. The clerk closed the door, went over to the table and stopped. He didn't speak, he felt his head become a whirlpool in which all his thoughts were dissolving. Sit down, as I said, it's your house. Senhor Jose noticed that on top of the report cards there was a key the same as his. Are you looking at the key, asked the Registrar, and continued calmly, don't imagine it's some fraudulent copy, the houses of staff members, when there were houses, always had two keys to the communicating door, one, of course, for the use of the owner, and another which remained in the possession of the Central Registry, everything's fine, as you see, Apart from your having come in here without my permission, Senhor Jose managed to say, I didn't need your permission, the master of the key is the master of the house, let's say we're both the masters of this house, just as you seem to have considered yourself master enough of the Central Registry to remove official documents from the archive, I can explain, There's no need, I've been keeping regular track of your activities, and, besides, your notebook has been a great help to me, may I take the opportunity to congratulate you on the excellent style and the appropriateness of the language, I'll hand in my resignation tomorrow, I won't accept it. Senhor Jose looked surprised, You won't accept it, No, I won't, Why, if you don't mind my asking, Feel free, since I am an accomplice to your irregular activities, I don't understand. The Registrar picked up the file of the unknown woman, then said, You will understand, first, though, tell me what happened in the cemetery, your narrative ends with the conversation you had with the clerk over there, It'll take a long time, Just tell me in a few words, so that I get the complete picture, I walked through the General Cemetery to the section for suicides, I went to sleep under an olive tree, and the following morning, when I woke up, I was in the middle of a flock of sheep, and then I found out that the shepherd amuses himself by swapping around the numbers on the graves before the tombstones are put in place, Why, It's hard to explain, it's all to do with knowing where the people we're looking for really are, he thinks we'll never know, Like the woman you call the unknown woman, Yes, sir, What did you do today, I went to the school where she was a teacher and I went to her apartment, Did you find anything out, No, sir, and I don't think I wanted to. The Registrar opened the file, took out the record card that had got stuck to the cards of the last five famous people in whom Senhor Jose had taken an interest, Do you know what I would do in your position, he asked, No, sir, Do you know what is the only logical conclusion to everything that has happened up until now, No, sir, Make up a new card for this woman, the same as the old one, with all the correct information, but without a date for her death, And then, Then go and put it in the archive of the living, as if she hadn't died, That would be a fraud, Yes, it would, but nothing that we have done or said, you and I, would make any sense if we don't, I still don't understand. The Registrar leaned back in the chair, drew his hands slowly over his face, then asked, Do you remember what I said inside there on Friday, when you turned up for work without having shaved, Yes, sir, Everything, Everything, Then you'll remember that I referred to certain facts without which I would never have realised the absurdity of separating the dead from the living, Yes sir, Do I need to tell you which facts I was referring to, No, sir.
The Registrar got up, I'll leave the key here, I have no intention of using it again, and he added, before Senhor Jose could say anything, There is still one last thing to resolve, What's that, sir, There's no death certificate in the unknown woman's file, I didn't manage to find it, it must be somewhere back there in the archive, or perhaps I dropped it on the way, As long as it remains lost, that woman will be dead, She'll be dead whether I find it or not, Unless you destroy it, said the Registrar. Having said that, he turned his back, and shortly afterwards came the sound of the door to the Central Registry closing. Senhor Jose stood in the middle of the room. There was no need to fill in a new card because he already had a copy in the file. He would, however, have to tear up or burn the original, where the date of death was registered. And there was still the death certificate. Senhor Jose went into the Central Registry, walked over to the Registrar's desk, opened the drawer where the flashlight and Ariadne's thread were waiting for him. He tied the end of the thread around his ankle and set off into the darkness.
Reading Group Guide
1. How do the Central Registry's hierarchy of authority and the operating procedures reflect those of institutions, groups, and other bureaucracies with which you are familiar? In what ways might they be said to represent the structure and workings of society itself?
2. Including 'the labyrinthine catacombs of the archive of the dead,' (5) what labyrinths and mazes—external and internal—appear in the novel? What purpose do they serve? How do Senhor Jose and others navigate them? What perils and rewards are associated with them?
3. In what way does Senhor Jose's accidental possession and examination of the card belonging to a woman of thirty-six bring him 'face-to-face with destiny'? (25) What attracts him to this specific card and its person? How does that 'destiny' subsequently unfold? How might he have changed his destiny in this regard?
4. Senior Jose's ceiling—'the multiple eye of God'—doesn't believe his claim that he paid a nighttime visit to the street where the unknown woman was born, 'Because what you say you did doesn't fit with my reality and what doesn't fit with my reality doesn't exist.' (31) How does this notion that objective reality depends on conformity to an individual's perceived reality recur through
5. How do fear, timidity, and anxiety affect Senhor Jose's thinking and behavior? What enables him to overcome his mild manners, timidity, and anxieties and act deceptively and—in some instances—with despotic authority, much like the Registrar?
6. What roles do chance and coincidence play in Senhor Jose's endeavors? To what degree is he aware of the importance of chance and coincidence? What does the narrator have to say about the part they play in all our lives?
7. In what ways, and why, do Senhor Jose's endeavors soil and bruise both his body and his spirit? Why might the sullying and bruising be necessary stages in his progress? When he looks at himself in the school bathroom mirror, Senhor Jose is surprised at his filthy state. 'It doesn't even look like me, he thought, and yet he had probably never looked more like himself.' (91–92) In what ways might this be so?
8. The narrator refers to Senhor Jose's 'highly efficient deductive mechanism.' (84) What instances are there of that mechanism at work? How do Senhor Jose's powers of deduction serve him well, especially in light of his physical and emotional frailties? In what instances do those powers fail him, and why?
9. What comprises the 'knowledge of the night, of shadows, obscurity and darkness' that Senhor Jose has acquired over the years and 'that makes up for his natural timidity'? (87) What kinds of obscurity and darkness occur in
10. Why does the Registrar suddenly begin to show concern for, and act on behalf of, Senhor Jose's well- being, and subsequently take unprecedented actions to transform the hidebound structure and operations of the Central Registry? To what extent is Senhor Jose responsible for this shocking transformation in the Registrar himself?
11. 'Meaning and sense were never the same thing,' writes Saramago; 'meaning shows itself at once, direct, literal, explicit, ... while sense cannot stay still, it seethes with second, third and fourth senses, radiating out in different directions that divide and subdivide....' (112) How might this digression on meaning and sense characterize both Senhor Jose's experience and Saramago's technique as a novelist? What shifting patterns of meaning and sense occur throughout
12. When Senhor Jose returns to work after recovering from the flu, the Registrar solemnly declares, 'Loneliness, Senhor Jose, ...never made for good company, all the great sadnesses, great temptations and great mistakes are almost always the result of being alone in life...' (117) What sadnesses, temptations, and mistakes has Senhor Jose's loneliness occasioned? In what way are they transformed or reinforced by his quest? How does Saramago present the conflict between withdrawal, isolation, and loneliness, on the one hand, and connection and relationship, on the other?
13. How does the Registrar interpret what he calls 'the double absurdity of separating the dead from the living,' (176) and what are the implications of his explanation of the two absurdities? What other interpretations of that double absurdity are possible?
