DOPPLEGANGERS

Is this supposed to be the inside story (as it might have been) of the myth of Hitler's double? Or what? Roorly written and clumsily contrived, what symbolism there is, what analogy, is lost in a welter of words. What emerges is a phantas-goria of the three synonyms implicit in the title,- ""a phantom""- ""an alter, ego""- ""one with second sight"". .....Alpha is would-be ruler of mankind. The Mole is his self-appointed destroyer. The third mystery man had been a handsome, golden haired youth, remade to be a double for Alpha, -- remade by facial surgery, operative treatment on his larynx, blind training for a part. By successive steps he finds himself a chef in Alpha's kitchen, where the resemblance is relayed to Alpha, and the contact made. He's engaged to double for his chief- and finally he kills him and takes his place. Then comes character four, the man in saffron, who wishes to dispose of the Mole and to make Alpha II the robot of the future world, a world in which human nature will take its course... Is there some symbolism we missed? We thought it pretty terrible tripe.