The Book of Chameleons by Agualusa: Who Even Are We Anyways?

Prior to opening this book, I was very intrigued by its title. Was this going to be a book about actual chameleons? Or were the chameleons going to hold a sort of symbolic significance - like the doves did in The Time of the Doves. 

First off I didn't expect the book to be literally narrated by a chameleon - cool. He's just chilling on the walls watching the unconventional life of Felix, a character who's "job" is to reconfigure the past lives of individuals in order for them to experience self-renewal. This is a very interesting concept, and prompted me to reflect on the significance of our past in influencing our sense of self in the present. However, upon realizing the extent to which Felix fabricates these past lives - to include birth certificates, family histories, old photographs, stories, everything - this made me think about the underlying dangers that may accompany such a practice. Like its kind of scary to imagine meeting someone who's created an entirely fake history simply because they wanted to. Isn't this the type of thing that undercover agents do when they go on intelligence missions to foreign countries?

Anyways, I guess when you read deeper into it, our perceptions of the past are subject to our memories and personal perspectives. So in a way we can all change our past, even without the help of someone like Felix, by simply rewiring our perspective on previous life events. But also, if you want to change, why not take action in the present to shape the future that you long for? In my mind, I've always thought of the past as something that is set and stone. No matter how much you wish you could have acted differently in a situation, performed differently on an exam, or chosen a different path in any given context - you can't. And for me, taking this perspective has actually always been comforting. The past can't be changed, so why dwell on it - move forward, and learn from your experiences. BUT CLEARLY these individuals coming to see Felix are VERY MUCH choosing dwell on their pasts, to the extent of reinvention!

Moving forward, this book was constantly jumping between the boundaries of reality and dreams/imagination. Yet again, this begs the question, what is reality? For all I know, I could be in a dream right now. And to whoever's reading this - so could you. Or not, and this is all real!

A question for my peers: Is self-identity dictated by one's past? Can it this past be changed, and if so, what are the ethical implications of doing so?

My photograph for this novel is a representation of "tearing a new page", and reconstructing a new past, just as Felix helps others do: