Book Review :: Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein
Review by Kevin Brown
The premise of Naomi Klein’s latest book, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, sounds like it could be the basis for a Hollywood comedy: people often confuse Naomi Klein, author of books that attack corporations and climate change, with Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth, but now turned right-wing conspiracy theorist. There’s even a moment where Klein talks about earlier confusions with Naomi Campbell, a Black British model who does not, in fact, write books about corporate power or the climate crisis.
However, given that Naomi Klein wrote this book, it is not a comedy. Instead, Klein uses the confusion with Wolf to talk about the mirror world of the title, the one that Wolf now lives in, creating and perpetuating a reality that is similar to the real world, but different in dangerous ways. Klein talks about how she and Wolf have fairly similar concerns: the rise of technology and the companies that monitor and misuse their creations; global organizations that make decisions that overrule the concerns of people within independent nations; governments who use crises and catastrophes to change policies their citizens would never support otherwise. Wolf, though, takes those ideas and produces conspiracy theories with no basis in fact, sharing them online and on Steve Bannon’s productions.
Klein makes it clear that the primary difference between her work and Wolf’s work is the diligent research and fact-checking that goes into what Klein produces. That approach means that Klein is open to information that can change her mind, unlike Wolf and those like her. While Klein doesn’t spend as much time on former President Trump as she could, it’s clear that he and his supporters are who she’s trying to explain, through the lens of Wolf. Ultimately, Klein argues that all of the mirroring that goes on prevents people from seeing themselves and others clearly. Her book tries to cut through that to help readers understand a world they would never experience otherwise.
Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, September 2023.
Reviewer bio: Jami Macarty is the author of The Long Now Conditions Permit, winner of the 2023 Test Site Poetry Series Prize (forthcoming University of Nevada Press), and The Minuses (Center for Literary Publishing, 2020), winner of the 2020 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award – Poetry Arizona. Jami’s four chapbooks include The Whole Catastrophe (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2024) and Mind of Spring (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2017), winner of the 2017 Vallum Chapbook Award. To learn more about Jami’s writing, editing, and teaching practices, visit her author website.
