Doppelganger by Naomi Klein

There are lots of threads to this book – Judasim, capitalism, COVID, conspiracy theorists, Nazi Germany, patriarchy, the current conflict in Israel, autism… I could go on. It’s all loosely linked together by Naomi Wolf. Because Klein (the author of this book), has been confused with Wolf for years. And while initially that was not such a problem, it became a big one when Wolf turned into a raving conspiracy theorist, pulling media stunts, and generally aggravating people. Suddenly, nothing of what Wolf believed matched what Klein believed.

I was curious about the doppelganger element of the story (and Klein explores the origin and our social understanding of doppelgangers) but ultimately the bit that had me engrossed was the commentary on the parallels between the practices and propaganda used during the time when Germany was under Nazi control, and the conspiracy theories associated the anti-vax movement during COVID. I will not even attempt to summarise it for fear of misrepresenting Klein’s thesis, but it’s important to note that she goes far deeper than articles such as this (essentially, it’s complex and Klein puts compelling and challenging ideas on the table).

3.5/5

Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor

I am a sucker for superb descriptions of the sea and of landscape – I’m sure if I had had a hard copy of this novel in front of me, I would have marked dozens of paragraphs. And it was such a wonderful story that I’m tempted to add a hard copy to my shelves…

It’s set during the 1930s and focuses on a dead whale, washed up on the shores of a remote Welsh island. The whale coincides with the arrival of two English ethnographers, there to study the island culture. These foreign events unsettle a young woman, Manod, who is both tied to the only place she has ever known, and restless to see the wider world.

The character of Manod is beautifully done, and as the reader, I quickly fell into sync with her – feeling her hope and her disappointments. Read it.

4/5

A Body Made of Glass by Caroline Crampton

Crampton combines cultural history, literary criticism, and memoir in A Body Made of Glass, which is described in the blurb as a ‘…definitive biography of hypochondria‘. Some of this book covered familiar territory for me (for example the history of ‘hysteria’ and the gendered medical system that dominates Western societies) but she sticks firmly with her ‘hypochondria’ lens, giving fresh perspective.

Two parts of the book stood out for me. The first was the focus on the importance of the ‘narrative’ for people experiencing hypochondria –

We make meanings because meaningless terrifies us above all things… This instinct is in part why hypochondria is so difficult to isolate and treat. It’s deeply connected to other aspects of the psyche.

Secondly, the chapter devoted to the history of ‘quacks’ and ‘remedies’, delving into times when people would take trips to places such as Bath to ‘cure’ themselves. Spa towns became targets for people peddling remedies for everything from stomach complaints to ‘aesthetic’ issues such as baldness and height. It marked the point when ideas about health fused with certain beauty standards and ideals –

…this is the origin of what we today call ‘wellness’, a multi-million dollar industry that thrives on hypochondria in the same was as the quackery of old.

For the record, the term ‘hypochondriac’ is no longer used in a clinical sense – instead, it’s ‘health anxiety’. I think that’s interesting to consider within the context of the wellness industry, that very much plays on peoples’ anxieties.

Crampton’s own experience with poor health and her constant vigilance on aspects of her health provide the necessary first-hand insight into what might otherwise be a book heavy on history.

3.5/5

As part of the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge, I’m comparing the Belfast summer and Melburnian winter. The results for the day I finished Whale Fall (June 22): Belfast 9°-19° and Melbourne 6°-13°. The results for the day I finished A Body Made of Glass (July 23): Belfast 11°-20° and Melbourne 10°-18°.