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A review by nadia
Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Out of the Women's Prize Nonfiction Shortlist books I've read so far, this book had the strongest start for me and I thought it'd end up shooting straight to the top of the rankings. I loved how the thesis, concept, and context was laid out, but then...
...the book, to me, started to lose its way and go all over the place. I couldn't keep the thread of Klein's argument straight. There were so many interesting ideas and areas of history, politics, and philosophy to explore, but it felt like a lot of the topics could have been books in their own right.
Also, I don't if it's just me but I thought that Klein relied way too much on the plot points of other novels and movies to support her argument, spoiling that content for people who haven't consumed it yet. I skipped several pages so that Roth's Operation Shylock wasn't spoiled for me.
Some of the other works spoiled to varying degrees: The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Double (Dostoyevsky), the "Eight Bites" short story from Her Body and Other Parties, and the film Everything Everywhere All At Once. (And there are one or two others I didn't bother to note down).
Current Women's Prize 2024 Non-Fiction Shortlist rankings:
1. Code Dependent
2. A Flat Place
3. Thunderclap
4. Doppelganger
...the book, to me, started to lose its way and go all over the place. I couldn't keep the thread of Klein's argument straight. There were so many interesting ideas and areas of history, politics, and philosophy to explore, but it felt like a lot of the topics could have been books in their own right.
Also, I don't if it's just me but I thought that Klein relied way too much on the plot points of other novels and movies to support her argument, spoiling that content for people who haven't consumed it yet. I skipped several pages so that Roth's Operation Shylock wasn't spoiled for me.
Some of the other works spoiled to varying degrees: The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Double (Dostoyevsky), the "Eight Bites" short story from Her Body and Other Parties, and the film Everything Everywhere All At Once. (And there are one or two others I didn't bother to note down).
Current Women's Prize 2024 Non-Fiction Shortlist rankings:
1. Code Dependent
2. A Flat Place
3. Thunderclap
4. Doppelganger
Content Warnings
Moderate: Genocide and War