Welcome back to Recommended Reads, my monthly roundup of books I recommend (courtesy of The Swarthmorean, which houses this column)! Can you believe it’s fall already? That means it’s time for the cozier reading months ahead.
I spent most of my month of reading the first book I recommend this month, Doppelganger. It was one of the few books I have preordered lately, and I was so excited when it arrived. The second book I recommend, Going Infinite, was another preorder that didn’t disappoint. While I didn’t finish as many books as I usually do in a month, these two reads were great, and I don’t regret just focusing on two at all.
Without further ado, here are two buzzy books I recommend checking out this month… Let’s go!
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Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein (NF)
This was perhaps my most anticipated book of the fall publishing season, and I dove in as soon as it arrived. It took me several weeks to read Doppelganger, so it took up the bulk of my reading time and energy this month.
In this gripping book, activist, academic, and public intellectual Naomi Klein writes of her experience being repeatedly mistaken for Naomi Wolf, a once-prestigious scholar who became a leader in the anti-vax conspiracy world during the COVID pandemic. Klein would get mistaken for Wolf online and off, pulling her into Wolf’s descent down the rabbit hole. As her life converged with Wolf’s, Klein became interested in Wolf’s “Mirror World,” Klein’s name for the alternate universe that sits at the intersection of paranoia, misinformation, militant individualism, anti-“establishment” rhetoric, and, oddly enough, select “wellness” influencers. In the Mirror World, fringe contingents from both political poles bend towards each other, forming a bridge where they meet, share beliefs, find community, and organize. Klein argues that the Mirror World and its inhabitants should not be easily dismissed, ignored, or underestimated.
Klein then uses her mistaken identity situation as a conduit to explore the concept of doubling and duality. To Klein, these dynamics not reserved for people alone, but manifest in what she calls the “Shadow Lands,” historically and contemporarily systemic institutions, nations, and forces that are two sides of a coin, like fascism and democracy; genocide and liberation; and intolerance and inclusion.
Overall, Doppelganger was a captivating read, and one I highly recommend, especially as someone who has been mistaken several times for others who share the name “Sarah Davis.” Make no mistake, this is definitely not a “beach read,” and I found I couldn’t speed through it. But it was well worth the effort, as I feel I now have a greater grasp on the complex dynamics of today’s sociological, political, and ideological landscape. Klein is truly gifted at drawing connections in ways that simplify, synthesize, and reveal the hard truths that are difficult to swallow—but so necessary to taste.
How to read it: Purchase Doppelganger on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis (NF)
You might have already heard of Going Infinite, the newest book by nonfiction master storyteller Michael Lewis (The Blind Side, Moneyball, The Fifth Risk), because the author is getting a ton of flack for supposedly cozying up too closely to his subject, the disgraced and indicted Sam Bankman-Fried (also known as “SBF”). In a meteoric ascent, SBF rose from nerd obscurity to become the billionaire Millennial king of the cryptocurrency exchange known as FTX. You might have heard of SBF because his very public trial—for defrauding investors, laundering money, and violating campaign finance laws, among other charges—just kicked off.
So what’s the real story here? Was Lewis duped? Was he too in awe of SBF that he lost his journalistic objectivity? I wanted to decide for myself…
And, after reading Doppelganger, I realized that SBF could be two things at once: both a cold-blooded sociopath who blew billions of other people’s money… and a naive man-child who truly did not understand—or, crucially, even try to understand—the rules that attempted to govern his fast-growing business in the Wild, Wild West of cryptocurrency. SBF’s trial pits those two versions of some kind of truth against each other. But, I realize, the reality might be somewhere in between.
That’s how I think Lewis sees it, anyway. It’s true that he becomes quite close to SBF and is obviously in awe of his subject. My guess is Lewis would agree with me that SBF is not so easily pegged. He is a genius, but also a socially stunted eccentric who had to teach himself facial expressions to better interact with his employees, some of whom noted his lack of empathy for the many people who were the victims of his crimes and deceptions.
Is the book worth reading? Of course. I’d never turn down a Lewis book because I know I am in good storytelling hands. And that’s certainly the case with the highly readable Going Infinite, which I finished in just two days. My advice is pick up the book and make up your own mind.
