Doppelganger is a book about the warped internet and real world of conspiracy theories, wellness bloggers, and far right podcasts, centred around author Naomi Klein being mistaken for the now pretty infamous Naomi Wolf. Klein explores what happened as people started to conflate the two of them and how she became obsessed with her ‘doppelganger’ Wolf, wanting to understand her seemingly changed opinions and political stance, and the impact it was having on Klein’s own position. Through this lens, she explores some of the areas of conspiracy theory and culture that make up the media world that Wolf is part of, and calls for collective action to fight this ‘mirror world’.
From the blurb, it is easy to be drawn to the book if you have any awareness of who the two Naomis are and the impact it might have being thought to be the other one. I’ve not read any of either of their books, but are aware of their respective works and Wolf’s decent into Covid conspiracy seemingly started with the radio debacle blowing a whole in her entire book, so I felt it would be an interesting story to hear, and it was definitely something different, framing a book not just around the polarised viewpoints in current politics and internet discourse, but in being drawn into them through a sense of doubleness and how this doubleness pervades other discussions in this area too.
Some of the best parts of the book are Klein’s personal experiences with being mistaken for and being obsessed with Wolf, as well as the charting of Wolf’s public life and work. Though there’s lots of other interesting content (particularly Klein’s analysis of why wellness/New Age type people might find themselves agreeing and working with right wing commentators, which hits hard if you’ve ever known anyone in the former category), it feels less ordered and structured than the stuff about Wolf, meaning you’re not always sure where the argument is going. I expected the ending to have more about what can be done about the polarised ideas causing people to fall down rabbit holes of conspiracy, but a single book isn’t going to solve that, and Klein’s parting argument about collective action fights against the individualism that she highlights so many people fall into as part of these beliefs.
This book feels like the sort of long YouTube video essay I’d watch, combining the personal with commentary and analysis, and the concept is fascinating, a chance to really look at one person’s adoption of conspiracy theories and huge fame with the far right coming after being most famous for a 90s book about feminism and beauty. In an age of personal brand monetisation, it is really interesting to read a book by someone impacted by the ease of mistaken identity in the digital age, and to think about why some conspiracy theories have become so popular.
Fiendfully Reading 
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