SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN Paperback – Import, 4 August 2022

A little close to home as we live through the evolution of climate change and drought, a little slow to start and top quick at the end, I got more into the book in the middle.

Up and coming American writer Alexandra Kleeman creates a fascinating multi-layered novel set in a near future "Hotel Hell" Southern California. East Coast writer Patrick Hamlin travels to LA to try to keep a film adaptation of his book from spinning out of control. He encounters swarmy, corrupt producers, incompetent production staff, and a famous but unstable starlet, Cassidy Carter. Patrick also lands in a (literally) hostile physical environment, with scorching heat, never ending fires, and an extreme scarcity of water. Residents have to buy a substitute, called WAT-R, produced by a shadowy corporation which has far too much power. As you might imagine, greed and corruption are a byproduct of this environmental crisis. Patrick becomes a kind of chaperone for Cassidy, and they form an unlikely detective team trying to investigate the links between WAT-R and a growing type of dementia which affects younger people. This book combines a Hollywood satire, a mystery, and a scary commentary on a (quite possible) future environmental catastrophe. There are more aspects to the plot, including Patrick's wife and daughter joining a bizarre nature cult. Holding all of this together would be a challenge for any writer, but Kleeman somehow does this, although there are some absurdist elements, and an ending which may disappoint some readers. If there is an underlying theme, it is that the characters, and local residents in general, seem to adapt without much resistance to their city becoming more and more toxic. Given the numerous large wildfires and serious drought conditions already becoming the "norm" for much of the Western US, Kleeman's dystopian vision is alarmingly close to present reality. Overall, this book provided one of the most interesting reading experiences I have had in a long time.

The description of acute eco anxiety is exceptionally detailed, and the story of water conspiring to create dementia almost plausible. Z book I recommend if the current climate crisis is freakingyou out

I titled this review the same as the one I wrote for Kleeman's debut novel You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine because it also applies to this one. If you liked her first, you should enjoy this as well. Once again, her narrative is shot through with unease and eeriness when in a not-too-distant California water has been replaced by WAT-R, a manufactured substitute that just might be the cause of a growing number of cases of dementia among victims of all ages. Patrick Hamlin, a novelist whose book is being adapted freely into a schlocky movie, teams up with Cassidy Carter, the film's young starlet whose career is floundering after several scandals (think Lindsay Lohan) to try to get to the bottom of the mystery. Don't expect much insight into Hollywood or the world of film, as Kleeman seems as interested in the filmmaking process as Don DeLillo was in football in End Zone. It is a means to examine the cruelty of stardom and the corporatization of art and to bring together her mismatched pair, not to mention the hilarious duo of Arm and Horeshoe, PAs who fill the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern roles. We are also introduced to Patrick's wife and daughter who are at a commune on the East Coast where they mourn the losses wrought by climate change. If you demand everything to "make sense" or for all the world-building to be explained, you will be disappointed. However, if you allow it wash over you and carry you along like a dream (or nightmare) you will be rewarded. There are touches of DeLillo, Philip K. Dick, and David Lynch; so, paranoid, surreal, but often moving and beautiful. In some ways the novel itself is like one of the mourning prayers said at the commune, a celebration of the natural world that we are destroying for ourselves but that will inevitably outlast our species.

The Ballard/Pynchon mashup you didn't know you were looking for. What a great read, totally original and fresh.