Book Review : Lee Klein - Neutral Evil ))) (2020)
Four years ago, the election of Donald Trump for president of the United States changed the world. Society didn’t collapse and reality remained more or less the same, but it changed how people perceive each other. It created what seems to be an irreconcilable ideological gap: you either love Donald Trump and support his endeavours entirely or you’re afraid that he’ll nuke the world. Lee Klein’s novel Neutral Evil ))) is not about that ideological gap, but it’s about living in the world it created. It’s also about drugs, anxiety and minimalist drone music. It’s properly fragmented like the world we live in today.
Neutral Evil ))) is an autofiction where the author gets loaded on marijuana edibles at a Sunn O))) show in Philadelphia. His mind drifts to a variety of subjects ranging from Trump's election, family, guitars, Sunn O)))’s music and many others. It’s one of these novels where half the readers will complain nothing is happening and call the author pretentious and the other half will quietly “get” it. But there’s a greater change you “get” it if you suffer from devouring self-awareness or if you enjoy loading up on marijuana edibles and listen to two grown men’s guitar vibrations for 10 to 15 minutes at a time.
Disclaimer: I am possibly the best positioned person in the world to appreciate this novel outside of Lee Klein’s immediate family. In fact, I have seen Sunn O))) live in Montreal exactly 72 hours before the author did in 2017, in oddly similar circumstances: I was also alone and intoxicated on marijuana edibles. So, Neutral Evil ))) made a whole lot of sense to me. The parts where Klein develops an exit strategy in case armed terrorists storm the venue and where he courageously attempt to explain the readers what Sunn O)))’s music is, especially. But it didn’t make sense all the time.
Unless you’re the most interesting person in the world, autofiction works on a tricky principle: finding commonality in the human experience. Neutral Evil ))) has these passages where Klein sort of steps out of himself and becomes almost a third person character instead of following his thoughts and I thought it almost torpedoed the entire experience to me. It’s OK being self-aware in a novel, but if you’re being self-aware in a novel that consists in basically your thoughts on stuff, I’m going to think you’re not completely honest. It creates an unnecessary, jarring distance.
Neutral Evil ))) is a good book and it’s also not very long. It’s even better if you’re into Sunn O))) and the darkly healing powers of their music, though. The post-Trump canvas of Neutral Evil ))) explores the invisible barriers created between people, which get properly flatten by an appropriately loud wall of sound. Don’t get me wrong, this novel offers no solution or hindsight on where we are and what direction we should take. It’s not the point. What it offers is a roadmap to altering your state of mind to change how you interact with the world and a really great explanation of what Sunn O)))’s music feels like.
7.1/10
