The Echo Chamber by John Boyne (Simon & Schuster, $37)
Cancel culture is a phrase so well worn into popular discourse, one feels weary even reading it. From university campuses to social media platforms, the concept has run like wildfire through recent years, incinerating anyone in its unfortunate path.
Cancellation itself followsa familiar process: first, someone says or does something considered offensive. The public then responds with outrage and condemnation that quickly gains momentum until the moral transgressor is stripped of their status and cultural prominence. While the result primarily concerns one's reputation, tangible consequences to an individual's career, relationships and mental health almost always follow.
So is cancel culture a long-overdue way for misogynists, racists and the like to receive warranted punishment? Or a merciless form of political correctness? This is the question asked by John Boyne in his latest novel, The Echo Chamber, a stunningly brutal exploration into the ways our lives can be built up and broken down by our palm-sized devices.
The novel revolves around the Cleverley family. Terrifically wealthy, successful, and obnoxiously unaware of it, the family are a textbook picture of privilege. But, as they'll soon learn, these advantages shouldn't be taken for granted in an era where everyone is one tweet away from obsolescence.
Patriarch George Cleverley is a self-described "national treasure" and long-time television presenter. Beverley, his wife, is a novelist desperate for more fame. Unsurprisingly their children, Achilles, Elizabeth and Nelson, haven't fallen far from the tree, each with their own inflated egos just waiting to be burst by an unforgiving world.
One by one the Cleverley clan are torn apart, car crashes in slow motion one can't help but watch with sickening fascination. Eventually, each realises that in this new world, one of volatility and outrage, intentions count for nothing, and social media mobs rule supreme.
The novel does have a heavy-handedness at times, with some passages of dialogue reading more like pedagogic soliloquy. Meanwhile, Boyne seems to experiment with just how painfully unlikeable and absurd characters can be before a reader loses interest.
Yet one must admire Boyne's willingness to deliver a novel of dark humour and cutting observations during a time when it's safer to stay silent. His motives aren't totally selfless. Boyne has a score to settle with the keyboard warriors he playfully dissects after being victim to their vitriol over his 2019 YA novel, My Brother's Name is Jessica. Intended as an empathetic exploration into transitioning, online communities swiftly accused Boyne of several social crimes including "decentring" and "misgendering" and he was promptly "cancelled". Following a flood of "appalling" threats and abuse, Boyne temporarily deleted his Twitter account.
The Echo Chamber
With this context in mind, it becomes clear The Echo Chamber is John Boyne's 432-page response to the social media-savvy, click-obsessed crowd. George, a written reflection of Boyne, even makes a similar mistake; tweeting in support of a receptionist who transitioned but accidentally referring to her as a "he".
Just like in 2019, the public fury is instant and intense but could have been resolved with a serious display of remorse. Instead, Cleverley appears on the Six O'Clock News, where his public apology turns into an impassioned rant. "Every person vying with everyone else to see who can be the most affronted, who can show that they're the most woke," Cleverley yells. "Well, eff Twitter!"
As for the rest of the Cleverley family, Beverley exploits young ghostwriters for her novels; Nelson is obsessed with dressing in fake uniforms; Elizabeth is secretly an infamous Twitter troll who gets off on her digital attacks; and Achilles lures middle-aged husbands into compromising positions before charging them thousands to buy his silence.
If you're after restraint, The Echo Chamber is not for you. But for those who revel in the outrageous, the controversial, the downright divisive? This is a story that will stick with you for months to come.
