My Weil

June 1, 2023
Among six twenty-something PhD candidates at All Saints' University in Manchester, England, there's Marcie (whom the others call Den Mother), an acerbic leader. Valentine studies the religious avant-garde and ritual suicides; Ismail makes films; Gita may or may not be a lesbian; narrator Johnny, who regards himself as a ghost and is much given to riffs and rants; and enigmatic newcomer Simone Weil, self-named after the twentieth-century philosopher and saint, with whom Johnny will find himself falling in love. They're an agreeable lot who spend much of this intriguing, character-driven book drinking and talking, their favorite topics being eschatology and Gnosticism. To be fair, they do undertake some projects, notably an award-winning short film about themselves, a series of homages to (or parodies of) the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, and, somewhat improbably, a badminton tournament. Iyer (Nietzsche and the Burbs, 2019) is as clever as his characters, and some parts of the book are quite funny. Some aspects of the book are tough sledding, but readers who have fallen for the characters will find the effort highly rewarded.

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June 26, 2023
Iyer (Nietzsche and the Burbs) delves into the lives of a group of PhD students in this satirical outing. Johnny, the narrator, leads a misfit band of philosophers as they procrastinate writing their dissertations and ponder the concept of the apocalypse in Manchester, England. When a new student named Simone Weil joins their ranks, the group becomes infatuated with her, each for varying reasons. Ismail sees her as a symbol of purity in their tainted world, as she dedicates herself to helping the homeless in at-risk areas; Johnny falls in love with her. When Simone is stabbed and ends up in the hospital, their idealized view of her becomes etched in stone. Soon after, the city’s electric grid shuts down, and the group explores a mystical landfill called the Ees, where they consume potent psychedelic mushrooms. Either an apocalypse actually happens or it’s a hallucination—Iyer isn’t clear. Amid this chaos, Johnny finds himself in a house at the center of the Ees, accompanied by Simone, who no longer recalls her saintly persona. Iyer pokes fun at his characters and their pretentious references to music by Joy Division and films like Tarkovsky’s Stalker, though he takes seriously his theme of existential dread. Memorable characters make this a singular exploration of the human condition.