10/5/2020 Necessary Doubt – BookLovers Review

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Necessary Doubt
By Michael Pastore < https://bookloversreview.com/blog/author/zorba/>

September 25, 2020 < https://bookloversreview.com/blog/necessary-

doubt/>

Necessary Doubt
a novel by Colin Wilson

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10/5/2020 Necessary Doubt – BookLovers Review

50th Anniversary Edition, with a new Introduction by Colin Stanley.

Reviewed by Chris Nelson

There is something rather mysterious about a good Colin Wilson novel. I

recently picked up Necessary Doubt again, and within a paragraph or two of
deceptively simple prose I was drawn into an entirely complete world of London
in the early fifties. A light snow is falling on Christmas Eve. Professor and
“existentialist theologian” Karl Zweig has just left a television studio where he
was on a program called Ask the Experts, and is listening to the amiable chatter of
his taxi driver. As they stop at a traffic light, he notices someone vaguely familiar
climbing into a cab outside of a hotel. Before long he is embroiled in a search for
his former student, Gustav Neumann, who years ago aspired to become a master
criminal.

The plot of the book is not as tightly wound as some of Wilson’s other novels. In
fact, I seem to recall Wilson himself writing somewhere that the book is too long
by a third. This was probably my fourth read and I was still compelled to turn
the pages; overall it is an excellent, well-paced read. But one could argue there is
occasionally something a little static about some of the passages; there is a lot of
driving around, pausing, drinking, talking, driving around . . .

But that’s just on the surface. What sets the novel ablaze are the ideas, and the
dilemma of Karl Zweig. The conflict arises when he is confronted with
Neumann’s goals to achieve expanded consciousness, perhaps at the cost of a
certain callous disregard for the lives of his “clients” — older men whom Gustav
is suspected of killing for their fortunes.

As Nicolas Tredell points out in Novels to Some Purpose: the Fiction of Colin
Wilson < https://www.amazon.com/Novels-Some-Purpose-fiction-
Studies-ebook/dp/B01NCQ9JAV/> , although Zweig is close to seventy, the
novel fits into the category of bildungsroman because it tells the story of a kind of
coming-of-age for its central character. In this case, Zweig’s quest is to come
back to himself, to get back on the track of the philosophical, existential
investigation he has sidelined himself from for many years. Precisely how his
quest for Neumann accomplishes this is best left to readers of the novel.

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10/5/2020 Necessary Doubt – BookLovers Review

Necessary Doubt is an unconventional detective novel. Wilson adopted the genre

structure as a vehicle for his philosophical ideas, and he does this convincingly
here, without overwhelming the narrative or getting too didactic. At core is the
evolutionary quest for expanded consciousness, which is based on the
recognition that our “everyday” consciousness is a poor substitute for what we
are really capable of. We are like creatures locked in tiny rooms in our minds. We
don’t realize we live in mansions. What’s more, we are capable not just of
exploring our mansion, but of unlocking the front door, stepping outside into a
rich wilderness, and experiencing life in a whole new way. The trick is to
understand the mechanisms of consciousness — how our minds get so narrowly
focused, and how to open them up again. Understanding this becomes the key to
unlocking the doors of a wider reality.

This is the real mystery that Necessary Doubt explores, in the guise of an old-

school detective story and hunt for a murderer. But Wilson gives us a clue as to
how to do it in the first few pages of the novel. It’s worth looking at this moment
briefly, not just from the philosophical angle, but also from a technical, writerly
point of view.

Here are the opening paragraphs:

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“As the taxi turned the corner at Shepherd’s Bush, the first flakes of snow
drifted against the window. Before they were halfway to Notting Hill, it was
snowing so heavily that visibility was limited to a few yards. The driver said,
‘I thought so. Been expectin’ this all day. Either that or rain.’
Professor Karl Zweig did not reply — not because he disliked the driver’s
familiarity, but because he could think of nothing to say. The man seemed to
understand that this silence was not intended as a snub; he went on:
‘I said to the missus this mornin’ — if we have a snowy Christmas it’ll be the
first one since 1948.’
Zweig managed to say, ‘Really?’
‘Not that I care. It’s just a bloomin’ nuisance for me. Still, it’s nice for the
kids.’
Notting Hill Gate looked strange and bare with half its buildings demolished;
it brought back to Zweig a memory of Hamburg as he had seen it in 1945, and
a feeling of chill. He thought of the snow falling into the black waters of the
Aussen Alster and the smell of rotting bodies that blew from over the lake.
The tax driver’s voice dissipated this feeling of nostalgia and disgust.
‘Don’t mind my askin’, but ‘aven’t I seen you some time on TV?’ ”

The trick with this second-to-last paragraph, in which we share Zweig’s flash of
memory, is that it immediately expands the “space” of the narrative and the sense
of who Zweig is. It is as if we are traveling with Zweig in the warm taxi, safe from
the cold, heavy snowfall outside — and are then abruptly transported through
time and space back to Hamburg in 1945, near the end of World War II. And
then a moment later we are back in the taxi; the narrative space contracts again.
Soon Zweig glimpses Neumann, and the chase begins.

Our minds expand and contract in an instant; we are aware not just of other
times and places, but of the mind’s ability to travel to those other times and
places at the drop of a hat. Here Wilson gifts us with an experiential insight into
the novel’s philosophical obsession — and our own underutilized capacities. It is
a reminder that he was not concerned with philosophy in an abstract way but
rather as a vital, living tool with which can transform our experience of reality.

We might do well to follow his example. A fine place to start — or to continue

our own quest — can be found within the pages of Necessary Doubt.

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10/5/2020 Necessary Doubt – BookLovers Review

Necessary Doubt has been republished by Valancourt Books and is available on

Amazon.com here:
https://www.amazon.com/Necessary-Doubt-Valancourt-Century-
Classics/dp/1941147305 < https://www.amazon.com/Necessary-Doubt-
Valancourt-Century-Classics/dp/1941147305>

Chris Nelson, an editor and eelance writer, can be reached here:

www.prose-alchemy.com < http://www.prose-alchemy.com>

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