Her novelThe Book of Aynis about a newly canceled person in a toxic relationship with her ego.
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Lexi Freimans first noveldidnt change her life the way she thought it might.
People slept in huts or tents and sometimes left the curtain open when they showered.
Cats roamed all around.
Breakfast was served in an open-air dining room swarmed by bees.
In the afternoons, Freiman would write in a cafe down by the beach.
She ended up staying for two months.
It was hard not to evangelize.
On a subway escalator, she made eye contact with an intense-looking man.
I said hi, and he said hello, she says.
And I was like, Have you ever meditated?
And he said, Have you ever seen a nine-inch cock?
That kind of about-face the saintly impulse, the failed execution is all over Freimans writing.
Social media and critics alike accuse her of classism, narcissism, and excessive moral nuance.
But shes not particularly sorry.
I wasnt trying to change the world here, Anna thinks to herself.
Its not even a real cancellation.
Its sort of a half.
But it becomes, literally, her identity.
And thats definitely part of the joke.
Freiman, 40, has always appreciated a good prank.
Around this time, she got into French writer Michel Houellebecq, whos known for his brazenly provocative novels.
His books are shocking and grotesque, and I find that exciting, Freiman says.
That game he plays is a fascinating challenge to me.
at Columbia and spent five years working as a book editor.
The characters are perpetually aware that they or someone around them might say the wrong thing.
Arguments between Jewish high-school student Ziggy and her old-school feminist mother devolve into mutual accusations of Nazism.
She started getting curious about an author she had never read before: Ayn Rand.
I thought,Oh, everybody hates Ayn Rand.
I should take a look.
The Book of Aynis a joke-a-minute satire with characters motivated mostly by vanity and defensiveness.
When I ask whether a specific cancellation prompted the book, a look of worry passes over Freimans face.
Okay, this is what Ive been dreading, she says.
Louiss abrupt disappearance disturbed her.
She wonders if theres something unhealthy about the need to punish and erase.
They emailed for a while, then met for lunch.
Their conversation was friendly, though Louis didnt disclose much about his state of mind.
Instead, they talked about ego death and the spiritual parts of comedy.
She bobs up as a bug-eyed woman with a prideful smirk.
Anna reads her, writes a TV pilot about her, recommends her to alt-right podcasters and meditators.
She wouldve 100 percent canceled everybody and did, Freiman says.
Freiman admits she is drawn to discomfort.
She found the country a strange place, its politics under Viktor Orban brutal.
It wasnt enough to keep her away.
As a writer, she says, I find toxicity quite compelling.
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