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The Position of Spoons: And Other Intimacies
A feast of observations about everything from the particular beauty of lemons on a table, to the allure of Colette, to the streets of Paris, by the inimitable Deborah Levy.
Deborah Levy’s vital literary voice speaks about many things.
On footwear: “It has always been very clear to me that people who wear shoes without socks are destined to become my friends and lovers.” On public parks: “A civic garden square gentles the pace of the city that surrounds it, holding a thought before it scrambles.” On Elizabeth Hardwick: “She understands what is at stake in literature.” On the conclusion of a marriage: “It doesn’t take an alien to tell us that when love dies we have to find another way of being alive.”
Levy shares with us her most tender thoughts as she traces and measures her life against the backdrop of different literary imaginations; each page is a beautiful, questioning composition of the self. The Position of Spoons is full of wisdom and astonishments and brings us into intimate conversation with one of our most insightful, intellectually curious writers.
Deborah Levy’s vital literary voice speaks about many things.
On footwear: “It has always been very clear to me that people who wear shoes without socks are destined to become my friends and lovers.” On public parks: “A civic garden square gentles the pace of the city that surrounds it, holding a thought before it scrambles.” On Elizabeth Hardwick: “She understands what is at stake in literature.” On the conclusion of a marriage: “It doesn’t take an alien to tell us that when love dies we have to find another way of being alive.”
Levy shares with us her most tender thoughts as she traces and measures her life against the backdrop of different literary imaginations; each page is a beautiful, questioning composition of the self. The Position of Spoons is full of wisdom and astonishments and brings us into intimate conversation with one of our most insightful, intellectually curious writers.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published May 12, 2023
292 people are currently reading
4628 people want to read
About the author
Deborah Levy
65 books3,697 followersDeborah Levy trained at Dartington College of Arts leaving in 1981 to write a number of plays, highly acclaimed for their "intellectual rigour, poetic fantasy and visual imagination", including PAX, HERESIES for the Royal Shakespeare Company, CLAM, CALL BLUE JANE, SHINY NYLON, HONEY BABY MIDDLE ENGLAND, PUSHING THE PRINCE INTO DENMARK and MACBETH-FALSE MEMORIES, some of which are published in LEVY: PLAYS 1 (Methuen)
Deborah wrote and published her first novel BEAUTIFUL MUTANTS (Vintage), when she was 27 years old. The experience of not having to give her words to a director, actors and designer to interpret, was so exhilarating, she wrote a few more. These include, SWALLOWING GEOGRAPHY, THE UNLOVED (Vintage) and BILLY and GIRL (Bloomsbury). She has always written across a number of art forms (see Bookworks and Collaborations with visual artists) and was Fellow in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1989-1991.
Deborah wrote and published her first novel BEAUTIFUL MUTANTS (Vintage), when she was 27 years old. The experience of not having to give her words to a director, actors and designer to interpret, was so exhilarating, she wrote a few more. These include, SWALLOWING GEOGRAPHY, THE UNLOVED (Vintage) and BILLY and GIRL (Bloomsbury). She has always written across a number of art forms (see Bookworks and Collaborations with visual artists) and was Fellow in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1989-1991.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 304 reviews
September 15, 2024
I mean, it's Deborah Levy so of course this is worth reading but it is - whisper it- a bit slight.
Consisting mainly of very short pieces that have been collected over the last twenty-five years, almost all published elsewhere, some as introductions to other people's writing, these mostly just don't have the space to breathe.
There are comments on other, often female, writers: Woolf, Plath, Duras, de Beauvoir, LeDuc which are so insightful and astute that it's frustrating there isn't more to the essays from which they come. I at least added Ann Quin and Elizabeth Hardwick to my TBR because of what Levy has to say about them but there's always a feeling of abbreviation, of punches pulled.
And just when this is feeling merely anecdotal, Levy pulls out a heart stopper in 'Blue Rain': 'This is to say hello, again, my old friend'.
Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an ARC via NetGalley
Consisting mainly of very short pieces that have been collected over the last twenty-five years, almost all published elsewhere, some as introductions to other people's writing, these mostly just don't have the space to breathe.
There are comments on other, often female, writers: Woolf, Plath, Duras, de Beauvoir, LeDuc which are so insightful and astute that it's frustrating there isn't more to the essays from which they come. I at least added Ann Quin and Elizabeth Hardwick to my TBR because of what Levy has to say about them but there's always a feeling of abbreviation, of punches pulled.
And just when this is feeling merely anecdotal, Levy pulls out a heart stopper in 'Blue Rain': 'This is to say hello, again, my old friend'.
Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an ARC via NetGalley
Read
April 20, 2024This is like if Deborah Levy had a Twitter account lmao
August 4, 2025
I have measured out my life swimming in various rivers and lakes with dragonfiles and humble ducks.
Creio que quem conhece bem Deborah Levy pega em cada um dos seus livros a ansiar por uma profecia autorrealizável. Seja a mergulhar no mar, num lago ou numa piscina, esta autora sul-africana nunca defrauda os seus fiéis leitores. Em “The Position of Spoons”, podemos até receber algumas pistas para a inspiração de duas das suas obras mais aquosas, “Hot Milk” e “Nadar para Casa”.
“The Position of Spoons and Other Intimacies” é uma compilação de ensaios, ficção, prefácios e inclui até um poema.
(…) You know this
We are not born a woman, we become one
We are not born from marble
We become it
Good morning, Mary
Good morning, Leonora, Lee, Dorothea, Claude, Dora
Remedios, Louise, Leonor, Valentine
Good morning to Lois Mailou Jones in her Paris studio (…)
- X=Freedom For Meret Oppenheim (1913-85) –
Como se vê por esta amostra, Levy tem um profundo interesse por artistas do sexo feminino, dedicando-lhes por isso vários textos, incluindo um sobre a nossa pintora mais famosa, Paula Rego.
In a sense, all of Rego’s art over the decades has obliquely or overtly argued with the motto that represented the values of Salazar’s authoritarian militar regime: ‘Deus, Pátria e Família’. If girls and women were idealized as virgins, wives and mothers serving God, the Fatherland and Family, Rego had other stories to tell (in paint, pastel, collage and sculpture) about our purpose in life.
Entre os ensaios, destaco a criatividade de dois em formato alfabético…
ORAL SEX
A super sport that should be included in the Olympic Games. Unlike throwing the javelin or jumping the high bar, everyone can do it. No one’s house has ever been destroyed to build a stadium for this particular sport, because it can take place in an automobile.
…ainda que atinja uma maior pungência na ficção, como em “The Mortality Project 2050 – After Blade Runner”, sobre a idosa mais velha num lar de terceira idade.
’Since you ask,’ I reply, ‘I do have some terror of leaving the port for the final voyage out. It is not just a matter of never seeing a flower open again or my cat yawn for the last time. No, it is the erasue of the small victories in my existence that makes me reluctant to set sail’.
Sendo uma escritora consagrada, Deborah Levy tem prefaciado obras de autoras do século XX como Violette Leduc, Elizabeth Hardwick e Simone de Beauvoir. Há também momentos em que, convidada para escrever sobre um determinado tema para uma publicação, se torna extremamente pessoal e vulnerável.
I don’t have a moral position on hapiness. We have to find our own point to life, even if it’s to learn something new about crows. All the same, I would give anything to hear my mother tell me again about the pleasure of red peppers and anchovies and to hear her laugh loudly (or softly), and to mean it.
Creio que quem conhece bem Deborah Levy pega em cada um dos seus livros a ansiar por uma profecia autorrealizável. Seja a mergulhar no mar, num lago ou numa piscina, esta autora sul-africana nunca defrauda os seus fiéis leitores. Em “The Position of Spoons”, podemos até receber algumas pistas para a inspiração de duas das suas obras mais aquosas, “Hot Milk” e “Nadar para Casa”.
“The Position of Spoons and Other Intimacies” é uma compilação de ensaios, ficção, prefácios e inclui até um poema.
(…) You know this
We are not born a woman, we become one
We are not born from marble
We become it
Good morning, Mary
Good morning, Leonora, Lee, Dorothea, Claude, Dora
Remedios, Louise, Leonor, Valentine
Good morning to Lois Mailou Jones in her Paris studio (…)
- X=Freedom For Meret Oppenheim (1913-85) –
Como se vê por esta amostra, Levy tem um profundo interesse por artistas do sexo feminino, dedicando-lhes por isso vários textos, incluindo um sobre a nossa pintora mais famosa, Paula Rego.
In a sense, all of Rego’s art over the decades has obliquely or overtly argued with the motto that represented the values of Salazar’s authoritarian militar regime: ‘Deus, Pátria e Família’. If girls and women were idealized as virgins, wives and mothers serving God, the Fatherland and Family, Rego had other stories to tell (in paint, pastel, collage and sculpture) about our purpose in life.
Entre os ensaios, destaco a criatividade de dois em formato alfabético…
ORAL SEX
A super sport that should be included in the Olympic Games. Unlike throwing the javelin or jumping the high bar, everyone can do it. No one’s house has ever been destroyed to build a stadium for this particular sport, because it can take place in an automobile.
…ainda que atinja uma maior pungência na ficção, como em “The Mortality Project 2050 – After Blade Runner”, sobre a idosa mais velha num lar de terceira idade.
’Since you ask,’ I reply, ‘I do have some terror of leaving the port for the final voyage out. It is not just a matter of never seeing a flower open again or my cat yawn for the last time. No, it is the erasue of the small victories in my existence that makes me reluctant to set sail’.
Sendo uma escritora consagrada, Deborah Levy tem prefaciado obras de autoras do século XX como Violette Leduc, Elizabeth Hardwick e Simone de Beauvoir. Há também momentos em que, convidada para escrever sobre um determinado tema para uma publicação, se torna extremamente pessoal e vulnerável.
I don’t have a moral position on hapiness. We have to find our own point to life, even if it’s to learn something new about crows. All the same, I would give anything to hear my mother tell me again about the pleasure of red peppers and anchovies and to hear her laugh loudly (or softly), and to mean it.
July 31, 2024
The human mind can go anywhere. This is a good thing in art. In life, this is not always a good thing.
I've gone on record as stating that Levy is one of my favorite contemporary novelists, and I am also a big fan of her three volume non-fiction series of 'Living Autobiography'. I've read virtually everything she's published, even such rarities/oddities as Diary of a Steak and An Amorous Discourse in the Suburbs of Hell - with the notable exception of her early plays - which I just found incomprehensible (odd, since theatre is my field).
This new volume is something new for her, however: a compendium of 36 largely recycled essays written over the last 25 years. Most of these were undertaken as introductions to the works of other authors, or pieces on various artists for art publications and vary in length from a few pages to at the most 20. And while they are all very erudite, often witty and full of startling insights - I found myself only intermittently enthralled, usually only if I was already familiar with the works being discussed - although some rudimentary Googling or dives onto Wiki pages often sufficed to bring me up to speed. So a mite disappointed this wasn't a new novel or part four of the autobiography - but reading Levy is always a pleasure.
Many thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.
I've gone on record as stating that Levy is one of my favorite contemporary novelists, and I am also a big fan of her three volume non-fiction series of 'Living Autobiography'. I've read virtually everything she's published, even such rarities/oddities as Diary of a Steak and An Amorous Discourse in the Suburbs of Hell - with the notable exception of her early plays - which I just found incomprehensible (odd, since theatre is my field).
This new volume is something new for her, however: a compendium of 36 largely recycled essays written over the last 25 years. Most of these were undertaken as introductions to the works of other authors, or pieces on various artists for art publications and vary in length from a few pages to at the most 20. And while they are all very erudite, often witty and full of startling insights - I found myself only intermittently enthralled, usually only if I was already familiar with the works being discussed - although some rudimentary Googling or dives onto Wiki pages often sufficed to bring me up to speed. So a mite disappointed this wasn't a new novel or part four of the autobiography - but reading Levy is always a pleasure.
Many thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.
November 20, 2024
A mixed bag of very short essays from someone who I imagine makes even shopping lists an interesting read.
August 18, 2025
Cloud ☁️ library 📚 app
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Still not sure what to think about this but it did keep my attention when I was listening to it.
Her white rabbit 🐇 🐰 story was bizarre in a good way wouldn’t mind having an ebook of just that one.
Hmm, maybe more words will come later.
Would recommend? Tentatively yes, but not sure to who.
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Still not sure what to think about this but it did keep my attention when I was listening to it.
Her white rabbit 🐇 🐰 story was bizarre in a good way wouldn’t mind having an ebook of just that one.
Hmm, maybe more words will come later.
Would recommend? Tentatively yes, but not sure to who.
April 10, 2024
I'd read anything written by Deborah Levy. Many of the essays collected in this collection have been previously published. Mostly this is the case for the book introductions, but I found out that some are extended versions of the published introductions.
I thoroughly enjoyed the texts not related to other books, but to Levy's experience and life. I also found it formally interesting and some text read like writing exercises, inspiring me to try new things with the form of short essays.
Can recommend to anyone familiar with Levy and interested in knowing more of the good stuff that inspires her mind.
I thoroughly enjoyed the texts not related to other books, but to Levy's experience and life. I also found it formally interesting and some text read like writing exercises, inspiring me to try new things with the form of short essays.
Can recommend to anyone familiar with Levy and interested in knowing more of the good stuff that inspires her mind.
October 7, 2024
3.5 stars rounded up ⭐️
this was an interesting little collection for the deborah levy completionists out there (it’s me, hi!) it’s made up of super short pieces, mostly about other authors/books and works of art. the pieces about violette leduc were great, as well as the introduction to the inseparables by simone de beauvoir - i hadn’t realized there was a version translated by lauren elkin with levy’s introduction, so i need to get my hands on that ASAP. the pieces about paula rego and maria stepanova got me interested in both of their work, which i was previously not familiar with.
there are also a few more personal pieces that were standouts for me: letters to a stranger, which was written for her mother when she was hospitalized; and the psychopathology of a writing life, which is about levy’s own creative process.
i wish that more curation and organization had gone into this collection. it would’ve flowed better if it had been split up by topic. i also think some of the shorter pieces could’ve been either cut from the book or expanded upon. i really love when levy gets a chance to go into detail about an author or book, as with the pieces i mentioned above. i understand that most of these pieces have been previously published elsewhere, but the brevity and lack of context for some of them made the book feel a bit disjointed at times.
this was an interesting little collection for the deborah levy completionists out there (it’s me, hi!) it’s made up of super short pieces, mostly about other authors/books and works of art. the pieces about violette leduc were great, as well as the introduction to the inseparables by simone de beauvoir - i hadn’t realized there was a version translated by lauren elkin with levy’s introduction, so i need to get my hands on that ASAP. the pieces about paula rego and maria stepanova got me interested in both of their work, which i was previously not familiar with.
there are also a few more personal pieces that were standouts for me: letters to a stranger, which was written for her mother when she was hospitalized; and the psychopathology of a writing life, which is about levy’s own creative process.
i wish that more curation and organization had gone into this collection. it would’ve flowed better if it had been split up by topic. i also think some of the shorter pieces could’ve been either cut from the book or expanded upon. i really love when levy gets a chance to go into detail about an author or book, as with the pieces i mentioned above. i understand that most of these pieces have been previously published elsewhere, but the brevity and lack of context for some of them made the book feel a bit disjointed at times.
November 5, 2024
In this collection of essays, Deborah Levy comments on a wide range of topics, such as writers and their writings, women’s issues through history, art, nature, and relationships. The pieces are short, insightful, thought-provoking, and beautifully written. Most were previously published in a variety of different sources, and a few are new compositions. I think there is value in accumulating an author’s various writings into a volume such as this, as readers are unlikely to seek them out individually. I picked this one up on the strength of Levy’s novels. I can also recommend The Man Who Saw Everything, Swimming Home, and August Blue.
May 10, 2024
Major thanks to NetGalley and FSG for offering me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts:
CJ coined it first, but it's literally if Levy had a Twitter account lol
what i imagine to be what Amina Cain did for folks with A Horse at Night: On Writing. sparse in form yet chockfull of heart and admiration for all the writers who made her. loved especially her thoughts on women, the center of women in fiction, and their writing lives (ie Simone de Beauvoir).
the end swims with a lot of heart, gets personal, deep in Levy's own spirit as a writer. writing isn't merely little letters on a white page. it's entire lifetimes, fragrant of past, trying to echo towards an urge, a thirst to pick up the body and move it through the world.
CJ coined it first, but it's literally if Levy had a Twitter account lol
what i imagine to be what Amina Cain did for folks with A Horse at Night: On Writing. sparse in form yet chockfull of heart and admiration for all the writers who made her. loved especially her thoughts on women, the center of women in fiction, and their writing lives (ie Simone de Beauvoir).
the end swims with a lot of heart, gets personal, deep in Levy's own spirit as a writer. writing isn't merely little letters on a white page. it's entire lifetimes, fragrant of past, trying to echo towards an urge, a thirst to pick up the body and move it through the world.
Want to read
November 8, 2024the publisher has yet to give me a proof or gratis copy despite my being the originator of ' Levynator '... smh
May 6, 2025
As my rating indicates, I enjoyed listening to the audiobook about all sorts of things, with snippets and thoughts about art and artists, most of them female, all beautifully penned by Levy.
I realised yet again that despite having read voraciously for so many years, I still have so many gaps, as I never read de Beauvoir, Collete, Duras, LeDuc, and a few others mentioned in this collection.
I experienced a jolt of giddiness when Levy mentioned Francesca Woodman, a photographer I discovered just over a week ago in an exhibition at the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Austria.
I seem to prefer Levy's non-fiction rather than her novels (with the exception of Hot Milk), so I'm looking forward to reading more of her essays.
I realised yet again that despite having read voraciously for so many years, I still have so many gaps, as I never read de Beauvoir, Collete, Duras, LeDuc, and a few others mentioned in this collection.
I experienced a jolt of giddiness when Levy mentioned Francesca Woodman, a photographer I discovered just over a week ago in an exhibition at the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Austria.
I seem to prefer Levy's non-fiction rather than her novels (with the exception of Hot Milk), so I'm looking forward to reading more of her essays.
November 19, 2024
Levy's very own Tumblr dot com cool women writers and sad romance aesthetic blog with personal entries, and reblogs of her favorite Freud's quotes
The font is set to New Times Roman.
The font is set to New Times Roman.
October 3, 2024
FIVE GOLD SHINY STARS!!!
Longer review coming soon. This one needs a bit of reflection.
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Deborah Levy has a knack for capturing a moment succinctly and vividly. With very few words she paints whole worlds of thought and possibility. Her ability to see, really see, and then translate what she notices into words is a precious gift. I finished this book grateful to have the opportunity to read it. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC.
I love the essay format. The constraint of writing within a particular setting and length brings out the best in writers, forcing an economy of words and a narrowing of focus. These essays were originally written for a variety of purposes. And yet there is the through-line of Levy's piercing gaze and thoughtful dissection, whether talking about shoes or lemons or Simone de Beauvoir. The collection is littered with prose which made me catch my breath, I was constantly stopping to reread a line or paragraph.
Longer review coming soon. This one needs a bit of reflection.
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Deborah Levy has a knack for capturing a moment succinctly and vividly. With very few words she paints whole worlds of thought and possibility. Her ability to see, really see, and then translate what she notices into words is a precious gift. I finished this book grateful to have the opportunity to read it. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC.
I love the essay format. The constraint of writing within a particular setting and length brings out the best in writers, forcing an economy of words and a narrowing of focus. These essays were originally written for a variety of purposes. And yet there is the through-line of Levy's piercing gaze and thoughtful dissection, whether talking about shoes or lemons or Simone de Beauvoir. The collection is littered with prose which made me catch my breath, I was constantly stopping to reread a line or paragraph.
February 4, 2025
The best thing about reading a lot, and watching a lot of movies, or listening to a lot of music is excavating references and realizing the ongoing conversations that animate all good art. To read Levy’s “The Position of Spoons” is to get at the bottom of an important mystery: how Levy became the fantastic writer that she is. But also why I find myself so hopelessly attracted to her fiction although I am not quite sure I have fully understood it. By which I mean to say that we seem to love many of the same authors. This collection of essays and meditations is truly at its strongest in Levy's literary criticism: her pieces on Leduc, Ballard, Beauvoir, and Stepanova were some of my favorite. Even when I wasn't familiar with an artist, she made them come alive. I was a bit less convinced with the few bits of short fiction, but not enough to spoil the rest of this beautiful book.
June 14, 2025
Reading Deborah Levy has always been a joy for me. From Hot Milk, the novel that first introduced me to her work, to this latest collection of essays, The Position of Spoons. What I love most about this book is that it feels less about Deborah Levy herself and more about other people. It departs from the often intense first-person voice she uses in her fiction and, inevitably, in her three instalments of Living Autobiography. In this collection, we gain insight into the authors, writers and thinkers who have influenced her. Most of the essays lean toward literary criticism, but there are also candid reflections on Deborah Levy’s personal life—on being a mother, a lover and a writer navigating her own contradictions.
My favourite essay is A to Z of the Death Drive, a fascinating meditation on driving, sexuality, and the intersection of machine and desire. It weaves together cultural references—from artists to writers—who died in cars, whether behind the wheel or as passengers. The essay made me think more deeply about how driving shapes modern life and our perception of control, risk and freedom. The collection as a whole is uneven at times, some essays meander or lose focus, but others are quietly brilliant and deeply reflective. The book ends with an essay on Maria Stepanova’s In Memory of Memory, which dives deep into historical, cultural and personal memory, as well as the question she reflects a lot about the digital life of modern people.
As I closed the final page, a question lingered: Is there still room for genuine intimacy in a world where fifteen minutes is enough for fame, and where we seem to grow more distant from one another every day?
My favourite essay is A to Z of the Death Drive, a fascinating meditation on driving, sexuality, and the intersection of machine and desire. It weaves together cultural references—from artists to writers—who died in cars, whether behind the wheel or as passengers. The essay made me think more deeply about how driving shapes modern life and our perception of control, risk and freedom. The collection as a whole is uneven at times, some essays meander or lose focus, but others are quietly brilliant and deeply reflective. The book ends with an essay on Maria Stepanova’s In Memory of Memory, which dives deep into historical, cultural and personal memory, as well as the question she reflects a lot about the digital life of modern people.
As I closed the final page, a question lingered: Is there still room for genuine intimacy in a world where fifteen minutes is enough for fame, and where we seem to grow more distant from one another every day?
September 19, 2025
A lot about Freud and relevant names that died in a car crash but reading Levy is and will always be a pleasure. Regardless of the topic.
February 7, 2025
don’t get me wrong, i adored parts of this, but it doesn’t stack up for me against the estate trilogy. not to say that levys writing isn’t brilliant!! but i wasn’t as engrossed — which is interesting considering my affliction for babitz and didion essayistic works. i love you deborah !!
June 5, 2025
Deborah Levy is everything to me. This was the ideal thing to pick up and put down while in Vienna—and magically, seredipitously!—there’s a whole micro-essay on the psychopathology of everyday cafe life in Freud's Vienna. Could not have been more perfect.
April 8, 2025
esperaba más.
Read
December 31, 2024Vuoden 2024 päätteksi nopea vilkaisu Deborah Levyn teokseen The Position of Spoons. Kyseessä on kokoelma kertomuksia, kirjeitä ja esseitä, joista osa on vain parin sivun mittaisia. Moni teksteistä on julkaistu jo aiemmin joko lehdissä tai muussa mediassa.
Levy tarkastelee teksteissään mm. seuraavia kirjailjoita: Colette, Marguerite Duras, J.G. Ballard, Ann Quin, Violette Leduc, Elizabeth Hardwick, Simone de Beauvoir ja Maria Stepanova.
Vaikka The Position of Spoons ei olekaan kauttaaltaan parasta Levyä oli tämän teoksen lukeminen suuri ilo. Sillä, niin, yhä edelleen olen auttamattoman pihkassa Levyn kirjoituksiin ja haluan lukea kaiken hänen kirjoittamansa. Koska, niinpä, näin se vaan on: Levyä lukiessani olen kotona.
Levyn kiinnostuksen kohteet osuvat pitkälti omaan makuuni ja kun sitten käy niin, että hän kirjoittaa jostakin, joka on minulle uutta ja vierasta haluan heti lukea kirjan, josta hän on innostunut tai tutustumaan Levyn ihaileman taiteilijan töihin.
The Position of Spoons -teoksessa Levy kirjoittaa minulle uudesta tuttavuudesta: portugalilais-brittiläisestä kuvataiteilijasta Paula Regosta. Omaa kokemustaan Regon taiteen parissa Levy kuvaa lainaamalla Jacques Lacania: The Reason we go for poetry is not for wisdom, but for dismantling of wisdom.”
Tekstissä The Psychopatology of Writing Life Levy porautuu kirjoittamiseen ja kirjoittamisen tekniikoihin ja tulee samalla antaneeksi vihjeitä oman fiktionsa tulkintaan.
”I know that things are going well when there is something about a character that I cannot fully comprehend.”
…
”If coherence is achieved at the expense of complexity, it is not really coherence.”
Hyvää uutta vuotta 2025:
”Fiction is a good home for the reach of the human mind.”
Levy tarkastelee teksteissään mm. seuraavia kirjailjoita: Colette, Marguerite Duras, J.G. Ballard, Ann Quin, Violette Leduc, Elizabeth Hardwick, Simone de Beauvoir ja Maria Stepanova.
Vaikka The Position of Spoons ei olekaan kauttaaltaan parasta Levyä oli tämän teoksen lukeminen suuri ilo. Sillä, niin, yhä edelleen olen auttamattoman pihkassa Levyn kirjoituksiin ja haluan lukea kaiken hänen kirjoittamansa. Koska, niinpä, näin se vaan on: Levyä lukiessani olen kotona.
Levyn kiinnostuksen kohteet osuvat pitkälti omaan makuuni ja kun sitten käy niin, että hän kirjoittaa jostakin, joka on minulle uutta ja vierasta haluan heti lukea kirjan, josta hän on innostunut tai tutustumaan Levyn ihaileman taiteilijan töihin.
The Position of Spoons -teoksessa Levy kirjoittaa minulle uudesta tuttavuudesta: portugalilais-brittiläisestä kuvataiteilijasta Paula Regosta. Omaa kokemustaan Regon taiteen parissa Levy kuvaa lainaamalla Jacques Lacania: The Reason we go for poetry is not for wisdom, but for dismantling of wisdom.”
Tekstissä The Psychopatology of Writing Life Levy porautuu kirjoittamiseen ja kirjoittamisen tekniikoihin ja tulee samalla antaneeksi vihjeitä oman fiktionsa tulkintaan.
”I know that things are going well when there is something about a character that I cannot fully comprehend.”
…
”If coherence is achieved at the expense of complexity, it is not really coherence.”
Hyvää uutta vuotta 2025:
”Fiction is a good home for the reach of the human mind.”
October 3, 2025
“D is for Desire. When it comes to desire we are all in a soap opera and the script is always the same. ‘I don’t want to hurt you but I will. I am sorry because you are a good person but I am not sorry enough.’”
November 4, 2024
3,5
A mixed bag
A mixed bag
March 31, 2025
Deborah Levy is, without a doubt, one of my favorite contemporary writers, and I’m consistently drawn to her non-fiction. That said, this particular book left me feeling conflicted. While I did enjoy it overall, there’s something about it that feels a bit disconnected, as if it materialized out of thin air.
The book is largely made up of previously published essays—many of them erudite introductions to other writers' work—and it comes across as though the publisher hastily packaged it together for an easy sell. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is, but there’s an insincerity to it, as though it’s more a product for the sake of a product than a carefully considered collection that truly needed to be out in the world.
That said, I did enjoy many of the individual essays, and I was pleasantly surprised to see her writing on Violette Leduc's La Bâtarde, a book I would urge many people to read. As Levy notes of Leduc: "She describes the physical sensation of being unloved, the physical sensation of poverty, of snow, of war, of peacocks chuckling in a meadow—she is tuned in to the world with all her senses switched on." [...] "What's more, she was a writer who was going to give maximum attention to the cause of her distress and create a kind of visceral language that often irritates hyperrational readers."
Below are some other lines I underlined:
"Leduc also knew something that lesser writers do not know. She knew the past is not necessarily interesting. Eight lines into La Bâtarde, she declares 'There is no sustenance in the past.' This made me laugh, because I was on page one with 487 pages of 'the past' to go."
"It has often occurred to me that the eggs and lemons in my kitchen are the most beautiful things in my home. I see no reason to hide them in the fridge and instead place them centre stage in a bowl on my dining table."
"I suddenly understood, in a joyful stupor, that the empty feeling in my heart, the mournful quality of my days, had but one cause: Andrée's absence. Life without her would be death."
"If you don't believe in God, how can you bear to be alive?
Sylvie replies, But I love being alive."
"How we gaze at the world and how we negotiate the way it gazes back at us is at the core of all writing."
"We thought deeply and freely together, no shaming, no judgement, no righteous pointing fingers, so many hopeful words thrown at the wind. This is to say hello, again, my old friend."
The book is largely made up of previously published essays—many of them erudite introductions to other writers' work—and it comes across as though the publisher hastily packaged it together for an easy sell. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is, but there’s an insincerity to it, as though it’s more a product for the sake of a product than a carefully considered collection that truly needed to be out in the world.
That said, I did enjoy many of the individual essays, and I was pleasantly surprised to see her writing on Violette Leduc's La Bâtarde, a book I would urge many people to read. As Levy notes of Leduc: "She describes the physical sensation of being unloved, the physical sensation of poverty, of snow, of war, of peacocks chuckling in a meadow—she is tuned in to the world with all her senses switched on." [...] "What's more, she was a writer who was going to give maximum attention to the cause of her distress and create a kind of visceral language that often irritates hyperrational readers."
Below are some other lines I underlined:
"Leduc also knew something that lesser writers do not know. She knew the past is not necessarily interesting. Eight lines into La Bâtarde, she declares 'There is no sustenance in the past.' This made me laugh, because I was on page one with 487 pages of 'the past' to go."
"It has often occurred to me that the eggs and lemons in my kitchen are the most beautiful things in my home. I see no reason to hide them in the fridge and instead place them centre stage in a bowl on my dining table."
"I suddenly understood, in a joyful stupor, that the empty feeling in my heart, the mournful quality of my days, had but one cause: Andrée's absence. Life without her would be death."
"If you don't believe in God, how can you bear to be alive?
Sylvie replies, But I love being alive."
"How we gaze at the world and how we negotiate the way it gazes back at us is at the core of all writing."
"We thought deeply and freely together, no shaming, no judgement, no righteous pointing fingers, so many hopeful words thrown at the wind. This is to say hello, again, my old friend."
September 30, 2025
I really enjoyed this, but I think Levy can write anything and I’ll still read it. Was hoping for some of the essays to be a bit longer though…
•••
“'I want nothing from love, in short, but love.'
Yes, what else is it we would want from love,
apart from love?
Too many things, as it happens.”
“Look at her. There she is. She is all there. She is all there but she's always trying to make herself disappear - to become vapour, a spectre, a smudge, a blur, a subject that is erased yet recognizable. She knows we know she's there and by constructing techniques to make herself disappear she knows she makes herself bigger. She makes herself bigger because we are searching for her.”
“If only I'd had the strength to escape to a rock on the edge of one of Earth's warmer oceans to soak up the sunlight and moonlight. I understand that my sanity would have been questioned had I been found wheezing under the stars, yet I wonder if lemon drizzle cake and tea is truly a less insane option.”
“Sometimes we live like this
Hard soft
Liquid solid”
“The past is not exactly a stranger, but it is uncanny all the same. Neither dead nor alive, it does not return my stare or smile or tears, but in my own mind it does listen to my thoughts. Somehow, I believe we are both of us, the present and past, slightly altered from this exchange of knowledge and feeling.”
•••
“'I want nothing from love, in short, but love.'
Yes, what else is it we would want from love,
apart from love?
Too many things, as it happens.”
“Look at her. There she is. She is all there. She is all there but she's always trying to make herself disappear - to become vapour, a spectre, a smudge, a blur, a subject that is erased yet recognizable. She knows we know she's there and by constructing techniques to make herself disappear she knows she makes herself bigger. She makes herself bigger because we are searching for her.”
“If only I'd had the strength to escape to a rock on the edge of one of Earth's warmer oceans to soak up the sunlight and moonlight. I understand that my sanity would have been questioned had I been found wheezing under the stars, yet I wonder if lemon drizzle cake and tea is truly a less insane option.”
“Sometimes we live like this
Hard soft
Liquid solid”
“The past is not exactly a stranger, but it is uncanny all the same. Neither dead nor alive, it does not return my stare or smile or tears, but in my own mind it does listen to my thoughts. Somehow, I believe we are both of us, the present and past, slightly altered from this exchange of knowledge and feeling.”
August 26, 2024
3.25/5
It’s clear that Deborah Levy has an appreciation for art, literature, and the world, but this felt more like a catalogue of people, ideas, and things she’s inspired by in a textbook-y style and I thought it was more observational than personal. A bit of a miss for me.
It’s clear that Deborah Levy has an appreciation for art, literature, and the world, but this felt more like a catalogue of people, ideas, and things she’s inspired by in a textbook-y style and I thought it was more observational than personal. A bit of a miss for me.
July 4, 2025
3.5.
love levy with my whole heart. most of these essays were fantastic, some fell a bit flat for me (it may have been the 6-month hiatus between readings). i would still let this woman sneeze on me.
love levy with my whole heart. most of these essays were fantastic, some fell a bit flat for me (it may have been the 6-month hiatus between readings). i would still let this woman sneeze on me.
February 28, 2025
Everytime I read something by Deborah Levy I have the same thought: I need to read everything this woman has ever written.
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