Welcome to Litsy!

Levy is easily one of my favorite writers. I enjoyed this one for her exquisite writing style, but the story didn‘t draw me in as much as some of her other books. Time is fluid in the story and I liked the softness of the borders between reality and imagination as the book progressed.

Deborah Levy is such a clever writer, and this novel is her at her tricksy best. The Man Who Saw Everything is a novel of fragmented memories and fragmented histories. It‘s not always (in fact almost never) straightforward. It‘s timelines, places, and characters are complicated and multilayered. At every moment I was very aware that what we perceived was only one version of what might have been happening.

Intricately written and amazing to read.
However, I'm not sure if I totally got the concept... 😏🙄🤨

A rather interesting blurb, though feel it'll be more complicated 😉😉😉.

Plus a sleepy cat 🐱🐱

I'm not sure I know what was happening.

Giving this one a try as I finish up Deutschland 89. Any other "Berlin Wall" recs?

In this story of a historian who has lost his own personal history, there are gaps in how Saul tells his own story. We rely on other characters fill in those gaps resulting in more of a fragmented multiple narration. One of the themes I found most interesting in reading this book was what we see versus what we fail to see, and how much of what that is seen by and through those around us. (Abbey Road is a key setting in the novel.)

The story begins with young, beautiful Saul Adler being hit by a car while crossing Abbey Road. As it progresses, from London to East Berlin, things become surreal & a bit confusing. But we are captured by Saul‘s musings & fragmented memories. As we read on, the truth is revealed, little clues are explained. Blurring past-present, with recurring themes of politics, sexuality, this is a clever novel with beautiful prose, some moving great lines, ⬇️

3⭐️ What a bizzare novel! It took me a while to understand what this is all about 😅 It‘s a story about human connection, and how one‘s memories of love and sorrow weigh on a person; packed nicely like a puzzle box

Is this sci-fi or what? 😅

This was such a puzzle but I enjoyed every minute of it!

This book made it into the #2 spot on my list of the BookTubePrize. I loved the complexity, the puzzling scenes, and the thought provoking writing. Unfortunately not all judges thought this way. It‘s been eliminated from the next round ☹️.
2. The Man Who Saw Everything 🚫
3. Dominicana 🚫
4. The Starless Sea 🚫
5. Middle England ✨
6. Patsy. ✨

Enjoyed it. The first have is more straightforward, the second half is half dream half reality, up to the reader to decide what‘s actually happening/happened or what Saul is imagining - he‘s an unreliable narrator. Really liked the character of Jennifer

I loved Hot Milk so i looked fwd to finding where the author was going to take me + she didn't disappoint.The book begins in 1988 where beautiful saul adler is knocked down on the abbey Road crossing, goes back to his g/f photographer's flat, b4 visiting E Germany to fall in love with br + sr walter & luna. The 2nd half is dream like as in 2018 in hospital saul is visited by his past. Gr8 writing, good read that explores memory + sexuality.

Tuesday night after finishing an intensive 5 day company directors course! 🤓 📖 I‘ve just started this and am a little confused so far ... 😬

It turns out this is a book you have to read twice. It‘s really good both times, but it‘s practically two different books.

I was confused but really intrigued, so I listened a second time and it clicked, the main thing I was missing. And suddenly the perspective changes, and with the same words I have a very different book with different fascinating things to think about.

(That‘s the Berlin wall obscuring the distant part of Abby Road)

“It‘s like this, Saul Addler...”
“It‘s like this, Jennifer Moreau...”

It‘s like this, Daniel, you didn‘t get it. You may have enjoyed the mystery, touched the humanity, the sensuality, watched, stunned, the selfishness, found it beautiful, reflected on East Germany, and put a lot of effort into thinking about the psychology, but you still didn‘t get it. (I did enjoy trying. Might listen a second time and see what comes out of it.)

It‘s here! Thanks @LeeRHarry I‘ll keep it going.

I always adore Deborah Levy and this wasn‘t a disappointment. I didn‘t love it as much as Hot Milk, but then that is a very high standard to hold books to! I loved how time scattered apart and rearranged itself and there were times I wasn‘t sure what decade I was in, the writing was beautiful and I‘m SO here for all the bisexual representation in the world. Highly recommend, but don‘t read if you want a clear page turning plot lol

This suffered from 'Wrong book, wrong time' syndrome for me. I came to it craving entertainment and a rip roaring story that I could expend the minimum brain power on. This is pretty much the opposite. The writing is beautiful, the sentences gorgeously constructed, the themes intelligently presented but it needs Reading with a big R & I really wasn't in that place. My bad.

“While he listened to my heart murmur and mope, I understood his ears were the listening device hidden inside and outside his head.” This looping, layered novel explores the many ways of seeing and being watched. The bisexual character of the title does not see much. He is beautiful and extremely self-absorbed. Levy‘s lithe, warm prose playfully reveals his gradual realization of how his behaviour affects others & how he fits in the world. #LGBTQ

His white shirt was ironed and starched, the collar pinned with a single blue topaz in the shape of a rose. Perhaps it was blue because I was looking at it. I was black and blue all over. My hair was black and I was blue inside.

He and I had both been very lonely in our teenage years in East Berlin and East London. I had suffered in the care of my authoritarian father and he had suffered in the care of his authoritarian fatherland.

He did not speak spontaneously, certainly not the first thoughts that came to mind. Perhaps he said the third thought that came to mind.
(Author photo from Internet)

To make it worse, I was physically weaker than my brother & sometimes wore an orange silk tie when I kept our father company in the pub. I once heard him order a pint of bitter for himself & a ‘glass of red for the nancy boy.‘ The barman asked my father if he was ok with merlot, & handed me the pint of bitter. As a compromise, I laid off the mascara when I attended his talks at Communist Party meetings […]

I had been up all night writing a lecture on the psychology of male tyrants and I‘d made a start with the way Stalin flirted with women by flicking bread at them across the dinner table.

One of those rare beautiful book where you get to the end and want to begin again.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

My final book to read from this years Booker longlist and there might have been a reason I held off for so long. I must have intuited Levy was not for me. In actual fact I liked the writing but I found the entire thing very “meh” as a whole as well as needlessly obtuse. It is quite an emotionally “cold” book but luckily it is short !

This was a beautiful book that I found myself totally immersed in. It had me stopping mid-sentence to think about the meaning of things - how our history defines us, how perspective is everything, and how brief moments can change us. Thanks @Rissreads for putting this in my hands.

Just starting this one.

Litsy is full of #beautifulstranger (s) who have become beautiful friends. And this lovely little package and card arrived today as a reminder of that. Thank you Nerrisa @Rissreads for your thoughtfulness 💜#movember

Saul Adler, the main character in this book, is not a very likeable character, but the way Levy places him in the middle of the turbulent second half of Europe‘s 20th century is brilliant.

I can‘t say much without spoiling things, but be prepared that even the smallest details recur, reform, and return with new significance and meaning in Saul‘s struggle to bring order to his life and story.

#booker
(Pic: Dutch skies)

Such a great new idea from @Cinfhen , to do a #weeklyforecast on Sunday followed by a#Bookreport on Saturday!

I started the tagged book today and when it‘s as good as other Levy‘s, I‘ll finish it soon. Then I will start The Lowland for the #ReadingUSA2019 challenge, a book I have been dreading for years, I don‘t know why. On @SerialReader and hardcopy I started The Princess of Cleves, a #1001read. This will take a while I think.

It's hard to say very much about this without spoilers, so I'll just confine myself to saying that it is beautifully written and teeming with ideas. If you want a linear story it is not for you, but if you want something to chew on you couldn't do better.

This book looks at the way we see ourselves and the way others see us. Also how our interpretations of events can differ from others, and how memories can change over time. Deborah Levy's writting is exquisite. The story unfolds in 2 parts about the narrator but nothing is as it seems. If you like books with clear beginnings and endings then this is NOT the book for you. It's a puzzle with no clear answers but one that is a joy to be a part of.

Latest read.
🧡💛 I'm loving it so far. 💙💚

I finished this on Sunday, but needed time to let it sink, because that ENDING.

In the 1st part we meet Saul Adler in 1988. He‘s hit by a car as he crosses the road, but he gets up and continue his day and future plans as nothing happened. In the 2nd part there‘s a time jump to 2016, and Saul‘s been in another car accident (?) and everything you thought you knew from the 1st part, are questioned.

A book about family, siblings and the truth

Next up.

I‘ve seen a lot of love for Hot Milk, and I hope this is a good place to start reading Levy. This novel was also on this year‘s Booker Longlist.

So happy when a new Deborah Levy book arrives! I read the first page straight away - marvellous writing!

Saul, young historian, was hit by a car while crossing the famous Abbey Road, and from there on the reader is thrown into his self-obsessed thoughts, his relations with family, love and the world. It‘s difficult to say anything else about the content, because the narration and the structure is set up in quite twisty way and could be easily spoiled. Enigmatic story about inner and outer walls, beautiful language with some very vivid and ... 👇

Levy is kinda brilliant. This sly, subtle novel is ultimately about human connection and how one can “see” and remember another person or situation. The MC Saul is very focused on his own outer beauty, and never really connects with those around him. This observation is frequently mixed with references to mirrors and photos, which can capture an image without really conveying much of what‘s behind it. 👇🏻

What a difference in the covers!

I wasn't sure what to expect with this one based on her previous books. Saul studies the GDR in the 80s, never felt like he fitted in with his working class, communist father. He wears a set of pearls from his mother, a child refugee from Nazi Germany, and likes a bit of blue eyeliner. I liked how Saul's experiences in Berlin were beyond cliche.

Total Books Read July 2019: 24

Audio: 2
eBook: 10
Print: 12

Library: 7
Purchased: 5
Review: 12

Asia 2019 Project: 4
Women in Translation: 6
Man Booker Longlist: 1

http://readingenvy.blogspot.com/2019/07/books-read-july-2019-160-183.html

This doesn't come out in the states until October but this might be the book that finally wins Deborah Levy her Man Booker Prize! I love how it starts as one kind of novel and then plays with expectations, while the writing is still able to resonate deeply with the reader. This is a novel to be experienced so don't read a lot about it, just read it.