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Things I Don't Want to Know
Things I Don't Want to Know: On Writing | Deborah Levy
Blending personal history, gender politics, philosophy, and literary theory into a luminescent treatise on writing, love, and loss, Things I Don't Want to Know is Deborah Levy's witty response to George Orwell's influential essay "Why I Write.? Orwell identified four reasons he was driven to hammer at his typewriter-political purpose, historical impulse, sheer egoism, and aesthetic enthusiasm-and Levy's newest work riffs on these same commitments from a female writer's perspective. As she struggles to balance womanhood, motherhood, and her writing career, Levy identifies some of the real-life experiences that have shaped her novels, including her family's emigration from South Africa in the era of apartheid; her teenage years in the UK where she played at being a writer in the company of builders and bus drivers in cheap diners; and her theater-writing days touring Poland in the midst of Eastern Europe's economic crisis, where she observed how a soldier tenderly kissed the women in his life goodbye. Spanning continents (Africa and Europe) and decades (we meet the author at seven, fifteen, and fifty), Things I Don't Want to Know brings the reader into a writer's heart.
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youneverarrived
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Day to myself, obviously spending it reading and book shopping 😆

quietlycuriouskate Well that sounds lovely! 6h
TrishB Enjoy ❤️ 5h
Cathythoughts A day to yourself ♥️♥️♥️ 5h
See All 6 Comments
youneverarrived @quietlycuriouskate it really has been ♥️ 3h
youneverarrived @TrishB thank you 💕 3h
youneverarrived @Cathythoughts I have the day off work and the grandparents have the kids so I‘ve made the most 🩷 2h
28 likes6 comments
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quietlycuriouskate
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😂 I mean, she's not wrong! 🏊

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andrew61
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Pickpick

The 1st in a trilogy of memoirs opens with the author escaping depression to majorca. An opening of her crying on escalators emerging from a train stn, + a struggling mother followed by a hectoring yngr self are dramatic images.The story of growing up in S Africa is fascinating as the writer emerges b4 developing in grey 1974 london. It finishes with hope as her writing continues.I'm looking forward to rereading this short bk before I go on to bk2

Centique I‘ve been meaning to get to this! I‘m glad to hear you enjoyed it. 2y
39 likes1 comment
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BookwormM
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Pickpick

This ARC was provided by Penguin (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

For me the best section of the book was learning about Levy‘s childhood in South Africa and her father‘s imprisonment. Apartheid, racism and sexism are some of the things Levy wishes she didn‘t know but to be a writer you need to know and be able to express these things in a way that engages your reader and Levy does just that.

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Kazzie
Pickpick

As part of a trilogy - very well written

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AnneCecilie
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Pickpick

This is the first book in her living biography. Levy travels to Palma. One night at the restaurant she starts telling the man that runs the grocery store about her childhood.

Reading about growing up in South Africa during Apartheid made an impression on me.

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AnneCecilie
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#WeeklyForecast

Continue with my buddy reads; Persuasion, Emily and 400 souls

I think that the other 4 books are next up.

Cinfhen I adore Jenny Lawson!!!!! She‘s especially hilarious on audio / in case you have access to borrow ♥️🎧 3y
66 likes1 comment
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rmaclean4
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Pickpick

Loved this very short autobiography. Born in South Africa and raised in England. Her writing has touched something in me. I have not read her fiction and am excited to read that next. I also read The Cost of Living and recommend both!! 4.5 🌟

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MEGR
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“Should I accept my lot? If I was to buy a ticket and travel all the way to acceptance, if I was to greet it and shake its hand, if I was to entwine my fingers and walk hand in hand with acceptance every day, what would that feel like? A female writer cannot afford to feel her life to clearly. If she does, she will write in a rage when she should write calmly.”

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charl08
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Levy recalls her childhood in apartheid South Africa: her first writing, aged 7.

Severnmeadows One of my most tremendous books for a long time. It‘s been such a discovery, her writing.🌟 (edited) 5y
charl08 @Severnmeadows mixed experiences with her, but will look for the next in the bio series. 5y
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Lindy
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Pickpick

In this slim memoir about being a writer, Levy examines a question that she feels is “very close to the bone: What do we do with knowledge that we cannot bear to live with?” Her struggle to find her voice, to make art, and to get it out into the world moved me deeply. #writinglife

TrishB Lovely review 👍🏻 5y
Lindy @TrishB Thanks. 😊 5y
Tanisha_A I like your reviews, they tell it all succinctly! 😃 5y
Lindy @Tanisha_A Thank you 😊 5y
53 likes3 stack adds4 comments
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Lindy
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Every day the nuns knelt by my side in the classroom, gently rolling plasticine A‘s and B‘s and C‘s in their soft white hands. When they asked me to name the letters, I lowered my head like an orphan saint should do, and whispered “Ay, bee, sea,” while they nodded encouragingly. I thought it might be rude to tell them I had learned to read and write two years ago.

tpixie Lol. Great quote!!! 5y
Lindy @tpixie It‘s a short memoir, only 111 pages, but it‘s packed with quotable passages. 5y
tpixie @Lindy awesome! 5y
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Lindy
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Perhaps when Orwell described sheer egoism as a necessary quality for a writer, he was not thinking about the sheer egoism of a female writer. Even the most arrogant female writer has to work over time to build an ego that is robust enough to get her through January, never mind all the way to December.

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Lindy
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English people were kind. They called me pet and love and said sorry when I bumped into them. I was clumsy because I was sleepwalking through England and English people didn‘t mind because they were sleepwalking through England too. I reckoned this was because it got dark so early in winter.
#livinginexile
(Author photo from Internet)

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Lindy
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I want to keep my current winning streak of reading a succession of outstanding prose, so Deborah Levy is up next. Opening lines:
“That spring when life was very hard and I was at war with my lot and simply couldn‘t see where there was to get to, I seemed to cry most on escalators at train stations. Going down them was fine but there was something about standing still and being carried upwards that did it.”
❤️

TrishB ❤️ woah 5y
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Bookalong
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Panpan

Deborah Levy offers her own indispensable reflections on the writing life.
🌟🌟.5/5
This one didnt hit home for me. I found some parts interesting but overall found it a bit boring. Maybe I should have read some of her fiction first?
#bookreview #bookreviewer #bookblogger #bookblog #booklover #bookworm

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HardcoverHearts
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I just devoured Hot Milk this summer, over the span of 2 days in Paris. When I read raves about her other work, I knew I wanted to try them. So when I got to London, I kept at them when my favorite bookseller at Daunt Books recommended it. I have been having problems reading since the death of my father but am hoping to break the spell this weekend. Fingers crossed this will do the trick. And I do love this cover!

merelybookish Oh so sorry to hear about your father! I hope you still got to enjoy your time at Oxford. 6y
emilyhaldi Ohhhhh I loved Hot Milk too but have yet to look into her other books!! Thanks for bringing this to my attention. #stacked ❤️ 6y
HardcoverHearts @merelybookish - Thank you! My time at Oxford was very healing, mostly because it‘s so meditative and beautiful. Now I am back to the grind. Sigh! 6y
HardcoverHearts @emilyhaldi - my pleasure!! It‘s so good! It‘s giving me Rachel Cusk vibes. 6y
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RosieK
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Pickpick

Memoir on searching for her place in the world as an aspiring writing - now to get my hands on the second book

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TCLinrow
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Time to sample some ebooks me thinks 😁 finished my current reads on the train yesterday (will review soon I think) so time to pick something new... kind of wish I could show all the awesome samples Amazon let me download, but these are top of the list right now 📚 💜💛💙

jwashreads Warcross Warcross Warcross!! ....I vote for Warcross 🙋‍♀️ 6y
TCLinrow @jwashreads I'd never heard of it until the other day... now all I hear is good things 🙄 might have to be first 😉 6y
Read.Em.And.Eat I also vote Warcross! With both hands! 🙌🏻 6y
Laughterhp Roses and Rot was really good! 😊 6y
jwashreads @Read.Em.And.Eat 🤣🤣🤣🤣 6y
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DrAimz
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MrBook Nice! 8y
7 likes1 stack add1 comment