The Position of Spoons - by Deborah Levy

About the Book

"The inimitable Deborah Levy, author of The Cost of Living, traces the literary and artistic muses that have shaped her life and work as a writer"--

Book Synopsis

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 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.

Review Quotes

"[Levy's] writing is one radiant mise-en-scène after another . . . Dreamy but diamond-sharp, prismatic, droll . . . Each sentence precisely pins down a feeling, and with such economy . . . Her words are lit from within."
--Grace Linden, Los Angeles Review of Books

"A collection of essays marked by exceptional observance and style."
--John H. Maher, The Millions

"The sharp brilliant novelist Deborah Levy returns . . . She's able to relish minute details of the world in her signature style, with imagination and insight that makes her one of the best and most original writers of today."
--Sam Franzini, Our Culture

"Her thoughts on varied people and topics have no link other than the observant mind of Levy herself. But taken together, her comment on the beauty of lemons or the end of a marriage or the pleasures of a city park form a portrait of the author herself as surely as any biography."
--Michael Giltz, Parade

"The Position of Spoons, by ultra-prolific Deborah Levy, plays like a lunch with an especially sharp, scattered pal, with brief (often one or two pages total) thoughts on celebrity death, Collette, female friendships, lemons..."
--Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune

"A dazzling collection of musings on art, aging, psychoanalysis, celebrity car crashes, and more . . . Taken together, Levy's extraordinary observations . . . amount to a trip through a consciousness trained to deeply consider everything it encounters . . . Readers will be grateful for this generous peek inside a singular mind."
--Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

"Levy shares illuminating glimpses into her writing life and engages readers on topics as varied as French writers, automobiles, and wisteria plants . . . A marvelous montage of essays and vignettes exploring the emotional and intellectual contours of her interior world."
--Shelf Awareness

"Many of these disparate texts were originally published as commissioned introductions to novels or articles in journals, but together they acquire an electric energy as they begin to take the shape of an untethered, free-form autobiography . . . An elegant, minimalist collage."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Writing with lyricism and wit always, Levy takes the reader on a journey through all that has mattered most to her writing and living, the things that make up her heart and mind's tender fixations, and offers a way for us all to meditate on the small and crucial ways we make sense of the world."
--Julia Hass, Lit Hub

About the Author

Deborah Levy writes fiction, plays, and poetry. Her work has been staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company, broadcast on the BBC, and widely translated. She is the author of several highly praised novels, including The Man Who Saw Everything (long-listed for the Booker Prize), Hot Milk and Swimming Home (both Man Booker Prize finalists), The Unloved, and Billy and Girl; the acclaimed story collection Black Vodka; and a three-part autobiography, Things I Don't Want to Know, The Cost of Living, and Real Estate. She lives in London and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.