Book 17 - Deborah Levy "The Man Who Saw Everything"

Deborah Levy "The Man Who Saw Everything" (Penguin)




Deborah Levy’s novel is a stunning, challenging meditation on memory and versions of history. The central character, Saul Adler, is wonderfully unlikeable: vain and self-centred, he is a university historian with a focus on Eastern European Communism. The book opens in 1988 when Saul is hit by a car as he is crossing Abbey Road, prior to re-creating the famous Beatles’ album cover when he is photographed by his girlfriend, Jennifer Moreau. Shortly after, he proposes to her, she rejects him, and as he sets off for a research trip to East Berlin things start to get distinctly odd.

From the outset the clues that something strange is happening are there for the reader: his version of the accident differs from the man driving the car; his recreation of the Beatles’ cover is slightly wrong; he sees his landlady, crippled with arthritis, walking at a brisk pace to the shops…

In the GDR Saul meets Walter and falls in love, then meets and beds Walter’s sister Luna. He has brought a matchbox filled with some of his father’s ashes to spread somewhere in Germany. He is constantly worried that he forgot to bring a tin of pineapples with him, a precious luxury for those in the communist east. As events unfold, he has a persistent headache, and worries that he is being spied on by the Stasi. Returning to the UK, he has left a trail of problems behind him. Then, suddenly, we are fast-forwarded to July 2016, and Saul Adler is hit by a car as he is crossing Abbey Road….

Over the second half of the book our grasp of what is real and what is imagined gets looser and looser. What is the truth? As Saul lies in his hospital bed, visited by a stream of people from his past and present, events are replayed, memories are challenged. Mirrors fracture, identities too. Old Europe and New Europe play under the surface of the novel, too, as historian Saul bridges the span of time between the two, re-writing and being a witness to a wider history.

Deborah Levy has an extraordinary craft, and has created a novel that will challenge the reader, facing them with conflicting realities and a truth that remains resolutely elusive. She has a poet’s voice, creating sentences that just catch your breath. And her characters are brilliantly created, and even though Saul is really quite unlikeable, you just find yourself kind of rooting for him. As the story unravels in the second part at its heart is sadness, but also some memories of happiness and companionship. I fully admit to reading the last few pages with tears rolling down my cheeks, so moving was the conclusion. This is a joy: a literary novel that is worthy of being called a great novel.

Book 18 - Philip Hook "Breakfast At Sotheby's"

Philip Hook "Breakfast At Sotheby's" (Penguin)





Philip Hook's Breakfast at Sotheby's is a quick and enjoyable read. 'Perhaps most of us are train-spotters at heart' (page 182) wasn't a sentence I would expect to read within it. But there it is in the section explaining why some art collectors buy railway paintings. Hook even suggests that railways changed the way people painted, for instance, a quick day return may have encouraged a speedy Impressionist approach.

Anyway, this is an interesting and entertaining visage into the business of art from a real insider. Aside from being an excellent writer, Hook is pretty funny and self-deprecating, in true Brit fashion. My only issue with both of Hook’s books is the lack of quality color plates. Of course, the reason is the cost of these plates, but it took me longer to read because I had to keep referring to my laptop! Nonetheless, if the topic is interesting to you - I highly recommended it.