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After reading this I went straight into reading the second book in her ‘living autobiography‘ series, and went out and bought the third, because it was everything I was hoping it would be and more. Her writing is just amazing 🖤

#nonfiction2024 (Speak)

Day to myself, obviously spending it reading and book shopping 😆

😂 I mean, she's not wrong! 🏊

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

As part of a trilogy - very well written

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.

#WeeklyForecast

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

I think that the other 4 books are next up.

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 🌟

“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.”

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

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

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.

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.

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)

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.”
❤️

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

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!

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

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 📚 💜💛💙