It's easy to get drawn to looking at a real estate agent's window and dream of the ideal home you might inhabit. In this book Deborah Levy muses upon how she's done this too especially because her “crumbling apartment block on the hill” is far from ideal. But, rather than planning to acquire bricks and mortar, Levy more often muses upon what shape her “unreal estate” might take as well as the homes and possessions which might be included in her “portfolio”. This playfully allows her to imaginati...

In the couple of days before I read Real Estate, I took the time to re-visit the first two parts of Levy’s Living Autobiography (“Things I Don’t Want To Know” and “The Cost Of Living”). If, like me, you are a fan of Levy’s writing, these three books are a wonderful collection. Each one could be read separately, but they all build on some similar themes and work well together as a set. In each one, we spend time with Levy in a particular period in her life.Here, we follow Levy as she approaches h...

'If I were asked to name the chief’s benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters daydreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.'(Gaston Bachelard, The poetics of Space (1964)Bachelard’s quote encapsulates the central theme of this third instalment of Deborah Levy’s ‘Living Autobiography’ trilogy: our endless capacity of longing, even when one seems to have everything one’s heart desire: ‘So what was I going to do with all this wanting?'While in Th...

As much as I love reading series out of order, for reasons of "laziness," it is also not the best way to consume content, for reasons of "it's always worse that way."While I've heard amazing things about the second installment of this trilogy (The Cost of Living), and I'll probably read it someday, this one just...did not work for me.I wasn't in the right space for this book and coming into it at book 3, on a subject I feel most disconnected from, is odd. I'm 24 years old and I live in America a...

Organized around musings on Levy’s dream house and what she would like it to be like, this concluding volume draws onto themes explored in the previous books and works as a conclusion in a way that I found highly, highly satisfying. There are few writers whose prose and narrative structure mean that I will read whatever they put out and will enjoy myself even if I do not always agree with their political points. Levy is this good.I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publi...

”…you never know what a woman really wants because she’s always being told what she wants.”The final volume of Deborah Levy’s impressive, compelling ‘living autobiography’ as with earlier instalments is partly sparked by another piece of writing, this time Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. Levy’s still reassembling her life after divorce, now in her late fifties, her income’s precarious and she’s living in a crumbling, London apartment building yet overwhelmed by fantasy images of the perfec...

As with the other two parts of Levy's 'Living Autobiography' series (which sadly is allegedly ending with this volume, although I hope the author changes her mind about that in the ensuing years), this is an amazing synthesis of some rather profound musings with the details of a life lived well and thoughtfully. For me, she joins in a triumvirate with Ali Smith and Rachel Cusk of authors (perhaps not so coincidentally all female), who embody what I love most about writing, although I can't quite...

Oh wow. Deborah Levy doesn't know this, but we are best friends actually. We read the same books. We love the same cities. We have the same need for company, friendship and solitude. We care beyond sanity for our children (long after the children have reached an age when they are perfectly capable of caring for themselves). We navigate the practical aspects of life in the same confused, yet curious way. And we stare at patriarchy and are grown-up enough to raise an eyebrow instead of comforting...

I own the books that I have written... in this sense, my books are my real estate. They are not private property In this third part of Levy's sort-of-autobiography, she continues to seduce readers with her wit, her intelligence, her living politics, her unwavering commitment to feminism, her embracing of life, her writer's vision. From the banana plant in her bathroom to her layering of what it might mean to possess 'real estate': 'are women real estate owned by patriarchy?' or are dreams of

At one point in this book the author includes a quote from Marguerite Duras, the gist of which is that she considered most books to be too organised, too prim and as a result lacked the true voice of the author. Well, I think Levy has taken this to heart in her production of this, the third volume of her memoirs. Whilst not a loose stream of consciousness rant – it feels more structured than that - it’s certainly a monologue that attempts to capture her true thoughts, feelings and wishes as she

"That night, in the deep heat of Greece, devoured by mosquitos and reminiscences, I was thinking about all the doors I had closed in my life and what it would have taken to keep them ajar."I knew I would love this - I loved the first two volumes of this astonishing living autobiography series (though I classify them as criticism as well - but I really loved this. Levy is essential.

4.5'It seemed to me all over again that in every phase of living we do not have to conform to the way our life has been written for us, especially by those who are less imaginative than ourselves.'While reading the latest part of Deborah Levy’s excellent continuing memoir, Real Estate, I kept thinking, as is usually the case when I read Levy (two dozen or so other writers have a similar effect; Geoff Dyer, Nicola Barker, Alan Bennett, Muriel Spark amongst them) that to a large extent I don't min...

“It was not my real estate, I did not own it, I was renting it, but I owned its moods”. “Real Estate” is brilliant…. ……with beautiful-simplicity….about….….home-food-travel-writing-women-(an interest in women characters/and their desires)- and it’s deliciously thought provoking….in the truthful ways Deborah Levy observes life… Deborah Levy, British novelist, playwright, and poet…. is one of those authors I almost hero-worship…I admire her work-her sincerely-her subtle funny bone-her opinions-her

Winner of the 2021 Christopher Isherwood (and LA Times) Prize for Autobiographical Prose I own the books that I have written and bequeath the royalties to my daughters. In this sense, my books are my real estate. They are not private property. There are no fierce dogs or security guards at the gate and there are no signs forbidding anyone to dive, splash, kiss, fail, feel fury or fear or be tender or tearful, to fall in love with the wrong person, go mad, become famous or play on the grass. Th...

I've been busy with renovations and other things so I haven't done much reading. I had to make time to listen to this audiobook, as I'd been meaning to read the three books in this memoir of living for some time.Real Estate is a meditation on owning real estate or just aspiring to own some to call your own. As she approaches her 60th birthday, Levy is pondering about aging, loneliness, her past relationships, and writing.The writing is beautiful and honest, without airing the dirty laundry. I li...

This is the third instalment in Levy's Living Autobiography series, where each instalment chronicles her thoughts, struggles, and life-changes, during the small space of time it took to write them.I felt more distanced from this third book than the previous two but that is merely due to my personal history, as Levy's astounding penmanship and astute observations remained intact. This dealt initially with feelings of displacement and also heavily featured her family. The previous instalments have...

3.5 rounded upThe eagerly anticipated Real Estate, the final installment of Levy's "living autobiography" following the excellent Things I Don't Want to Know and The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography was a largely satisfying conclusion to the series.This volume focuses on the topic of the title - Levy's fascination with home, property, and her draw to finding what defines "home" for her -- divorced some years ago (the focus of the last book) and with her two daughters soon to fly the nest,...

Volume 3 of the author's Living Autobiography series. I was not too enthusiastic about the second volume, The Cost of Living, but I am about this one. A very entertaining and interesting series of journal vignettes, set in London, Paris, Berlin and Greece. Never boring. Often funny. Always interesting. Lovely imagination. I highly appreciated the running theme, from where the title comes, that keeps popping up throughout the text. Recommended.

Part three of Deborah Levy's Living Autobiography - either this will entirely be your thing or not. She's reflecting on her 50s and the cusp of her 60s, no remaining longterm romantic relationships, her friends are international and her daughters have left the roost for the most part. Some people in her life are critical of her seeming desire to be alone! She is pondering what it would mean to own her own place beyond her writing shed, so there's a touch of Woolf to it. Since this time period is...

This book is my fourth read by Deborah Levy, and my first of her three autobiographies. What can I say . . . I love, love her writing. How does an author take the mundane and make it mysterious? The innocuous and make it intriguing? The routine and make it riveting? I have no idea, but that's the feelings Levy's books evoke in me. In this book, 60 year old Levy fantasizes about the perfect house and what that might look like and when she might finally live in it. As a divorced, empty nester, who...