Review- Things I don't want to know by Deborah Levy
finally making some decisive comments
Overview:
Split into four parts, Things I don’t want to know by Deborah Levy explores her experiences from childhood to her teenage years, set in South Africa with the global background of the apartheid struggle (in most parts). With unique characters, simple dialogue that cuts straight and thoughtful events, the book discusses womanhood, racial discrimination and immigrant problems. It is an unorderly book, written with a flow that is natural and sincere.
Other Books in the series:
Things I don’t want to know
The cost of living
Real Estate
Review:
I stumbled upon “Things I don’t want to know’ by Deborah Levy when watching Gemlem on YouTube. Call me a wrongdoer but the cover being pretty was my only judgement base for buying this book. I had zero context about the subject matter and fortunately, so. The book is written in the first-person, is a short read with sizeable font and has a quality I like to discern as a “no-spoiler book”. Because, I could go days and nights talking about the novel and yet, someone who reads it for the first time will glean something, so fundamentally different.
Terming it an “autobiographical stream-of-consciousness” seems fittings and throughout the book, you see the author’s experiences from childhood and into their teenage years. The speaker’s daily life, the conceived beliefs and perceptions are coloured by geopolitical events like apartheid and introspective conflicts like faith and abandonment. As for the descriptions, they are scripted to specifically bring out images. Short sentences, bulls eye descriptors and dialogues that hit a chord, the entire book feels like an ongoing story with its idiosyncratic twists and unconventional characters.
Layered and real, the characters of the book are able to retain their livingness on paper. The conversations are curious, open and sometimes, funny. Some questions may seem dense but they elicit answers that are deep and usually glanced over. If you are in a reading slump, want a short yet impactful read or starting out in realist fiction, this is the book for you.
Final verdict:
5/5.