The Position of Spoons

A scorching, poignant collection of essays . . . Deborah Levy's new book shows why she's the patron saint of women's writing . . . This collection is the essence of Levy because it revolves around her various literary and artistic heroes – women, mainly – who provide succour for her writing soul . . . Levy touches on how each inspired her; many of Levy's readers, in turn, will be hoping for some of that same inspiration to rub off on them . . . A generous book with much to amuse, admire and often agonise over * iNews *
[A] gifted and enlightening writer . . . 'Telegram to a Pylon Transmitting Electricity of Distances' is a montage of intimate and industrial images that tessellate beautifully. 'The Position of Spoons', an elegant, unnerving and perfectly paced little anecdote from the past, is strange and moving . . . Deborah Levy is invariably sharp and sprightly company * Financial Times *
For all lovers of culture, and writers in particular, The Position of Spoons has many gems . . . You could lose an hour, an afternoon, in its considered prose: the distillation of decades of reading and writing, of Levy’s intellectual engagement with life on and off the page . . . A life spent in thrall to art * Irish Times *
[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 * Los Angeles Review of Books *
A dream read for writers, creative thinkers and Levy devotees . . . No one writes with such precision and intimacy, and this book truly gives a glimpse at the mechanisms behind her talents * i, 'Best Books for Christmas 2024' *
Supremely intelligent, accomplished and utterly in control of her craft . . . With details as acute as pinpricks of light through a black curtain, Levy captures contemporary life * Washington Independent Review of Books *
Under the blowtorch of Levy’s attention, domestic space and everything in it is transformed into something radically meaningful . . . This is why people love Levy: she has an uncanny ability to honour and redeem aspects of experience routinely dismissed as trivial * Guardian *
An absorbing essay collection . . . Few British writers are as adept as Deborah Levy at enacting Hilary Mantel’s advice to writers: to make the reader “feel acknowledged, and yet estranged” * Observer *
Levy writes skilfully on the complex interplay of self-presentation and effacement that’s often demanded of female creativity * Guardian *