This second volume of Levy's autobiography is delightfully written although dealing with difficult times after her marriage breakup. The challenges that she faces and the help provided by her friends help her to triumph; we also get a great insight into how a writer works.

Just perfection. Deborah Levy is a master of the written word. It's an absolute delight to read her intimate memoirs - very moving, too.

Deborah Levy is one of my favourite authors. I would read the telephone directory as rendered by her - it would reveal unexpected aspects to everyday living.

I was sent a copy of The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy to read and review by NetGalley. I really enjoyed this second part of the author’s memoir, but not quite as much as I had the first. There were little repetitions carried over that I didn’t feel were necessary which irritated me slightly. Having said that I still thought that the prose was beautiful and very heartfelt. In both of these books I have wished that the quotes from other writers could have been printed in a different font as I wasn’t always sure where they originated. Perhaps this was unique to the digital copy. I am very much looking forward to reading the third book in the series.

I love Levy's writing and this one did not disappoint. I have loved reading her memoirs. Thank you Netgalley for the copy.

I have to say that part two of Levy’s three-piece memoir set is a different proposition to the first part. And I mean that in a very good way. To some extent I found Things I Don’t Want to Know something if a trial to get through but this book - structured differently, with a long list of short chapters as opposed to three longer sections – really is an absolute joy. It covers the period immediately following the breakup of her marriage, which although specific dates aren’t provided occurred when she was in her fifties. Along with her two girls, she moved into a cold flat on a London hill, where the corridors were dingy and the only place she could find to write was a minuscule balcony. She’d soon adopt a friend’s shed she’d as her writing space, which she attended in all weathers and in which she managed to complete three books.

Levy has a sharp eye when it comes to assessing people, is insightful in pointing out key moments of learning in her life and possesses seemingly no ego at all. As I worked my way through her small adventures I found myself smiling a lot and laughing regularly too. But then she’d hit me with a reflection or a memory that would be poignant enough stop me in my tracks. The sections covering her mother’s illness and subsequent death being particularly impactful. The whole thing is amazingly good. Now I can’t wait to read part three. in my tracks. The sections covering her mother’s illness and subsequent death being particularly impactful. Now I can’t wait to read part three.

My thanks to Penguin U.K. for the invitation to review a digital copy via NetGalley of ‘The Cost of Living’ by Deborah Levy.

This is the second in Levy’s three part Living Autobiography.

In it she recounts coming to terms with being in her fifties, the end of her marriage, her career as a writer taking off, moving with her daughters into a shabby North London flat, the final illness and death of her mother, and renting a shed from the widow of playwright Adrian Mitchell in order to have a quiet place to write.

She describes everyday things in an extraordinary way: painting walls, buying an electric bike, struggling with groceries up six flights (she resists home delivery as she likes to choose her own fresh produce), meeting with movie executives who clearly don’t understand her novels, making small talk at parties with strangers that she gives nicknames to like The Man Who Cried at the Funeral and The Big Silver.

Her writing flows effortlessly and lyrically from subject to subject. I found her memoir amusing and moving and always thought provoking.

Overall, I enjoyed The Cost of Living’ very much and quickly moved on to the third book, ‘Real Estate’.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

I just love this series of living memoirs, which give greater insights into Levy’s fiction by revealing her inner life - a vital companion piece of you’re a fan of her novels.

The Cost of Living is the second in Deborah Levy’s autobiographical trilogy. Following on from Things I Don’t Want to Know, The Cost of Living deals with the pros and cons of living outside the societal parameters of marriage as a single working mother following the breakdown of her 20-year marriage.

Another absolute delight, continuing the memoir begun in the first of three books. There’s a gentleness to this story conjured up by the image of someone spending their time writing, tucked away in an old shed in the garden.
I love this author’s style. There’s a real honesty to her story and I particularly loved the reflection on what her future was going to hold, lived out in a dream. I’m sure there isn’t anyone who wouldn’t enjoy this book.

This is an astonishing book. I am so glad I have read it. Levy's voice is astonishing in this account of the aftermath of the breakdown of her marriage and her attempt to start again at the age of fifty and come to terms not only with splitting up from her husband but also the death of her mother.

As a fifty year old myself, even though our lives are very different, I have never felt so seen.

This is Levy's gift. In her ability to write about the mundane things of life; learning to fix the sink, riding a bike, figuring out how she wants to decorate her flat, she connects to the larger, more pressing issues. How do you learn to know yourself when the person you thought you were turns out to be a mirage, when the life you relied up suddenly isn't there any more?

This made me laugh, it made me cry. It made me shout 'oh yes!' far more than any woman should, reading a book. I was devastated when it was over. Actually bereft.

This is the second volume in Deborah Levy’s Living Autobiography series (after “Things I Don’t Want to Know” but before “Real Estate”) this was published in 2018, two years after her Booker shortlisting for “Hot Milk”.

Unlike its predecessor – which was four essays only two of which really were concurrent – this is more of a linear autobiographical tale, albeit far from a conventional one as told in a series of fourteen short essays. Nevertheless we start to get a sense of a group of characters around the writer which gives the book at times a novelistic feel.

The book is set in a difficult and pivotal period for the author – her marriage has just broken up, she has sold the family house and moved to a flat with her two teenage daughters, and her mother has recently died. This naturally leads to much reflection on the subject of women’s roles, motherhood, the patriarchy , femininity “as written by men and performed by women”

This book is also set in a year when Levy is starting to write “Hot Milk” and in discussions about a film of her previous (also Booker shortlisted) novel “Swimming Home”. In a meeting with the film executives she is asked to email a list of major and minor characters for her proposed adaption of the book – and this becomes a recurring theme as she examines the idea of major and minor characters in her and other people’s lives and also links this idea to her reflections on society.

There are also copious reflections on the physical and mental process of writing itself – with many quotes from and reflections on the lives of other (mainly female) writers which Levy uses to examine her own personal and literary development.

An excellent edition to great trilogy.

My thanks to Hamish Hamilton, Penguin for ARCs (and the other two volumes in the series) via NetGalley

There's something almost effortless about the way Deborah Levy seems to have constructed this book, which must obscure the work that's gone into it. It could have been much longer and deals with difficult issues with a lightness of touch that is beguiling. And it's often very funny.

I wasn't sure what to expect when coming into this autobiographical novel by Levy, but I had a suspicion it would be good. It certainly was! In it, Levy details the collapse of her marriage and the year that follows, when she finds herself in her fifties and forging her own path once more. Firstly, the writing is really compelling. There are parts that are poignant and other parts that are funny and throughout, Levy weaves the thread of the narrative so deftly that you cannot help but turn the pages. Secondly, it is such a strong demonstration of what it means to be a woman in modern society. Levy shows how many of her male associates only refer to women as so and so's wife or girlfriend and cements the place that women find themselves in their professional and personal lives. Anyone who has a passing interest in feminism should read this book. It isn't aggressive-just honest. I was blown away.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Towards the end of last year I picked up a collection of essays by Deborah Levy, entitled Things I Don't Want to Know. These essays were written as a feminist response to George Orwell's Why I Write, which I was reading at the time. I adored Orwell's writing but there was something about Levy's essay-formed responses that sparked something inside of me. When I saw her next volume of essays were due to be published, shortly after this, I knew I had to read them too, and was instantly sure I was going to adore them just as much.

This second volume is far more inwardly-turned than its predecessor. Much of the short anthology deals with more personal anecdotes, from the author's life, but I still found it an equally as important creation. She shares her personal history but also, alongside this, her ideas about gender construction and stereotypes in society and her negation of the expected, grief and healing and all the stages in between, and so much more than could ever conceivably seem to be packed into just over 100 pages of writing.

Her lyrical prose and ability to portray emotion in word remained of the sublime brilliance I already knew her to possess. I did not need a prior familiarity with Levy's fiction or her backstory to enjoy this, I only needed to open my heart and allow her sorrow and her fragility, but also her knowledge and her bravery, to consume me. This is an overwhelmingly powerful collection, which is almost brutal in its emotional assault. And I unreservedly adored it for that.

This is a wonderful memoir from an astonishing writer. This will absolutely be in this years must reads and not just for those who appreciate Deborah Levy's novels. The end of the writer's marriage may be the catalyst for this book but it beautifully covers her early years, her other relationships and the death of her mother.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Books for an advanced review copy.

I loved this book. It is a simple tale of a woman in middle age leaving a marriage and making her way in the world in a crap flat with two daughters and no reliable heating. The fact it is an "autobiography" by an award winning writer, adds to the enjoyment as I love reading about writers and how they manage their lives. I put autobiography in inverted commas, as this isn't a chronological step through of a life. It is a series of stories of how Ms Levy finds her way through a new landscape while writing several books, learning to ride her electric bike with shopping (it's important to choose your own fruit and veg) and accepting help and giving it as she grows. I don't want to make it sound stuffy as it is anything but. This is funny, moving, emotional and true. Some of the adventures (e.g. unblocking her ancient plumbing in strange garb and choosing what books to take to her writing shed) are several of those things at once.

But for me the highlights of the book are when Ms Levy talks about her writing and her books.

"The writing life is mostly about stamina. To get to the finishing line requires the writing to become more interesting than everyday life."

She is alive in these pages and I will now look out her novels and read/reread with a picture in my head of a strong, wise, witty woman sitting in a shed with an unlit log burner and copies of Heidegger and Plath..

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

This book is just a beautiful read, and inspiring, both spiritually and intellectually. It's the second installment of Levy's 'living autobiography', and it's an open, honest account of the author's personal and professional transformation after a life-changing event: the end of her marriage. What it is set to be an introspective recount then evolves into something much wider, involving references to the author's sources of inspiration (Simone de Beauvoir, Marguerite Duras), interesting characters who in different ways assist in her transformation, and in her wondering around the city on her e-bike, an element of psychogeography.

This is the second part of Levy’s "living autobiography". The first part is Things I Don't Want to Know which consisted of 4 short essays/memoirs relating events from different times in Levy’s life in response to the four motivations for writing identified by Orwell in his essay "Why I Write". This second part is a non-fiction novel that takes us through a turbulent period in Levy’s life (the break up of her marriage and the death of her mother which occurred within about a year of one another). Instead of being about the motivation for writing, it is more about the process of writing, or perhaps, the way writing continues in the midst of turmoil and in the midst of just ordinary life (whenever that happens!).

"When I wasn’t writing and teaching and unpacking boxes, my attention was on mending the blocked pipes under the basin in the bathroom. This involved unscrewing all the parts, placing a bucket under the pipes and not knowing what to do next."

"The writing life is mostly about stamina. To get to the finishing line requires the writing to become more interesting than everyday life…"

"To sip strong aromatic coffee from midnight to the small hours always brings something interesting to the page."

There are meditations on womanhood and motherhood, and on the influence of patriarchy, as there are in part one, but there is a consistent movement forward with each short section definitely feeling like the next chapter of the story which is different to the way part one was structured. Both work, but this book flows more because it is a story from beginning to end rather than 4 episodes and because there are frequent references back to earlier parts (there are also reference to part one of the biography and to others of Levy’s works). We meet characters who come alongside Levy as she works through her separation and her grief, who give her a place to write, who offer support and friendship. We are with her as her mother dies.

And, in the midst of all this, she is writing. For those of us who have read her novels, it is fascinating to see references to Swimming Home and Hot Milk as they take shape (the movie of one and the book of the other) and see events in Levy’s life that have influenced the way those novels developed.

And I loved some of the details. For example, very early on in the book (ebook read from NetGalley, so no page numbers) we read of Gertrude Stein

"Apparently Stein thought it is obvious when something is a question so she stopped using question marks…"

Then, almost at the end of the book, Levy talks to a fellow passenger on a train to France explaining that the French for apple is a feminine word. The girl responds

"'La pomme,' she said, frowning, but what she actually said was, 'La pomme?' as if she wasn’t too sure that was right, which is why she was frowning."

No fuss made, but I thought it was a lovely comment on the usefulness of question marks in the text.

I found the whole story beautifully told and often, especially towards the end, very moving. As with the first part, it is very short and I would have been happy for it to continue for much longer.

My thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley.

A collection of short, thoughtful pieces from Levy that range from her separation from her husband to a meeting about filming her 'Swimming Home'. Anyone who has read Levy will not be surprised by her attention to the constrictions and constructions of gender ('This is what I resented most, that my mind had been abducted and was full of Him. It was nothing less than an occupation'). Knowing little about her other than a couple of her novels, I was interested to see that we share some literary heroines: Simone de Beauvoir, Emily Dickinson, Marguerite Dumas.

My only negative comment is that this is extremely short, I probably read it in about an hour - interesting, for sure, with some depth of thought and emotion despite the brevity of the pieces.