There are some people whose brains work in fascinating ways. Deborah Levy is one of them and The Position of Spoons is a window into some of her inner life. A collection of short essays, musings, some actually very short and there is even some fiction in there. It’s personal, sometimes funny, sometimes experimental, there is connection to other artists and feminism, some anecdotes from her life and thoughts about writing itself. For anyone who enjoyed the living autobiography, this will be an absolute treat. I found The Position of Spoons to be best enjoyed over a period of time, giving attention to each individual essay. I could read it all over again and enjoy it just as much.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the eARC!

“The Position of Spoons” is the second Levy book I have read and further pressed my interest in the author. This book felt like Levy’s personal thought journal and displayed just how introspective and lyrical she can be. Many of the stories felt relatable and left me feeling inspired to start documenting my own stories and thoughts. Levy displays many writers and artists that she is fascinated with. I am leaving this book ready to ingest the works of her recommended artists and to further continue my journey through Levy’s work.

Deborah Levy is truly a special writer.

This felt like I was reading her twitter feed, but in a good way?

I don't think it is her best work, largely due to not connecting with the format, but nonetheless, she is perpetually enjoyable,

3.5

The Position of Spoons by Deborah Levy is a throw-together collection of earlier essays that was a bit all over the map for me in terms of impact and which, overall, left me disappointed. A number of the essays felt under-developed, not simply short but overly so, such that they felt they didn’t fully engage with their topic or left material on the table. In her defense (not that such a respected author need a defense from me), it’s certainly possible that these were limited by their prior placement — if, for instance she had a word limit or didn’t want to stray too far off the topic she was given. But for me at least, much of the joy in essays are when they digress upon a digression. The first long essay in the work was my favorite to that point, but then I found some of the other longer ones to bog down, so it wasn’t simply a matter of length.

The essays dealing with artists/authors I was unfamiliar with were a mixed bag, some engaging despite my lack of familiarity and some far less so. Luckily that wasn’t a huge percentage of such essays, but someone coming with a less fully relevant reading background might struggle somewhat with being engaged. Obviously, the opposite is true for those who know all these artists.

Overall, while the essays were certainly well written from a craft viewpoint, the language never really startled or captured me and that, combined with the content issues, made this an unsuccessful reading experience for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read Deborah Levy's The Position of Spoons. I'm more familiar with this writer's fiction, but I found these short pieces interesting and varied, maybe better for reading here and there over a period of time rather than all together. The content of each piece holds its own, clearly, in depth and interest; that said, I found the collection lacked a feeling of cohesion. I often found that the topics and style jumped around throughout. Overall, though, excellent observations on a series of experiences and literary figures and their influences.

'The human mind can go anywhere. This is a good thing in art. In life, this is not always a good thing.'

I've gone on record as stating that Levy is one of my favorite contemporary novelists, and I am also a big fan of her three volume non-fiction series of 'Living Autobiography'. I've read virtually everything she's published, even such rarities/oddities as Diary of a Steak and:An Amorous Discourse in the Suburbs of Hell|- with the notable exception of her early plays - which I just found incomprehensible (odd, since theatre is my field).

This new volume is something new for her, however: a compendium of 36 largely recycled essays written over the last 25 years. Most of these were undertaken as introductions to the works of other authors, or pieces on various artists for art publications and vary in length from a few pages to at the most 20. And while they are all very erudite, often witty and full of startling insights - I found myself only intermittently enthralled, usually only if I was already familiar with the works being discussed - although some rudimentary Googling or dives onto Wiki pages often sufficed to bring me up to speed. So a mite disappointed this wasn't a new novel or part four of the autobiography - but reading Levy is always a pleasure.

Many thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.

I had strong cover love for this one, but the contents were not to my liking. The author is a talented writer. These are very short observations about people and ideas, but most of them were unfamiliar to me. For a very specific audience, lovers of classic French literature, perhaps. Or for people who like to research ideas they read about, this would give you much to discover.

After reading Levy's novel August Blue and enjoying it, I really wanted to read The Position of Spoons. Levy has such a characteristic writing style -- at once detached and intimate, distant and internal, rhetorical and piercing. Although I enjoyed certain parts of this collection more than others, I was floored throughout by Levy's incredible attention to detail and ability to draw connections between numerous different artists, writers, texts, artwork, and human emotions and experiences that feel both universal and unique to ourselves. Such an interesting read!

Deborah Levy’s latest collection, The Position of Spoons, is a mesmerizing journey through art, literature, and personal reflection that left me utterly captivated. Each essay is a gem, blending insightful critiques with intimate glimpses into Levy’s own life and creative process. From the transgressive allure of Colette to the stark elegance of Marguerite Duras, Levy’s prose is as lyrical as it is thought-provoking.

What struck me most about this collection is its range and depth. Whether delving into the lives of obscure literary figures or offering poignant reflections on her own creative struggles, Levy’s writing exudes a rare blend of intellect and emotion. Her ability to weave together disparate threads—from a homage to Francesca Woodman’s haunting photography to a meditation on the existential themes in J G Ballard’s novels—is nothing short of masterful.

While some essays resonated with me more deeply than others, the overall impact of The Position of Spoons is undeniable. It’s a collection to savor slowly, allowing each piece to unfold its richness over time. Levy’s writing, marked by its clarity and profound insights, has certainly left an indelible mark on my literary landscape.

If you’re a fan of Levy’s previous works or simply crave essays that challenge and inspire, this book is a must-read. I’m already eagerly anticipating what she’ll delight us with next.

Interesting essays and observations of art mixed with her own life experiences, absolutely adore Deborah Levy’s writing and prose. More of a collection to enjoy over a period of time in small doses

I found The Position Of Spoons to be really nourishing, and Deborah Levy has inspired me to check out some of the great authors she mentions.

Thank you netgalley for sending me this arc I made a very high pitched noise when I saw it

Deborah Levy has become one of my instant buy authors so imagine my excitement when I got the arc for her new book:) So far I’ve read her memoir series and some fiction and now she’s taken on essays. I went in completely blind so I wasn’t sure what to expect and it took me a second to adjust but once I got into it I absolutely loved it. I will say there’s some essays I thought were stronger than others. Overall, I highlighted a lot. She has such a lyrical and addictive way of writing that I honestly can’t get enough of

Some my favourite essays are:
- the thinker
- enslaved to the evil flower of fame as told by a dog
- too much past

For future reference, I welcome any other arc by this author

Deborah Levy, by trade, is a novelist, that is a writer who primarily writes, and is known for writing, novels. The essays, memoir sketches, and critical pieces, collected here is my first introduction to her work. I like what she does, her literary tone and style. I like her serious devotion to the arts and, more important, her devotion and support of women in the arts. There are women unknown to me, Ann Quin and Miranda York, and women I know, Marguerite Duras and Simone de Beauvoir, for the experimental explorations and the patriarchal challenge they pose; often, had to pose in order to write or paint at all.

From the essay Seduction and Betrayal, the title also of the book by Elizabeth Hardwick, Levy describes Hardwick as ‘one of the world’s most valuable essayists and literary critics.’ She continues, For a female writer to risk stepping centre stage in life and on the page will always mean she has transgressed from the societally sanctified role of being a minor player, lurking behind the velvet curtains … .’

When Levy writes autobiographical sketches, a vein of sadness throbs. Her criticism and sketches of books by male writers are magnificent testimonies to their genius, proving she’s critically comfortable away from female matters. Her piece on one of J G Ballard’s novels immediately pushed me to add the book to my wish list.

Of the works by women she critiques, collectively they share the audacity to create and a high level of intelligence to create provocative and exciting work.

Again from her essay on Hardwick, Levy writes, ‘The gift of her attention is enough to make anyone want to write magnificently.’ And that’s precisely what Deborah Levy does, write magnificently.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux for allowing access to an ARC

I have been a fan of Deborah Levy’s writing for some time, so I was eager to read an ARC copy of her new collection of essays, The Position of Spoons, due to be published in early October.

Although the writing is beautiful and the ideas presented interesting and engaging, I found this collection to be somewhat disjointed. For me, it was as if I had opened Deborah Levy’s personal journal and was privy to her entries. . . sometimes biographical snippets about other authors/artists, sometimes memories of days gone by, sometimes the workings-out of creative notions. Enjoyable. But also a bit uneven. (As you would expect in a personal journal.)

As with most essay collections, some of the selections resonated with me while others did not. I especially enjoyed “A to Z of the Death Drive,” “A Roaming Alphabet for the Inner Voice,” and all of the biographical vignettes. The essay “Watery Things” led me to immediately pick up and re-read Levy’s Booker short-listed Swimming Home (which is wonderful).

While not my favorite of Levy’s books, this will be a treat for her fans, and I'm glad to have read it.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and to NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on October 1, 2024.

4 stars.

Position of Spoons & Other Intimacies by Deborah Levy is a collection of 35 pieces of writings. These writings have been published over the years across different journals and assorted media. There are long prose poems, personal essays, critical writings of books and authors that the writer has been influenced by, and her passing thoughts on artists and painters that has influenced her aesthetics.
On the surface, the writings seem like random thoughts that author would have posted on her Instagram stories and X handle as tweets. At least, this is what most other readers thought, based on the reviews I have read. but for me, these writings are like a guide to the internal map of Levy's mind as a writer. So, as a writer myself, this book was quite engaging for me. My favourite essays were The Psychology of a Writing Life and A Mouthful of Grey. The former is about what Levy thinks a writer's mind should work like, while the latter has a beautiful atmospheric quality to it as it describes a corner of London during a rainy day.

Acclaimed author Deborah Levy, in a stirring collection of essays pays tribute to the feminine in general and some of the obscure as well as famous literary and artistic women, who have served as beacons of inspiration in ger own authorial endeavours. The Position of Spoons is a powerful homage to the indomitable spirit.

The first essay titled “Bathed in an Arc of French Light” sets the stage for the rest of the book. Expressing her unabashed admiration for French novelist, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, known monymously as Colette, Levy writes about the influence of Colette on her life from a very early age. “When I started to read her books, all that was transgressive and sensuous in her writing blew like a wind from Burgundy, Paris and the south of France into the damp suburban gardens of London”, writes Levy.

If Colette was the very epitome of transgression, Marguerite Duras worked magic by adhering to the principle of being economical with words. Miserly, yet magnanimous, Duras’s spare albeit revealing style of writing wove its own tapestry of influence on Levy. Terming Duras’s The Lover, a work of incandescence, Levy contending that the book is more existential in nature than feminist, expresses her doubts on the prospects of the same being published in the contemporaneous era. The Lover was penned in the year 1984.

On January 19, 1981, twenty-two-year-old Francesca Woodman jumped to her death from a loft window of a building on the East Side of New York. The teenager, as the world learned much later, had left behind an enduring legacy in the form of her haunting and almost metaphysical collection of black and white pictures, many of which featured herself. Levy in her emotional essay “Walking Out of The Frame”, pays tribute to both the persona and photographs of Francesca Woodman. Realising that Levy herself is clad in a pair of boots similar to that worn by Woodman in one of her pictures, Levy underscores the importance of ‘getting a grip’ while attempting to walk out of what she calls the frame of femininity, into something vaguer, and something more blurred.

The Position of Spoons also embeds within its confines an appreciable degree of interiority. Levy in a refreshingly transparent manner opens the doors to her own life by narrating experiences, both celebratory and sombre. In an eerily titled essay “A to Z Of The Death Drive”, Lecy relates each of the English alphabet with something to an automobile while describing the death of a famous persona in a road accident. The word C representing Camus (Albert Camus) and Cochran (Eddie Cochran) for example, concentrates on the accidents leading to the demise of both Cochran and Camus. The alphabet D as an ode to James Dean has this meagre assemblage of words, “Kenneth Anger owns a mangled piece of Dean’s cursed Porsche Spyder bought for $300.”

The Position of Spoons is ambivalent yet lucid, concealing yet transparent. This collection of essays, more than anything else, is a testimony to the prowess of Deborah Levy as a formidable author.

The Position of Spoons is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and will be available on sale from Oct 01, 2024.

Thank You Net Galley for the Advance Reviewer Copy!

This book is composed of short essays, mostly about art and literature. It contains Deborah Levy's discussions on works by well-known authors like Colette, Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, the painter Paula Rego, and the poet Hope Mirrlees. 

What I appreciated most, however, were the glimpses of Levy’s more personal writing: casual anecdotes about her life, friends, family, and previous partners. I enjoyed reading about her approach to writing, her artistic process, and mentions of the periods in which she was writing Hot Milk or Swimming Home. 

As a whole, the book reads like a fragmented access into her radiant mind. I ultimately found it pleasant to read sparingly over several weeks.

A few essays attempt to be more eccentric, yet I found these a bit forced. I preferred reading about Levy’s own life in her signature straightforward and vivid sentences. At times, it reminded me of The Cost of Living, my favorite of the Living Autobiography series. 

I don’t believe this book to be a Levy essential, but her company stood as delightful as ever. 

Thank you to FSG for the ARC.

I love love love Deborah Levy, both her fiction and non-fiction in equal measure, and will read anything of hers as soon as I can. THE POSITION OF SPOONS does not disappoint. These are fleeting pieces whose subjects are wide-ranging. I thought a lot about Marguerite Duras' Practicalities, and also Writing. Poignancy abounds.

Thank you to the publisher for the e-galley.

I would read anything by Deborah Levy! I did enjoy this overall but found it a bit uneven, some of the literary criticism pieces didn’t catch me and I ending up flipping over them. Not my favourite of her works but still a worthwhile read.

..it's literally if Levy had a Twitter account lol

what i imagine to be what Amina Cain did for folks with A Horse at Night: On Writing. sparse in form yet chockfull of heart and admiration for all the writers who made her. loved especially her thoughts on women, the center of women in fiction, and their writing lives (ie Simone de Beauvoir).

the end swims with a lot of heart, gets personal, deep in Levy's own spirit as a writer. writing isn't merely little letters on a white page. it's entire lifetimes, fragrant of past, trying to echo towards an urge, a thirst to pick up the body and move it through the world.