What a waste of time it was to read this sack of clichés. The opening scene has Deborah Levy shopping on Shoreditch High Street only to find herself being “seduced” by a banana plant. She is captivated by the “shivering, wide green leaves, also the new leaves that were furled up, waiting to stretch out into the world.” She goes on to describe the stall holder’s eyelashes, “blue-black and luscious”, which she imagines stretching “to the deserts and mountains of New Mexico.” This leads her to a riff on Georgia O’Keeffe, whose flower paintings are “peculiar, sexual, uncanny.”
Thank you so much for this! You absolutely nailed it. I read 'The Cost of Living' and all of the above applies to it too. I am grateful that you took the time to write this, the overwhelmingly positive reviews (of the trilogy) were doing my head in.
Thank you so much for this! You absolutely nailed it. I read 'The Cost of Living' and all of the above applies to it too. I am grateful that you took the time to write this, the overwhelmingly positive reviews (of the trilogy) were doing my head in.