Reviews

The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy

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xchristianj's review

5.0

Sublime. A stunning read. Absolutely adored the storytelling.

The Man Who Saw Everything begins in September 1988 on Abbey Road in London, where Saul Alder is hit by a car while preparing have a photo taken of himself crossing the zebra crossing as a tribute to the famous Beatles album. From there the story began to flow in and out of being clear to me. Saul traveled to East Germany to do some work on his Phd., and while there seemed to be aware of detailed circumstances of the Berlin wall falling three years later. Time and again, I was confused by time frames that weren’t adding up. While this was a bit off-putting, I continued to be curious enough to read further. Saul himself was a very compelling character. Finally, just before the halfway mark, an event occurred that made everything else clear. From then on, I more easily pieced together Saul Alder’s life and very much appreciated the creative storytelling delivered by Deborah Levy. The novel itself was quite literary and I don’t think it will work for everyone, but in the end, I was very glad I read it.

witchylucy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

casskrug's review

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4.0

this is a deceptive little book. i was not as conscientious of a reader as i should’ve been in the first half of it, because at first it seems like it’s a very straightforward story. we follow saul, a historian who is getting ready for a trip to east germany to do some research and writing. as he’s preparing for the trip he gets hit by a car - he’s a little banged up but is more or less okay, until his girlfriend breaks up with him immediately afterwards. in east germany, he stays with walter, a translator who has been assigned to him as a sort of host, and walter’s family. after having some love affairs, saul becomes incredibly paranoid that he’s being watched and ends up going back to london.

you think the story will just continue on with saul’s life in london, and deborah levy is like, “nah. let me flip this entire thing on its head.” she simultaneously sheds a light on the seemingly random, strange events that aren’t explained in the beginning, while also making you question everything. she broke my brain with this one, to the extent that i immediately started rereading it after i finished it - this is the only book that i have ever done that with. the book is quick enough and the writing is simple enough to read that i wanted to go through the first half again, to pick up on the details i missed that are really crucial to the second half. deborah levy is doing things very purposefully here and it’s easy to miss if you breeze through it the first time around.

the man who saw everything is looking at binaries - gender, sexuality, east vs. west, past vs. present, reality vs. imagination. levy subverts time and memory here in a really creative way. i wouldn’t recommend it to be your first book by her, as you might find it frustrating or tedious. even though i’ve read multiple books from her already, i found myself just having to trust the process - there’s a payoff for sticking with it until the end.

katel1970's review

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2.0

He saw nothing because he was a self-absorbed narcissist. Not my cup of tea, at all.

shadybanana's review

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3.0

Mixed feelings.

catarinalobo's review

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5.0

nossa que livro PERFEITO pqp, mais viciante que droga

conhecendo a deborah levy do melhor jeito possível. obrigada pelo plot twist, referências a beatles, bissexualidade (saul pra mim é o harry styles só que bi de verdade), comunismo, e tudo mais. INCRÍVEL, devorei em dois dias, quando de fato peguei pra ler