{"product_id":"9781635572247","title":"Things I Don't Want to Know : On Writing","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eThings I Don't Want to Know\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Deborah Levy\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA shimmering jewel of a book about writing from two-time Booker Prize finalist Deborah Levy, to publish alongside her new work of nonfiction, \u003ci\u003eThe Cost of Living\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBlending personal history, gender politics, philosophy, and literary theory into a luminescent treatise on writing, love, and loss, \u003ci\u003eThings I Don't Want to Know \u003c\/i\u003eis Deborah Levy's witty response to George Orwell's influential essay \"Why I Write.\" Orwell identified four reasons he was driven to hammer at his typewriter--political purpose, historical impulse, sheer egoism, and aesthetic enthusiasm--and Levy's newest work riffs on these same commitments from a female writer's perspective.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs she struggles to balance womanhood, motherhood, and her writing career, Levy identifies some of the real-life experiences that have shaped her novels, including her family's emigration from South Africa in the era of apartheid; her teenage years in the UK where she played at being a writer in the company of builders and bus drivers in cheap diners; and her theater-writing days touring Poland in the midst of Eastern Europe's economic crisis, where she observed how a soldier tenderly kissed the women in his life goodbye.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSpanning continents (Africa and Europe) and decades (we meet the writer at seven, fifteen, and fifty), \u003ci\u003eThings I Don't Want to Know \u003c\/i\u003ebrings the reader into a writer's heart.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A lively, vivid account of how the most innocent details of a writer's personal story can gain power in fiction.\" - \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Profound.\" - \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"[Levy] is a skilled wordsmith and creates an array of intense emotions and moods in precise, controlled prose.\" - \u003ci\u003eThe Independent (UK)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A vivid, striking account of a writer's life.\" - \u003ci\u003eThe Spectator (UK)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Powerful.\" - \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman (UK)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"An up-to-date version of 'A Room of One’s Own', and, like the Virginia Woolf essay, I suspect it will be quoted for many years to come.\" - \u003ci\u003eIrish Examiner\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Levy successfully weaves historical, political, and personal threads together to form a nuanced account of her life and why she writes. Her graceful memoir\/essay emphasizes a woman’s need to speak out even if she has to use a quiet voice. For feminists and memoir enthusiasts.\" - \u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Rather than, say, telling the reader to show rather than tell, [Levy] declines to tell us anything and then shows us a great deal. What results is much more valuable than any literal writing guide or any literal response to Orwell would have been. It certainly has greater political import.\" - \u003ci\u003eBiographile\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Few essayists have the courage and talent to go head-to-head with George Orwell. Deborah Levy's response to Orwell's iconic piece \"Why I Write\" is at once a feminist call to arms, a touching memoir of small moments, and a guide to writing fiction from one of literature's bravest rulebreakers.\" - \u003ci\u003eBarnes \u0026amp; Noble Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781635572247\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40708891508942,"sku":"9781635572247","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_bb6264be-d235-4093-8b69-25e5ac976669.jpg?v=1640666406","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781635572247","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}