London Review Bookshop Podcast Deborah Levy and Shahidha Bari: The Man Who Saw Everything
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Sep 4, 2019 Deborah Levy, an award-winning novelist known for her experimental prose, dives deep into her latest work, The Man Who Saw Everything, with Shahidha Bari, an academic and author. They discuss the novel’s unique premise set against Abbey Road, exploring themes of time, memory, and the implications of surveillance. Levy reflects on writing from a male perspective, the haunting weight of history, and how forgotten details can carry monumental consequences. Their conversation blends personal history with broader socio-political themes, creating a rich tapestry of ideas.
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Abbey Road Sparked The Novel
- Deborah Levy began with an image of tourists on the Abbey Road zebra crossing and the danger of getting run over.
- She imagined a beautiful minor historian falling through the tarmac toward East Berlin, which launched the book's premise.
Photography As Possession And Mortality
- Photography functions as possession and an inventory of mortality in the novel, echoing Susan Sontag's ideas.
- Jennifer uses the camera to reach and possess Saul, creating a wall between them as well as intimacy.
Narcissism Masks Emotional Difficulty
- Levy writes Saul in the first person while interrogating the male narrator's centrality and narcissism.
- She explores how hard it is to feel and how narcissism masks difficulty with feeling and self-knowledge.
