The Man Who Saw Everything Paperback – 2 April 2020

What a brilliant piece of work! I was curious about this book the moment I had been aware of its publication, however, I didn’t read it then for some reason which I am not conscious of anymore. At that time, I did not know what I was avoiding. Nonetheless, I am glad I finally picked it up and flew through the story in four days amidst meeting deadlines for my semester. A little different from ‘Hot Milk’, here, Levy has gravitated toward a male protagonist, Saul Adler. She has placed him in London, 1988, as he makes his way over a zebra crossing in a white suit to mimic the famous Beatles photograph. In that moment, she freezes her protagonist, his life begins changing since then. From his breakup, to flying to East Germany and falling in love with a man; Saul Adler isn’t the same anymore. Between shifts in memory and cluelessness of time; we find Saul Adler moving in and out of himself in search for something, for someone to offer an answer, a meaning to his struggles in perpetuity. He is in search of transcendence or a consciousness; a moment to be born again and to not relive the life he has lived. At the same time, all he wishes is for life to repeat itself, to whisper forgiveness into his ears and begin again. Levy plays with her character(s) through a stream of consciousness taking leaps from one moment to another. I love Levy’s protagonists. Whether it is Sofie from ‘Hot Milk’ or Saul Adler, they come from academic backgrounds to study the social and the political. They step out in search for knowledge for the other; and end up finding something else all together. The beauty of Levy’s prose is its ability to let the story take shape through her characters. Notwithstanding their duration in the story, each of her characters contribute to something important and symbolic to overall story. She lets them speak through her seamless flow of words running from one page to another. This book was fascinating in its style and the use of language. Yes, it is a little complex and dense, and one has to read with patience to not lose the thread of the author’s purpose. I would still prefer it to ‘Hot Milk’. There was something refreshing and moving to read about memory and time portrayed in a story with such care and rawness. I highly recommend this book!

The Man Who Saw Everything begins with a car accident in 1988. Saul Adler, our blue-eyed unusually beautiful protagonist, a historian of Eastern European communism, is hit while crossing the Abbey Road. His knuckles start bleeding but he refuses help from the car-owner. He proceeds to meet his girlfriend, Jennifer Moreau, a photographer, who recreates the famous shot of the Beatles crossing the same road, with Saul as her muse.The two return to Jennifer’s flat where she rebuffs Saul’s marriage proposal and declares they are no longer a couple, the reason(s) covert. Saul takes off to East Berlin for his research still nursing his wounds, which are not so much a consequence of the heartbreak as that of the accident. There he meets his translator Walter Müller, whose persona adds to the mysterious air of the narrative. But what really breaks the illusion of the simplicity induced by linearity are the flashes of future that pop up every now and then, events foretold with uncanny precision.The truth tumbles out in chunks as Deborah Levy dips in and out of past and present, blurring lines between binaries and boundaries with a sweep of her decisively sparse prose. Then and now merge and separate, as do geographies and relationships. She subverts the male gaze, the delusions of self-aggrandizement are upended, and the important are marginalized to give them a taste of what it’s like to lose control.Levy critiques our short-sightedness, the limitations of defining limits all the while hinting at change, buoying us by promising us circularity, the good that’s certain to follow the bad. It is impossible to comment on this book further without divulging important plot points. So, here’s my one-line takeaway—even though I haven’t read many books on this year’s Booker shortlist but I’m certain that this would have made a worthy contender.

Perhaps this is more a case of mismatched expectations, but I found the book quite underwhelming.The protagonist is an interesting bisexual man who apparently has no sense of what’s appropriate. The style of the writing is not something that appealed to me - first person but very disjointed. I found it jarring at times.While it is quite entertaining, it’s not well suited for laymen looking for an interesting take on time travel.

Not sure why I bought it (heard the name?), but kept on reading. Not my kind of book, but I enjoyed it.

Somewhere very early in this book, I started feeling a really powerful connection to the writing and story. This is the first book by Deborah Levy I’ve read, so I can’t say if they’re all like this, but the voice of this book was a voice I could feel in my blood. It’s exactly what I’m looking for in a book of fiction, but so rarely find. The characters are great, real characters, unique and alive feeling. The time period covered, 1988-2016, the layering of time, relationships, events, the complications, the drifting, the confusion, the depths. And as a lover of short books, that Levy was able to write such an emotionally involving, and historically interesting book, that’s only two hundred pages long, is a special part of the delight. A rare and intensely perfect novel.

This is the weirdest book I ever read. So strange, in fact, that I don't know if I enjoyed it or not. The first part of the book is somewhat linear but the second half is very confusing.People who like "high-brow" books will find it excellent.

How Deborah Levy manages to create still waters in a mind of such confusion is astonishing. Quite astonishing.This might seem strange but this book could be about my Dad. He had a glioblastoma at 67. He was beautiful and strong. After brain surgery and the regrowth he lost his “filter” and lived in the past. His honesty was brutal at times but there was something beautiful and magical about seeing his soul stripped bare that has held me safe in grief. He wasn’t perfect. Thank goodness. Deborah’s writing is honest and slamming. Astonishing.

Loved it. Set in areas I was able to envisage, characters I wanted to learn more about and follow in their thoughts.A few twists, flowing language.