- Hardcover: 208 pages
- Publisher: Hamish Hamilton (29 Aug. 2019)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0241268028
- ISBN-13: 978-0241268025
Synopsis
In 1988 Saul Adler (a narcissistic, young historian) is hit by a car on the Abbey Road. He is apparently fine; he gets up and goes to see his art student girlfriend, Jennifer Moreau. They have sex then break up, but not before she has photographed Saul crossing the same Abbey Road.
Saul leaves to study in communist East Berlin, two months before the Wall comes down. There he will encounter – significantly – both his assigned translator and his translator’s sister, who swears she has seen a jaguar prowling the city. He will fall in love and brood upon his difficult, authoritarian father. And he will befriend a hippy, Rainer, who may or may not be a Stasi agent, but will certainly return to haunt him in middle age.
Slipping slyly between time zones and leaving a spiralling trail, Deborah Levy’s electrifying The Man Who Saw Everything examines what we see and what we fail to see, the grave crime of carelessness, the weight of history and our ruinous attempts to shrug it off.
Review
Deborah Levy has had a few of her books short and long listed for The Man Booker Prize including her latest novel The Man Who Knew Everything, on this years long list. Set in 1988 and 2016 Saul Adler finds himself twice on Abbey Road, crossing the famous zebra crossing, and being knocked over. In 1988 he visits the German Democratic Republic (GDR), as part as history thesis and enters the world of Walter and his sister Luna who leave a huge impression on his life. Just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Saul finds himself in an environment where all you do is watched and you can’t trust anyone. 2016 he looks back at his life, his loves and losses in a slightly surreal dream like scene, fragmented. and with Saul not the most reliable of narrators. As expected this is a beautifully written book, that raises many thought provoking questions.
This is a very character driven read with Saul as the sole narrator. He is portrayed as a very beautiful man with his shoulder length dark hair, beautiful eyes and high cheekbones. His beauty is important to him, and he is defined by it to a certain extent, his girlfriend Jennifer Moreau uses him as muse for her art, and his beauty draws both Walter and Luna to him. He does come across as slightly shallow and self centred, not always realising the feelings of others or the consequences of his actions. But through him we see how memories can be fragmented, and how his memories may not always be the truth and can be open to interpretation.
Deborah Levy always writes such beautiful and descriptive prose. This is a very sensual read, as love and sexuality are an important part of Saul’s story, there are some wonderful sentences about touch and feel that really stand out. At only two hundred pages this is a short read but within those two hundred pages there is a of thought provoking content, as the subjects of memory, sexuality, love, history and beauty come to the fore.
The Man Who Saw Everything has been hard to review as I don’t want to give anything away. What I can tell you is that I found this a mesmerising and intelligent read, with expressive prose and a fascinating central character. I absolutely loved this book, and highly recommend adding it to your shelves or book pile.
Id like to thank Hamish Hamilton for my ARC copy of this book in return for an honest review.
