Peel me a Book
Let's Peel
Things I Don't Want to Know
Not a straightforward childhood memoir. Not a confession. Not an instruction manual for becoming a writer.
Perfect if you want to discover how the things we are taught not to say eventually become the very things we must write.
Synopsis
“The suburb of femininity is not a good place to live.”
In response to George Orwell's Why I Write, Deborah Levy journeys through the landscapes of her childhood in apartheid South Africa and the uneasy territory of becoming a woman and a writer. Memories surface unexpectedly, revealing how politics, family and the expectations placed upon girls shape what can be spoken — and what must remain hidden. With wit, tenderness and a quietly rebellious intelligence, Levy explores the distance between the life we are given and the voice we must find for ourselves.
Mood:
restless · defiant · exposed · awakening
Tone:
elliptical · intimate · mischievous · incisive
It Feels Like
Body:
the peculiar pressure behind the throat when a long-suppressed sentence finally demands to be spoken.
Tempo:
a conversation that wanders away from its subject, only to return carrying the answer.
Texture:
thin paper held against the light, revealing writing on the other side.
A Little Taste
“A female writer cannot afford to feel her life too clearly. If she does, she will write in a rage when she should write calmly.”
The Aftertaste
Reveals how silence is taught long before we learn to question it.
Turns childhood memories into evidence of the forces that shape a woman's voice.
Leaves you wondering how much of yourself you've learned not to know.
Peel With a Drink
A small glass of fino sherry, chilled until the glass begins to mist.
It has spent years ageing beneath a protective veil of yeast, developing its character in the dark. Now that the glass is exposed to the air, there is nothing left to hide behind.
Peel With a Reel
The Watermelon Woman (dir. Cheryl Dunye, 1996) — a woman uncovers an erased history, discovering the power of telling stories that were never meant to survive.
An Angel at My Table (dir. Jane Campion, 1990) — a woman's struggle to claim her own voice in a world determined to define her.
Peel with a Beat
Or Try:
Audre Lorde
where Levy investigates the silences women learn to inhabit, Lorde insists on the political necessity of breaking them.
Let's Peel
Things I Don't Want to Know
Not a straightforward childhood memoir. Not a confession. Not an instruction manual for becoming a writer.
Perfect if you want to discover how the things we are taught not to say eventually become the very things we must write.
Synopsis
“The suburb of femininity is not a good place to live.”
In response to George Orwell's Why I Write, Deborah Levy journeys through the landscapes of her childhood in apartheid South Africa and the uneasy territory of becoming a woman and a writer. Memories surface unexpectedly, revealing how politics, family and the expectations placed upon girls shape what can be spoken — and what must remain hidden. With wit, tenderness and a quietly rebellious intelligence, Levy explores the distance between the life we are given and the voice we must find for ourselves.
Mood:
restless · defiant · exposed · awakening
Tone:
elliptical · intimate · mischievous · incisive
It Feels Like
Body:
the peculiar pressure behind the throat when a long-suppressed sentence finally demands to be spoken.
Tempo:
a conversation that wanders away from its subject, only to return carrying the answer.
Texture:
thin paper held against the light, revealing writing on the other side.
A Little Taste
“A female writer cannot afford to feel her life too clearly. If she does, she will write in a rage when she should write calmly.”
The Aftertaste
Reveals how silence is taught long before we learn to question it.
Turns childhood memories into evidence of the forces that shape a woman's voice.
Leaves you wondering how much of yourself you've learned not to know.
Peel With a Drink
A small glass of fino sherry, chilled until the glass begins to mist.
It has spent years ageing beneath a protective veil of yeast, developing its character in the dark. Now that the glass is exposed to the air, there is nothing left to hide behind.
Peel With a Reel
The Watermelon Woman (dir. Cheryl Dunye, 1996) — a woman uncovers an erased history, discovering the power of telling stories that were never meant to survive.
An Angel at My Table (dir. Jane Campion, 1990) — a woman's struggle to claim her own voice in a world determined to define her.