Book of the week: The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock by Edward White
White’s unorthodox biography ‘dismembers Hitchcock into a dozen parts’
Over the past decade, Deborah Levy has pioneered a new form of memoir, which she calls “living autobiography”, said Stephanie Merritt in The Observer. In three “drily funny” volumes that blend memoir with “cultural analysis”, she has rigorously pursued the question of “how a woman – specifically a woman artist – should live in the second act of her life”.
This new volume is the trilogy’s final instalment, and it finds Levy living alone for virtually the first time as an adult, said Susannah Butter in the London Evening Standard. She is about to turn 60; her youngest daughter is off to university; and she is divorced from her husband of 23 years (their split was the focus of the previous volume).
In a “beautifully crafted and thought-provoking snapshot of a life”, we follow the author as she travels around the world, swimming in Greece and doing a writers’ residency in Paris. Perhaps inevitably, given its subject matter, this volume lacks the “urgency” of the previous volumes, said Claire Lowdon in The Sunday Times. Yet at its best, it displays the “hard-won, lucid wisdom” that has helped turn Levy into a “cult” author.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Hamish Hamilton 304pp £10.99; The Week Bookshop £8.99
The Week Bookshop
To order this title or any other book in print, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk, or speak to a bookseller on 020-3176 3835. Opening times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5.30pm and Sunday 10am-4pm.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The Count of Monte Cristo review: 'indecently spectacular' adaptation
The Week Recommends Dumas's classic 19th-century novel is once again given new life in this 'fast-moving' film
By The Week UK Published
-
Death of England: Closing Time review – 'bold, brash reflection on racism'
The Week Recommends The final part of this trilogy deftly explores rising political tensions across the country
By The Week UK Published
-
Sing Sing review: prison drama bursts with 'charm, energy and optimism'
The Week Recommends Colman Domingo plays a real-life prisoner in a performance likely to be an Oscars shoo-in
By The Week UK Published
-
Kaos review: comic retelling of Greek mythology starring Jeff Goldblum
The Week Recommends The new series captures audiences as it 'never takes itself too seriously'
By The Week UK Published
-
Blink Twice review: a 'stylish and savage' black comedy thriller
The Week Recommends Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie stun in this film on the hedonistic rich directed by Zoë Kravitz
By The Week UK Published
-
Shifters review: 'beautiful' new romantic comedy offers 'bittersweet tenderness'
The Week Recommends The 'inventive, emotionally astute writing' leaves audiences gripped throughout
By The Week UK Published
-
How to do F1: British Grand Prix 2025
The Week Recommends One of the biggest events of the motorsports calendar is back and better than ever
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Twisters review: 'warm-blooded' film explores dangerous weather
The Week Recommends The film, focusing on 'tornado wranglers', stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell
By The Week UK Published