Real Estate

Real Estate, by Deborah Levy, is the last book in her trilogy (the first one was Things I Don’t Want to Know, and the second one was The Cost of Living). This was not my favourite of the three, but it was still interesting and enjoyable and sometimes funny.

In this book, Deborah talks about her dream home that she will never be rich enough to buy, which she calls her « unreal estate. » She also talks about how difficult it is to find « the right woman » to talk about in her books, someone who is strong but not unlikeable, independent but not selfish, vulnerable but not weak… and how it’s so much easier for men to be whoever they want and be accepted as they are. And then she talks about her two daughters leaving home to go to university and how she has to create yet another identity, the « empty nest mother, » and how proud she is, yet lonely, too. Her adventures in Paris are quite funny, and she also goes to Berlin (the fate of the presents she got for her friend is hilarious) and Greece, and in every country, she is able to refine how her « unreal estate » would look like–I love the pomegranate tree.

It was a lovely book, the musing of an author who turns 60 ans who is thinking about her life and her friends, and what she she can still accomplish and has accomplished and can only dream about, now. Maybe it’s because I’m getting close to that age that I am also starting to ask the same questions and understand what she is thinking about.