"[Levy's] writing is elliptical and episodic, as if tracing the movement of her mind. But it's clearly crafted, with ideas recurring and expanding as the book goes on. And for all we see of her moving through the world and her work, her discussion of the places she writes and mentions of the machines she's written on, she doesn't portray herself in the act of writing. The book feels as if we're listening in on her very thoughts, and yet those thoughts are composed off-screen." --Carolyn Kellogg
, Boston Globe "Her bracing trio of memoirs--which began with 'Things I Don't Want to Know' in 2013, continued with 'The Cost of Living' in 2018, and now concludes in fine form with 'Real Estate'--explores questions of female autonomy and self-realization (although the author would never describe it in such clinical terms) . . . It's Levy's openness to the quirks and peccadilloes of others--including her best male friend, headed into his third divorce after a dalliance with a much younger woman--that makes Levy's work so invigorating. She's a prober, but not a heavy-handed one . . . Her prose is at once playful and multilayered." --Heller McAlpin,
Los Angeles Times "Levy's trio of memoirs are undoubtedly pleasant places to spend time. Levy's wry humor and attention to the art of living make her good company on the page, with wisdom weaved in from her touchstone authors, including James Baldwin, Walter Benjamin, and Leonora Carrington." --Mia Levitin,
Los Angeles Review of Books "As in the other volumes, Levy explores the entwining of writing and life . . . The memoir is a careful balancing act of withholding and revelation. Levy uses the other characters she encounters as a way to refract her own point of view." --Megin Jiminez,
Chicago Review of Books "This latest effort is a testament to just how immersive and compelling Levy's writing can be." --Man of LA Book blog
"The third and final book of Deborah Levy's 'living autobiography' takes on the idea of home and houses in many iterations: the haunted, the literary, and what homespace means to a woman writer. Levy considers much about unreal estate too, as the narrator collects her fantasy dream homes…And in essence, puts forth what has always been at the heart of this project, 'to embody and make present a female mind.'" --The Millions
"Home means different things to different people. For you, it might be where you were born or grew up. It might be your chosen home. In Deborah Levy's latest meditation on living, she explores what possessions and property mean and how they can define us." --Bustle
"Levy's fictional books are often nominated for the Booker Prize--and they are excellent. But her autobiographies as a working writer will go down as blueprints for living." --Donna Liquori
, Albany Times-Union"Beautifully written . . . A captivating journey to find a sense of place." --
Kirkus Reviews
