Beautiful Mutants and Swallowing Geography

by Deborah Levy

From the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Swimming Home, a single volume comprising her first two novels: Beautiful Mutants, long out of print, and Swallowing Geography, never before published in the United States.

Beautiful Mutants, Deborah Levy's surreal first novel, introduces a manipulative and magical Russian exile who summons forth a series of grotesques--among them the Poet, the Banker, and the Anorexic Anarchist. Levy explores the anxieties that pervaded the 1980s: exile and emigration, broken dreams, crazed greed and the first seeds of the global financial crisis, self-destructive desires, and the disintegration of culture. It is a feverish allegory written in prose so beautiful and acrobatic that it could only come from a poet. This remarkable and pioneering debut is as much about language as it is the world that ensnares and alienates us.

In Swallowing Geography, J. K., like her namesake Jack Kerouac, is always on the road, traveling Europe with her typewriter in a pillowcase. She wanders, meeting friends and strangers, battling her raging mother, and taking in the world through her uniquely irreverent, ironic perspective. Levy blends fairytale with biting satire, pushing at the edges of reality and marveling at where the world collapses in on itself. In this stunningly original novel, Deborah Levy searches deep into the heart of the late-twentieth century and does not hold back on what she finds there.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Book Club, British Literature, Travel, Literature

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Deborah Levy trained at Dartington College of Arts leaving in 1981 to write a number of plays, highly acclaimed for their "intellectual rigour, poetic fantasy and visual imagination", including PAX, HERESIES for the Royal Shakespeare Company, CLAM, CALL BLUE JANE, SHINY NYLON, HONEY BABY MIDDLE ENGLAND, PUSHING THE PRINCE INTO DENMARK and MACBETH-FALSE MEMORIES, some of which are published in LEVY: PLAYS 1 (Methuen)

Deborah wrote and published her first novel BEAUTIFUL MUTANTS (Vintage), when she was 27 years old. The experience of not having to give her words to a director, actors and designer to interpret, was so exhilarating, she wrote a few more. These include, SWALLOWING GEOGRAPHY, THE UNLOVED (Vintage) and BILLY and GIRL (Bloomsbury). She has always written across a number of art forms (see Bookworks and Collaborations with visual artists) and was Fellow in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1989-1991.

Reviews

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection brings together two Levy's first two published novels (or novellas), which I will review separately. They were both very interesting in terms of understanding her development as a writer.

Beautiful Mutants (1989)
This is Levy's first published book, and shows that the talent that came to fruition with Swimming Home and Hot Milk was there from the start. Like all of her books, it is full of strikingly visual scenes, only loosely linked by any form of narrative, giving the whole a dreamlike quality. The subject of this one is London at the height of Thatcherism, with all of the new barbarity of the new elite laid bare. A brilliantly intense surreal satire - my only criticism is that I would have liked it to be longer!

Swallowing Geography (1993)
Levy's second novella is even shorter, and is a more cryptic and elusive story, which is episodic, describing a female traveller known only as J.K. and her relationships with various lovers. I found this one quite difficult to follow, so less satisfying, but that probably says more about my limitations as a reader than about the quality of the book.

[Robert Wechsler]

Beautiful Mutants made me think of S. J. Perelman: wild but controlled humor based on parody. Levy smartly chose the present tense for her first published concoction, and she pulls off almost everything she tries. I don’t know what it all amounts to, but I don’t really care.

Unfortunately, I could not get into Swallowing Geography.

[Shawn Mooney (Shawn Breathes Books)]

The good news is, Levy is now a terrific writer. But the first novella in this regrettable reissue of her early stuff was so god-awful I couldn’t make it past page 12. It sounded like all of the characters, and/or the writer, were on acid. And not the kind of trip that triggers profundities; the kind that spews inane verbal diarrhea.

[Lulufrances · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be fair, I have no clue what I just read.
BUT I DO KNOW THAT THE WRITING IS OUTSTANDING AND I NEED MORE LEVY!!!

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Niet echt m’n ding, helaas.
Ik vond vooral het tweede verhaal tegenvallen. Ik heb het boek ook niet helemaal uitgelezen, omdat het uitlezen zelf de enige reden was om het op te pakken, niet het verhaal.
Desalniettemin, ben ik wel ontzettend benieuwd naar andere boeken van deze auteur, want er schijnen nog een aantal hele goede te zijn. Wie weet!

Om hier nog aan toe te voegen: deze line is me steeds bijgebleven en vond ik ontzettend mooi beschreven. En zo als deze waren er nog heel veel meer poëtische zinnen.

“Dressed as you are in creams and blues you look like a gentle bruise.”

[Elina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5!! Swallowing geography was gooood!

[Cory · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Beautiful Mutants" counterpoises a brutally realist approach to Thatcher-era London and a satirically surrealist narrative. Never exactly spelling out the story's discontent with late capitalism, Levy is still ruthlessly explicit in crafting images that illustrate her critique (i.e. a pant-suited millionaire burns down the London Zoo just because she can afford to).

In "Swallowing Geography,” JK, "Europe's eerie child" (love that description) wanders aimlessly, finding more evidence of love than greed and hatred along her journey. The fluidity of sex, travel, and identity all conjure the queer poetics of Hot Milk and the vulnerable but uncompromising individuality of Kitty Finch in Swimming Home. In that spirit of fluidity, it feels to me like JK (1993) becomes Kitty Finch (2011) becomes Sofia Papastergiadis (2016), the flow from one text to the other totally undoing the fact that these stories were written decades apart. Such a stunning continuum of self-discovery. It’s kind of unreal as a reader to recognize a lineage of characters through a beloved writer's work <3

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird, fascinating and wise

[ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to swallow this up! The writing is scrumptious and exceptionally resonant at times. Thank you Deborah Levy I love your mind.

[Edward Champion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here we see the beginnings of a quirky and distinct literary talent very much influenced by the snapshot paragraphs of Angela Carter and, from my reading eye at least, the strange disconcerting voices of life and radio. BEAUTIFUL MUTANTS, with its free-flowing vignettes (including a moving passage of a sex worker), is the better of the two early novels: an often beautiful surrealistic soiree of words and imagery. SWALLOWING GEOGRAPHY is less confident and less certain, an often clumsy attempt to find a narrative from the free-flowing anarchy of consciousness. Which is not to say that it is unreadable. We are, as I have said, only at the beginning. And for those, like me, who are fond of following the journey of a weirdo over time, this is a flawed yet auspicious set of small novels.

[ynna]

swallowing geography holy shiz!!!

[Sreddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful Mutants: ★★☆☆☆
Swallowing Geography: ★★★★☆

[Nicoleta-Cătălina Gal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Am salvat-o pe autoare in lista mea si De citit, dar si in cea De ascultat. E minunata, vocea ei e hipnotizanta si povestile ei sunt la fel.
In aceste doua povestiri de la inceputul carierei sale, Deborah Levy ne baga in doua vise febrile. In primul m-am scufundat. Al doilea m-a pierdut. Asa ca doar trei stele.
Beautiful Mutants este o minunata poveste despre emigranti. Personajul feminin este intrigant, fiecare noua persoana introdusa in poveste are ceva de trait sau visat, iar tu esti martor la o nebunie tot mai mare. Proza insa, mai mult decat povestea, este fascinanta.
Doar cititi cum descrie ea lucrurile: „Cigarette in his mouth, plastic sandals on his feet, he hums an old Elvis tune, soiled newspaper tucked into the pocket of his grey trousers. ”
Masterclass!
De la ea vă recomand August Blue și Swimming home.

[Aimée Elliott Demay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sad I didn’t enjoy this, after reading Hot Milk I could really feel the lack of direction with these stories and the difference between this and Levy’s later work was really obvious. I loved hot milk because of the great fusion of poetry and story telling but this was too poetic for me just because of personal taste. I didn’t understand what was going on half the time, but I’ll be sure to read her more recent books.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll be honest it took me a while to get into this book. I needed to get used to the writing but it was worth it. Amongst the nonsense is some real truth and wisdom. Horror and beauty. Reality. This is as close as I get to reading poetry, I’ve never had a great aptitude or patience for it unfortunately.

[Hanan Al Mahmoud · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not enjoy these.
2 “novellas” from 2 decades ago, with Levy’s exquisite expressive writing still premature, but noticeably developing from the first to the second story - four years later. Loads of vulgar un-stringed scenes. There is no way anyone would be able fully appreciate this unless they love poetry.

[Ashlyn Fejes · Rating 3 out of 5]

huge fan of swallowing geography, not that into beautiful mutants. Very difficult read with a lot of beauty sprinkled in for those who trudge through. Metaphoric to the point I almost couldnt keep up.

[Mack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading these early works from Levy, and though so far I prefer her later more cohesive narratives, I still really found so much to love about these more experimental disjointed novellas.

[Bebe Currie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this was kind of like dreaming. It was beautiful but it did not feel quite complete. Like flashing images and feelings, or something like that, like pictures or lyrics you might come across again but don’t know where they came from.

[Halfeared · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Angela Joyce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing against this book but I guess I wasn’t able to enjoy this as much as I would hope for. It was difficult to follow for both stories.

[Taurie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no idea what I just read. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[Tom Buxton · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

[Peter Landau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird, surreal twofer. I’d say more but I really can’t comment other than I liked it, understood less the more I read and Thatcher sucks.

[MK LaFs · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not get into this. I don’t think I was focused enough to follow what was happening in either short story.

[Prince Mendax · Rating 4 out of 5]

mmmmmm 🤗

[Mollee Noren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretentious garbled stories.

[Marlla · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

[Keight · Rating 4 out of 5]

These two short novels are weird with incredibly loose narratives, or rather collections of characters and scenes in which things happen with a feeling of sequence. Within these loosely tied vignettes are some beautiful passages rooted in the anxieties of exile. Deborah Levy has published several more novels since these first two, and I gather her work has evolved into more conventional territory. Coming off the intensity of reading The Warmth of Other Suns, these were kind of perfect in their surreality but with enough evocative moments to keep me interested. Read more on my booklog

[Emelie · Rating 4 out of 5]

the more i read from deborah levy, the less i know what she's talking about. holy moly are her early works surreal af. swallowing geography is a masterpiece though.

Beautiful Mutants
"Beautiful Mutants" is a surreal narrative about Lapinski, a Russian émigré in London. The novel explores her disorienting journey through the city, filled with eccentric characters and fragmented memories of the Soviet Union. Themes of exile, identity, and the overlap of personal and political histories are central. While it was quite difficult to follow the linear narrative, and decipher the perspective change each chapter, I was struck by Ley’s prose every single sentence. Her writing is truly unmatched, and it's cool to see the beginnings of her prose style and the large experimental nature with which she approaches such complicated topics.

Swallowing Geography
"Swallowing Geography" follows J.K., a young woman constantly on the move through various cities. The episodic, nonlinear narrative captures her encounters and search for meaning in a globalized, fragmented world. Themes of rootlessness and identity fluidity are prominent, depicted through poetic and evocative prose. This one was my favorite of the two. It reminded me so much of Swimming Home and even Hot Milk a bit (my favorite novel from Levy by far!) I know Swallowing Geography is very decisive, but it’s definitely worth the read if you’re curious about the evolution of Levy’s writing and characters.