Maybe I missed something and the meaning of the story went right over my head, but I'm just left confused. ( )

An early Levy novel that offers a fascinating insight into the development that reached fruition with Swimming Home and Hot Milk.

Like Swimming Home much of this book takes place in a holiday house with a rather odd collection of guests - this time a chateau in Normandy. Each of the characters represents a nation, and Levy deliberately confuses things by switching between their names and nationalities. The middle part is set in Algeria in the late 50s.

The atmosphere is creepy and dreamlike, full of symbolism and striking imagery but at times difficult to follow. I won't pretend I didn't find this a little frustrating but it was definitely worth reading. ( )

Sometimes a book hangs out so long on your TBR that you forget why it's on there. That's the case with this one. I honestly don't know why I had a European Clue-esque mystery with hateful characters on my TBR list. But I did. And I read it. ( )

Due to the success of Swimming Home getting a Man Booker shortlisting in 2012, Deborah Levy’s 1995 novel The Unloved was edited and republished earlier this year. I have been a fan of Levy since discovering Swimming Home thanks to the Man Booker and I admit I was a little slack getting to her backlist. I read her collection of short stories last year and finally returned to another novel with The Unloved.

The Unloved tells the story of a group of self-indulgent European tourists who decide to celebrate Christmas in a remote French chateau. However during their stay one of them is brutally murdered and the unloved child Tatiana knows who did it. The subsequent investigation into this death turns more into an examination of love, desire and rage. This is a shocking and exciting novel, full of characters you can’t help but suspect of murder.

There is something strangely familiar with this novel; while it had a different plot to Swimming Home, the themes felt very much alike. Both tell a psychological story of love and desire that is full of Freudian ideas. There is a philosophical feel about these novels as Levy forces the reader to think about life and death in an interesting way. In The Unloved it becomes less about the murder, and focuses more about a psychoanalytical look at the rest of the people in the French chateau.

The writing within The Unloved may not be as beautiful as Swimming Home but it was still wonderful. There is a strong sense of symbolism flowing through out the narrative and from time to time wonderfully elegant writing. I am not trying to dismiss this novel at all; it has its moments and I admire Levy’s wry style.

I feel the book explored the same themes as Swimming Home, just not as refined. It is weird to judge a book by its themes, Deborah Levy has a keen interest on the topic and passionate about exploring it. The Unloved is worth checking out; the plot and characters are all magnificent. I just would have preferred if the book explored these themes from a different perspective.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2014/11/22/the-unloved-by-deborah-levy/ ( )