Customer Reviews

The Danish Girl: A Novel

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Okay, I'll admit it: I picked up this novel because of its subject matter. I was interested to learn about the first person to undergo gender-reassignment surgery (1931! ), but more so, I was curious to see how the author would handle this amazing story. I was--simply put--blown away. The Danish Girl is not a novelization of an amazing historical anecdote--it is a beautifully written, senstively-handled, and deeply-engaging novel that it absolutely one of the best I have read in recent years. Here is a book that truly makes the reader stop and question one of our most rigidly held fundaments of identity, gender. And the book does so by convincingly rendering its characters of Greta and Einar and Lili. What a romantic and moving book! Not only in its landscapes--Denmark's bogs, fog-dimmed streets in 1930s Paris, a river bank in pre-WWII Dresden all beautifully captured with an eye as painterly as Einar's--but in its moving story of the love between Greta and Einar and, noteably, Greta and Lili. I thought the book a poignant and sophisticated portrait of a marriage, with all its complexity and complications, that changes as Greta and her husband both do. The Danish Girl I would recommend--and am recommending--to all readers I know.

The Danish Girl is compulsively readable - primarily because the three characters Einar/Lili and Greta are so finely and fully realized. That a story which on the surface should be so unlikely - i.e., that a woman would help her husband find the "girl within" - becomes so inevitable on the page is, I believe, the author's greatest achievement. It's wonderful that Greta (the wife) herself does not fully understand why she's helping Einar/Lili but that her motivations - conscious and subconscious - are revealed slowly throughout the course of the book both to herself and to the reader. It's also fascinating how different Greta and Einar's relationship is from Greta and Lili's, yet how complex and real and loving these relationships are. I only wish that the book hadn't ended with us knowing so little about what happened between Greta and Lili after they've moved forward in their lives. Nonetheless, this is an incredibly promising literary debut and I look forward to reading more by this author.

Brilliant -- THE DANISH GIRL is just what the book doctor ordered! The utterly absorbing plot is finely crafted and the questions that Ebershoff asks about love will stay with you long after you've read the last gorgeous page (truly -- I cannot recall a more beautiful and affecting last page). Perhaps most interesting to me is the character of Greta, a woman who is brave, curious, intrepid, creative, ambitious, a bit pushy, and ultimately not afraid to follow where love, the bonds of marriage, and commitment to the creative process might lead her. But that's not to say that Einar is any less compelling! Or that the lushly detailed settings of Copenhagen, Paris, California, and the Bluetooth Bog don't deserve as much praise. I feel as if I've been on the most fantastic voyage. This author should write for TRAVEL & LEISURE, his descriptions are that lucid and riveting. If I had a bookclub, I'd love for us to choose THE DANISH GIRL as our next selection -- there is so much to talk about! I highly recommend reading this novel.

This is a most unusual, perhaps unique novel of one man's journey from being a man to becoming a woman. Einar is Danish, and married to a California woman. They live in Denmark, and the story starts in the 1920s. There is a woman entrapped in Einar's body, and as the book progresses "Lili" becomes the predominant personality. Einar/Lili's wife Greta is supportive, and loves both persons. She and their circle of friends help Einar find a doctor who performs on Einar what is evidently the first transsexual operation.

This book is based on a true event, but the author's motivation in writing the book is not to record history. He attempts to focus on the emotional life of the characters. What does Greta feel as her husband slowly fades away, and a young woman takes his place? How does Einar cope with his sexual confusion? I feel the author is not totally successful in meeting this literary challenge. Greta is almost saintly in her support. Would she not have gone through more emotional turmoil than is predicted here? For one thing their weak sex life all but disappeared shortly after they married. All of their friends are totally behind Greta and Einar. Were people in Europe in the 1920s that much more tolerant than 20th century Americans? Perhaps so, but the author seems to me to have buried an awful lot of feelings. I worked for many years in the field of mental health, and came across a few transsexual patients. They were seriously conflicted individuals.

In any event this is a novel unlike any that I have read before. Highly recommended unless you find such topics threatening. This will probably not be choice reading for members of the Christian Coalition.

This is a stunning debut novel by someone who is no novice to the publishing industry, as he is the director of The Modern Library, which is a division of Random House. With this book as his entree into the ranks of novelist, Mr. Ebershoff rightly claims a place among the distinguished. This is a most elegantly written novel.

His book is loosely based upon the true story of Danish painters, Einar Wegener and Gerda Waud. They met in Copenhagen, while they were both art students, and married a few years later. He painted landscapes, while she would become known for her paintings of a mysterious sloe-eyed beauty. When it eventually became known that the model for the mysterious beauty in Gerda's paintings was, in fact, her cross-dressing husband, they became the scandal of Copenhagen. They left Denmark and sought refuge in Paris, France, where the mystery woman of Gerda's paintings began appearing in the flesh among the denizens of the Parisian demi-monde.

There is little doubt that Gerda encouraged her husband in his cross-dressing, as well as in his eventual surgical transformation. In 1930, the couple again turned the world on its head when it became known that Einar Wegener had undergone the world's first known sex re-assignment operation in Germany, and emerged as Lili Elbe. This provoked the King of Denmark himself to annul their marriage. Unfortunately, Lili Elbe's life as a surgically transformed woman ended in 1931 with her death.

The author expertly weaves these facts, which were the inspiration for this novel, into a lyrically written, haunting narrative about two people who were bound to each other by an unconditional love that would transcend the conventional. He creates an intriguing, spellbinding story that is a sensitive portrait of a most unusual marriage. The author takes the reader on a journey into the imagined psyche of these two individuals, as their marriage slowly devolves and Lili becomes more and more prominent in their lives. The author leads the reader through Lili's gradual metamorphosis, her poignant self-realization, and the final denouement of the marriage. This is an exquisitely crafted novel by a very gifted writer. Bravo!

I'll be the first to admit that I enjoyed reading The Danish Girl; the lush prose and interesting chain of events kept me turning the pages. However, it seems that this book is getting huge accolades everywhere due to the well-connectedness of its author. Every review deems the book flawless and appears less than objective. Meanwhile, I feel that the story left a few very large gaps in narrative: Einar's transition into Lili felt far too rushed and unexplained, Greta's emotions were not fully accounted for, and the struggles of a burgeoning transsexual were barely addressed beyond the physical aspects. There's no doubt that Ebershoff can write, and write well at that. But the book left me with a more than slight feeling of dissatisfaction. As a love story, perhaps it works. But I want more!

The feeling I had reading this novel was similar to that while reading Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" - the surprise of reading a first novel of beautifully etched prose in the service of a wonderful story. There were similar lyrical touches on every page and never a sense of a forced phrase or overwriting found in more publicized young writers. But the aspect I most appreciated was how fully imagined each scene was, how cinematic the writing. What an auspicious beginning! What a talent to follow!

Based on the true story of the first sex change operation, Ebershoff's novel is an elaborate mediation on the natures of love, gender, marriage, and memory. Einar and Greta Wegener are both Danish painters (Greta's lived in California for a while), and Einar's fame is rising while his wife's is stalled. Greta asks Einar to model for her in women's clothes, and this instance awakens something in Einar, and thus is born Lili. Greta recognizes this awakening and encourages her husband in his transformation. Ebershoff admits it's a fictionalized account, and as an inspired work, it's eloquently rendered. Like other reviewers, I felt certain aspects could've been elaborated upon, but overall the book worked for me. I was especially fascinated by Greta's relationship with Lili as time went on, how each suddenly found herself on a different path that didn't include the other. A sad, beautiful tale about loving fully and about by freeing those we love, we free ourselves.

Ebershoff has written a very beautiful first novel with THE DANISH GIRL. The narrative is flawless from beginning to end; it lures readers into the world of Einar and Greta, capturing our curiosity and imagination. Einar's transformation into Lily is so compelling and real that at times it is as though both are two separate bodies, independent of each other. We also witness the transformation of those within Einar's life, such as Greta, whose love and support laid the foundation for Einar to become Lily. Ebershoff's writing is sensitive and honest and is an overall treat for anyone seeking to read an outstanding novel. THE DANISH GIRL is by far one of the best novels that I've read this year.

As a transgendered individual who has struggled through life with gender identity conflict, this novel is refreshingly human, rather than entirely clinical or tragic. Although many, gender conflicted people experience rejection by spouses and close friends, there really are stories, unfortunately not common, where love triumphs. Though some details in the novel are highly unlikely, and the acceptance Lili receives is very rare, what is a novel for if not to paint our imagination with optimism about what could be? If it causes people to feel a little more compassion for transsexuals and other sorts of unusual people, the author can feel very good about having taken art to its highest form, elevating our spirit.