The Danish Girl: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A love story to teach people about transsexualism
Review: 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.

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Summary: Brave journeys of love
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A literary page-turner. Highly recommended.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A glacially exquisite tale of a curious love
Review: David Ebershoff's debut novel "The Danish Girl" is a glacially exquisite piece of work that takes as its subject the true story of the world's first transexual but is in essence a story about love, the strangeness of love.

Ebershoff's perspective of Greta's and Einar's/Lili's relationship is coolly cerebral and unsentimental. Even the strange bleeding phenomenon that visits Einar/Lili is treated in the most clear-eyed and unsensational way. Unafraid to explore the subterranean realms of human consciousness, his dare and genius is to make us believe the impossible, that love can transcend the inversion of a normal conjugal relationship. Which wife would ask her husband to slip into a woman's shoes if only for a pose ......unless she senses - albeit subconsciously - something essentially female about his inner self ? Right through the early stages of Einar's transformation into Lili, it almost seems like Greta is coaxing Lili out of Einar's closet without a thought for the implications of their relationship. With Lili out in the open, Einar's personality withdraws, grows indistinct and then disappears. Only when Lili finally emerges and falls in love does Greta recognise that the Einar/Greta relationship has unalterably ended.

Ebershoff's curious tale of an unusual love is genuinely heartwarming and never less than absorbing. It is also relentlessly sad and true. A beautifully written novel.

Rating:
Summary: A glacially exquisite tale of a curious love
Review: David Ebershoff's debut novel "The Danish Girl" is a glacially exquisite piece of work that takes as its subject the true story of the world's first transexual but is in essence a story about love, the strangeness of love.

Ebershoff's perspective of Greta's and Einar's/Lili's relationship is coolly cerebral and unsentimental. Even the strange bleeding phenomenon that visits Einar/Lili is treated in the most clear-eyed and unsensational way. Unafraid to explore the subterranean realms of human consciousness, his dare and genius is to make us believe the impossible, that love can transcend the inversion of a normal conjugal relationship. Which wife would ask her husband to slip into a woman's shoes if only for a pose ......unless she senses - albeit subconsciously - something essentially female about his inner self ? Right through the early stages of Einar's transformation into Lili, it almost seems like Greta is coaxing Lili out of Einar's closet without a thought for the implications of their relationship. With Lili out in the open, Einar's personality withdraws, grows indistinct and then disappears. Only when Lili finally emerges and falls in love does Greta recognise that the Einar/Greta relationship has unalterably ended.

Ebershoff's curious tale of an unusual love is genuinely heartwarming and never less than absorbing. It is also relentlessly sad and true. A beautifully written novel.

Rating:
Summary: Most Compelling!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A solid page turner.
Review: Ebershoff's moving «The Danish Girl» is a rare find, a book you cannot put down and that holds your interest right to the end. Ebershoff presents his main characters in layers, carefully peeling away their exteriors to reveal their inner motivations and conflicts. The author takes an actual event and fleshes it out with characters who represent the various challenges facing Einar Wegener, a Danish painter who, though born a man, wants to be a woman. He is abetted in this quest by his wife, the American born Greta Waud. Greta is a unique character, and her singularity plays into her acceptance--and encouragement--of her husband's desire. This is as much her book as it is Einar's. Ebershoff's strength comes from his avoidance of the sensational or grotesque; it's a pleasure to read a novel on such a subject void of any heavy-handed manipualtion or sensationalism. An excellent book of rare feeling that poses lingering questions about identity.

Rating:
Summary: A solid page turner.
Review: Ebershoff's moving «The Danish Girl» is a rare find, a book you cannot put down and that holds your interest right to the end. Ebershoff presents his main characters in layers, carefully peeling away their exteriors to reveal their inner motivations and conflicts. The author takes an actual event and fleshes it out with characters who represent the various challenges facing Einar Wegener, a Danish painter who, though born a man, wants to be a woman. He is abetted in this quest by his wife, the American born Greta Waud. Greta is a unique character, and her singularity plays into her acceptance--and encouragement--of her husband's desire. This is as much her book as it is Einar's. Ebershoff's strength comes from his avoidance of the sensational or grotesque; it's a pleasure to read a novel on such a subject void of any heavy-handed manipualtion or sensationalism. An excellent book of rare feeling that poses lingering questions about identity.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing
Review: Has anyone found information on the real story? If so, please e-mail [e-mail].

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: I found it a page-turner, but it left me with questions: 1) Lili's death in 1931 seems to follow very closely on that "third operation" to make her a uterus. Did she die from the complications? (And why did Anna and Carlisle push her up to the "balcony of the world" and just leave her there? The book makes it seem like they wanted her to just drift off and die there.) 2) What on earth did Greta/Gerda ever see in Einar Wegener in the first place? Where did that love come from? It just seems baseless.