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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
This book was a very easy read, i read it two days prior to seeing the film and i enjoyed the film so much more for doing so. However, as i knew what would happen in the end, i started tearing up early on in the movie - which only confused and made my mother tense for scenes which weren't at all saddening. Thoroughly enjoyed the film adaption and the changes that were made to the ending - finishing the book i was left heart-broken and extremely sad, as opposed to leaving the film still sad (i'm an emotional wreck) but light-hearted. Enjoyed both the book and the film adaption!
The Danish Girl has gotten quite a bit of press lately. A movie starring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander was recently released and has earned several Oscar nominations. The Danish Girl is a fictionalized story of Lili Elbe, one of the first people known to have gender reassignment surgery, and her life growing up as Einar Wegener and his wife Greta Wegener. When Greta is realizes her husband’s desires, she encourages him to be himself. The novel is a beautiful story about what love is and just how far true love extends. This is not a book about just romantic love, but about love for and complete acceptance of a person and their soul. It’s about love at it’s most selfless point (a concept I heard did not necessarily make it into the movie, but I have not seen it myself).
Spannend. Das offene Ende frustriert etwas aber andererseits besser als das befürchtete schlechte Ende (das durch das offene Ende eben unausgesprochen in der Luft liegt)
چقدر تموم مدت خوندنش از اعماق قلبم برای گردا اشک ریختم. واسه کسایی که هنوز این کتاب و نخوندم پیشنهادم اینه که فیلمشو ببینن. بازیگرا عالی بودن
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is not a LGBTQ book... I know what it says in the description but it's not. This is a wildly inaccurate representation of trans life no matter when it took place. (More on this later)
When it's says 'loosely based on a true story' it is an understatement. It is likely that the only things accurate to the story are the names and places involved (and I don't know enough to say even those are.)
While the Lili in real life was trans the character in this book suffers from a clothing fetish and a dissociative identity disorder (split personality)... the triggering event that begins Lili's story happens when her wife asks her to pose as a model in woman's clothes for her painting. The author blatantly writes the crossdressing in this book as if it were a fetish instead of a tool to embrace one's inner self... Their are several times within the book that when Gerda talks to or goes out with her husband Einar and later must recount the conversation/event to Lili because she wasn't 'present'... It is written in such a way that makes you feel like it is a Supernatural account of a ghost entering a person and slowly edging them out of their own being.. Einar and Lili have opposite personalities with different interests, mannerisms, etc... when one appears the other vanishes with no recollection of the time they were gone.
This is supposed to be a love story.. but their marriage isn't healthy.. Gerda completely goes along with the entire thing like it's completely normal and actually goes out of her way to encourage it. Now, if Einar had just said he feels like he has always been/felt like a woman and she had encouraged him/her to be herself I understand that.. but here he is acting like two separate people, has her tell him/her what the other half did because they have no memory and Gerda doesn't try to get him help or even worry about this?
This is not modern day.. and yet she goes with it.. encourages him to crossdress, go out socially with their friends as a female, flirt with guys that don't know their secret.. in the time period encouraging him/her to do these things would have been putting her husband at physical risk.. Einar becomes Lili with no thought as to how it might affect Einar's wife (because she is absolutely not Lili's wife).. and Gerda almost seems to use her husband's new personality for her own amusement...
The real Lili must have been a strong and confident woman to have come out in her time and have gender-affirming surgery... but the Lili in this book is weak, helpless, mentioned several times to be overly thin, pale, and feminine (before Lili becomes Lili).. She looks to her wife for guidance and encouragement every step of the way.. this is not the story of a woman who became part of trans history.
If you're looking for a fantastical tale of an abusive relationship and a man with a dissociative identity disorder in disguise of a romanticed trans transformation then this book is for you. If it's not and your actually interested in trans history please look up real information of the real Lili Elbe and not waste your time reading this very fictional inaccurate account.
When it's says 'loosely based on a true story' it is an understatement. It is likely that the only things accurate to the story are the names and places involved (and I don't know enough to say even those are.)
While the Lili in real life was trans the character in this book suffers from a clothing fetish and a dissociative identity disorder (split personality)... the triggering event that begins Lili's story happens when her wife asks her to pose as a model in woman's clothes for her painting. The author blatantly writes the crossdressing in this book as if it were a fetish instead of a tool to embrace one's inner self... Their are several times within the book that when Gerda talks to or goes out with her husband Einar and later must recount the conversation/event to Lili because she wasn't 'present'... It is written in such a way that makes you feel like it is a Supernatural account of a ghost entering a person and slowly edging them out of their own being.. Einar and Lili have opposite personalities with different interests, mannerisms, etc... when one appears the other vanishes with no recollection of the time they were gone.
This is supposed to be a love story.. but their marriage isn't healthy.. Gerda completely goes along with the entire thing like it's completely normal and actually goes out of her way to encourage it. Now, if Einar had just said he feels like he has always been/felt like a woman and she had encouraged him/her to be herself I understand that.. but here he is acting like two separate people, has her tell him/her what the other half did because they have no memory and Gerda doesn't try to get him help or even worry about this?
This is not modern day.. and yet she goes with it.. encourages him to crossdress, go out socially with their friends as a female, flirt with guys that don't know their secret.. in the time period encouraging him/her to do these things would have been putting her husband at physical risk.. Einar becomes Lili with no thought as to how it might affect Einar's wife (because she is absolutely not Lili's wife).. and Gerda almost seems to use her husband's new personality for her own amusement...
The real Lili must have been a strong and confident woman to have come out in her time and have gender-affirming surgery... but the Lili in this book is weak, helpless, mentioned several times to be overly thin, pale, and feminine (before Lili becomes Lili).. She looks to her wife for guidance and encouragement every step of the way.. this is not the story of a woman who became part of trans history.
If you're looking for a fantastical tale of an abusive relationship and a man with a dissociative identity disorder in disguise of a romanticed trans transformation then this book is for you. If it's not and your actually interested in trans history please look up real information of the real Lili Elbe and not waste your time reading this very fictional inaccurate account.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Dysphoria
This book is loosely inspired by the lives of Danish painters Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener and it could have been such a good book but I found it very boring and disappointing
Devastating, beautiful and a necessary story to be told.
I watched the movie years ago before i knew it was an adaptation from a book, absolutely loved it and cried to it in a way that i haven’t cried with a lot of things.
The book gave me a refresh of the story in a beautiful way, it highlights so much more the love that Greta had for Einar/Lily, and the sacrifices she made for her ultimate happiness. Lili’s journey was as beautiful and devastating.
Really enjoyed it
I watched the movie years ago before i knew it was an adaptation from a book, absolutely loved it and cried to it in a way that i haven’t cried with a lot of things.
The book gave me a refresh of the story in a beautiful way, it highlights so much more the love that Greta had for Einar/Lily, and the sacrifices she made for her ultimate happiness. Lili’s journey was as beautiful and devastating.
Really enjoyed it
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The prose is vivid and absolutely beautiful, but as far as conveying the lives and struggles of transgender people and their loved ones, it's lackluster at best and actively harmful and offensive in its portrayals at worst.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Transphobia
Moderate: Death, Forced institutionalization, Medical content
Minor: Miscarriage
Couldn’t connect with the characters. Seemed highly romanticised.