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nonabgo 's review for:
The Danish Girl
by David Ebershoff
A long goodbye, this novel is, more so than the movie - which was lovely in its own way, with Eddie Redmayne's beautiful portrayal of Einar/ Lili. The book is lovely in itself, and sad, so very sad, a story of many partings just as much as a story of discovery and becoming.
The shining element, the one that infused life into this novel, was Greta. She, to me, was the hero of Ebershoff's fictionalized account of Lili Elbe's life. Her portrayal stunning, emotional, raw at times. I wanted to hold her hand, to hug her, to tell her it's all going to be ok. I understood her feelings of jealousy and betrayal, her inability to let go, her longing, even her anger at finding out that the husband who refused to give her a child desired a child with someone else.
David Ebershoff handled this subject with delicacy, avoiding almost all crassness (I didn't understand the need for the brothel scenes, but that's just me and it was only a fleeting moment). His focus is on the marriage, the minutiae that make and break relationships, besides the individual portrayals of Einar/ Lili and Greta. Both characters are treated with much care and the respect they deserved and I applaud the author for managing to do this without judgement, without handholding the reader or infusing personal views into the story. He let his characters tell their own story, in their own way.
I love how this novel is about relationships, about love that survives so much extreme change, about the characters themselves, and avoids entirely to become political, militant. He doesn't preach, he merely facilitates us getting to know these people intimately.
The book takes us on a journey through Copenhagen, Paris, Dresden and California, as much as on a journey through Einar/ Lili and Greta's lives I would have maybe loved more spatial context, especially during the Paris leg - which gave off a bright vibe, which was sadly left half-explored. But the Copenhagen chapters, at least, were perfectly in tune with the depicted events, space and characters moving together, influencing one another. Ebershoff's prose is alluring, it seduced me equally as the story itself.
Movie or book? It's one of those instances where it's hard to decide, I loved them both just as much.
The shining element, the one that infused life into this novel, was Greta. She, to me, was the hero of Ebershoff's fictionalized account of Lili Elbe's life. Her portrayal stunning, emotional, raw at times. I wanted to hold her hand, to hug her, to tell her it's all going to be ok. I understood her feelings of jealousy and betrayal, her inability to let go, her longing, even her anger at finding out that the husband who refused to give her a child desired a child with someone else.
David Ebershoff handled this subject with delicacy, avoiding almost all crassness (I didn't understand the need for the brothel scenes, but that's just me and it was only a fleeting moment). His focus is on the marriage, the minutiae that make and break relationships, besides the individual portrayals of Einar/ Lili and Greta. Both characters are treated with much care and the respect they deserved and I applaud the author for managing to do this without judgement, without handholding the reader or infusing personal views into the story. He let his characters tell their own story, in their own way.
I love how this novel is about relationships, about love that survives so much extreme change, about the characters themselves, and avoids entirely to become political, militant. He doesn't preach, he merely facilitates us getting to know these people intimately.
The book takes us on a journey through Copenhagen, Paris, Dresden and California, as much as on a journey through Einar/ Lili and Greta's lives I would have maybe loved more spatial context, especially during the Paris leg - which gave off a bright vibe, which was sadly left half-explored. But the Copenhagen chapters, at least, were perfectly in tune with the depicted events, space and characters moving together, influencing one another. Ebershoff's prose is alluring, it seduced me equally as the story itself.
Movie or book? It's one of those instances where it's hard to decide, I loved them both just as much.