after i saw the trailer for the movie version of the danish girl, starring eddie redmayne, i decided to read the novel. the movie looked interesting so decided to read the novel, before i saw the film. before i go on, i have to say redmayne makes a beautiful woman.
based on the trailer, i learned that the movie and the novel are based on a real person, a transgender woman from the 1930s, lilli elbe. i was hoping to learn more about this person, but unfortunately this novel is a fictionalized record of her life versus one based in some truth. due to this, i have to add that i did have issues reading this work because i kept on wondering what was true and what was made up. if i had read the author's note at the end, first, it would have made my reading experience, a little more bearable.
i should give one compliment to this work, i did appreciate that it got right to the action. the novel opened with the incident in which einar dressed like a woman for his wife, greta's painting, which led to his cross dressing and later transition to a man. it was great that the novel dove right in and then we learned of the characters' pasts in flashbacks.
i will add that i did enjoy the characters greta and carlisle. i loved how supportive both were of einar/lilli. however, this is where my compliments end.
the issue that i had with this novel that though it was about a transgender individual it was insensitive to the transgender experience. i can't speak for the community, but i doubt they were happy with this work. the first thing that i disagreed with was the feminizing of einar's body, once he realized he enjoyed wearing women's clothes. all of a sudden his lashes were long and his breast plump. this was an issue because there are no physical attributes that reflect one gender, even genital is not an indication because if that was the case, transgender as a category would not exist. i thought it was insensitive of the author to describe einar as such, as though to say of course, he was transgender, he looked like a female to begin with, though that is just bad stereotyping. effeminateness in men and masculinity in women is not an indication of gender or sexuality and for ebershoff to imply that our physical body is a reflection of our gender identity made me think him unqualified to write about a transgender character.
another issue, i had was the duality he created in einar was more akin to dr. jekyll and mr. hyde, then to a person coming into oneself. again, i thought he did a disservice to the transgender community by presenting einar as two different characters. it was difficult to believe that einar would have no recollection of his time as lilli nor lilli unable to recall any of einar's memories. if einar's brain switch on and off like that, he would be a schizophrenic or have multiple personalities. it was too literal of an example for the conflict that einar had. instead of giving the reader insight on the stress one has in determining their gender indentity, it reinforced the fact that society only finds female and male as definitions of gender.
last, but not least, though i have no insight on their marriage in real life, it was outrageous to assume that greta would be supportive yet so uncommunicative. it seemed so odd how she and einar would not discuss how he would dress up as lilli. for her to be so forward thinking and have a "western backbone", it would be assume that she would discuss this with her husband, but they both pretended as though it did not occur. this aspect of the story made no sense to me, their conversations could have been an excellent discussion on acceptance and tolerance yet it never occurred.
i also do not believe that hendrik's would have been so understanding. i am not saying that transgender people can not find love, but for it to be the 1930's and for him to be fine with lilli's past, seemed a little too clean cut for me.
i am glad i read this book because i was able to learn about lilli elbe, though this novel does not give an real insight on her life. i did feel that it was insensitive to the transgender experince and could have been written better.
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