Hide this

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Girl Meets Boy : The Myth of Iphis by Ali Smith
Loading...

Girl Meets Boy : The Myth of Iphis

by Ali Smith

Series: The Myths (7)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
2271025,141 (3.87)8
Loading...
won't like will probably not like will probably like will like will love

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

Showing 1-5 of 10 (next | show all)
It was ok but I found the characters were too stereotypical and some parts went on a bit! ( )
  vintage_vermin | Jul 12, 2009 |
I'm not really qualified to review books like this. Works written by Serious Female Authors about delicate (meaning "thin"), introverted girl-women who filter stimuli from the male-dominated world through their totally kaleidoscopic internal metaphor thought process might give Serious Female English Majors a lot to write about, but it tends to annoy me.

The first chapter was so maddeningly precious and affected that I put the book down and avoided it for six months. Today I revisited it, starting with chapter two, and realized that the first chapter is written in a way that shows the reader how confused and unfocused the lead character is inside. It over-uses a particularly maddening device where words that end a sentence are used again in the next sentence to expand the thought. That might be okay in fanfic, but I can't stand it in books I pay good money for on Amazon.

Real quotes from the first chapter: "He once walked a tightrope across the Thames. The Thames is a river in London, which is five hundred and twenty-seven miles from here..." And "Then I stopped to have a look at the big flat stone cemented into the pavement...the famous stone, the oldest most important stone in town."

The first chapter was a torturous plod through broken sentences, needlessly repeated words and phrases, and the character herself was as inert and dull as the prose.

It turns out, that was the point. When she falls in love, she becomes slightly more interesting. And her sister, who appears at first in chapter two, is actually the exciting one in the book. But only compared to one another - they are not, compared to any other character ever written, very interesting at all.

Eventually, somewhere around the midpoint of this very short book, a myth gets told. I can't expect all of the books in the Canongate Myth series to be as deeply moving and transformative as Jeanette Winterson's Weight, but this one reads from beginning to end like it was written on spec and turned in after the first draft, even though there is the germ of a fairly good idea inside this book. ( )
  noumenon | Apr 6, 2009 |
It’s the kind of book I’d love to enjoy more than I ever do, that is not to say I disliked the book, I didn’t but in the end I didn’t love it either.

I did enjoy the writing style though, which switches the narration between the two sisters and plays with different styles of narration. But in the end it wasn’t quite as powerful or effecting as I initially thought it was going to be.

Read and comment on my full review at:
Bart's Bookshelf ( )
  bart154ce | Mar 14, 2009 |
A re-telling of Ovid's Iphis legend from Metamorphoses. It is one of the few collections in the novel to have a happier ending luckily. This version alternates between sisters Anthea and Imogen (Midge). Their mother left when they were young and they were raised by their father and grand parents. Anthea is a free spirit who starts work at the advertising agency Imogen works at, but doesn't like being constrained to her role there despite being reminded she is on a good wage.

Imogen on the other hand follows the crowd. She runs with the men there who are extremely sexist, homophobic and rude. They are always trying to get her drunk and she is barely eating, disappearing into herself. Things change for both sisters for the better when Anthea falls in love with a graffiti artist who is a girl who looks like a boy. Imogen has to deal with her sister being gay amd find her own way in life at the same time.

This was a beautiful story. I adored it so much and have been telling everyone I know to read it. It has themost unusual and moving sex scene I think I have ever read in a novel. The prose is beautiful, a sort of stream of consciousness of the thoughts of the two sisters. It challenges gender stereotypes with the masculine being found beautiful in women and vice versa. It's part of the wonderful Canongate Myth series and I wil definitely be reading more in the series and by Ali Smith. ( )
1 vote Rhinoa | Feb 28, 2009 |
I absolutely loved this. This is the third book by Smith I've read, and each book makes me love her more. I liked The Accidental quite well, and Hotel World even more, and I think this is my favorite of the three. I can't wait to read more by her. ( )
  kyuuketsukirui | Dec 2, 2008 |
Showing 1-5 of 10 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

Book description

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0676978754, Hardcover)

Another internationally acclaimed writer contributes a fascinating, compelling reinterpretation of a myth that resonates deeply today.

Ligdus and Telethusa are having a child, but they cannot afford to have a girl. Ligdus informs Telethusa that she had better hope for a boy. While this decision makes them both sad, Telethusa “must/obey.” She prays to Isis, but births a girl and names her Iphis, a name that “suited male or female–/a neutral name.” She convinces everyone, including Ligdus, that Iphis is a boy.

Iphis matures and falls in love with another girl, Ianthe, and is engaged for marriage, yet s/he is ruled by the sexual norms of the time: “[P]ossessed by love so strange . . . no female wants/a female!” but “no learned art–can ever make of me/a boy.” She attempts to reconcile her love for Ianthe against the pressures of “nature.” The wedding day is near, Telethusa is desperate, and prays again to Isis. Iphis is transformed, looking like a boy.

Is Ovid suggesting that what we think is nature is attitude? Does Iphis grow a penis? Or does Iphis, adopting the characteristics of a boy, remain a girl married to a girl, undermining traditional values?

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:20 -0400)

The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.

Quick Links

Ebooks Audio Swap
2 pay1/74

Popular covers

 

Help/FAQs | About | Privacy/Terms | Blog | Contact | LibraryThing.com | APIs | WikiThing | Common Knowledge | 46,197,724 books!