The story in "The Danish Girl" is probably well-known; it is the extraordinary journey of Lili Elbe, a girl born in the form of a boy named Einer Wegener, to become herself and the world's first transgender person. This story became well-known after it was adapted into a film of the same name, which received a slew of Oscar nominations in 2015, including Best Supporting Actress for Alicia Vikander, who played his wife Gerda. Waud. It's strange that even though the movie is so popular (and has a good chance of tearing up my tears, I haven't seen it." As a believer in "reading/seeing first what comes first," I decided to wait and read the book first. As a result, this review is purely about the book "Danish Girl," unaffected by the already popular film.
The novel "Danish Girl" begins with a scene of Greta, just like the movie's story about the circumstances that led to Einar's discovery of his true gender, which I was already familiar with (the wife in the novel) changed her name from Gerda to Greta) asked her husband Einar to put on women's clothing and pose as a model for the painting. Greta's request becomes pivotal later in the story because it inspires Einar to discover what is inherent in himself - a woman he names Lili. However, Einar was not the first to notice the strangeness and desire to be a woman hidden within her. Because Einar, the old boy, had a time daydreaming and was fascinated by his grandmother's skirt, secretly enjoying the look and touch of his childhood best friend Hans. Einar's story of discovering and fulfilling his silent but intense desires, which ran parallel to his marriage, has suddenly become a game of disguise, blending reality and fiction to create a fictitious character. The deep sadness was tinged with regret.
Yes, there's something sad about the way Lili appears unexpectedly in the house, then sneaks out to live her own life in the face of Greta's questioning and annoyed gaze. Greta's earlier past is sad, an American girl free enough to let her husband play the role of a woman while still painfully questioning her marriage. Where will she go now that Lili appears to overpower Einar in the presence of the apartment building she and her husband share? Greta had a previous husband, though she met and married her first husband before meeting and marrying Einar. Greta has a history of loss and trauma, as she and her ex-husband Teddy Cross bury their only child, who died at birth, with the umbilical cord wrapped around their neck. Then there was the process of Greta having to watch her husband slowly die in pain and helplessness from tuberculosis - a death that left her a widow at the age of 24.
And the sadness persists, even though, despite her losses and sufferings, Greta should have had a truly happy and peaceful marriage in her second marriage. But maybe the man Greta had met, loved, and kissed passionately in the lobby of the Danish Academy of Fine Arts years before wasn't Einar at all - he was just the cover of a temporarily slumbering Lili, only to be now. Greta's suggestion, ironically, jolted me awake. What the two thought was just a game quickly turned into a situation no one expected - as if it were a marriage of three: Greta, Einar, and Lili.
The sadness was in Einar's occasional unusual nosebleeds when he was Lili as if that part of the female identity was writhing and struggling to be completely freed from the male form. It is still bound. Sadness lies in Greta's continued wearing of the ring from her previous marriage on one hand, and the ring that linked her and Einar by marriage vows on the other, as a reminder Greta of the men she once loved. However, the ex-husband has died, and the current husband is still struggling to discover his true gender identity. And the sadness is also evident in Greta's assistance to Einar in ending his struggle with visits to various doctors, all are unable to comprehend Einar's true situation - he is now ill. a lot as a result of unending internal war.
Greta, as author David Ebershoff describes her, is a one-of-a-kind character. She has a rare personality combination of independence and loyalty. She has strong feelings and is always defending her privacy, particularly the privacy and integrity of her marriage. At the same time, she was deeply committed to the two men she married, particularly Einar. She did everything for him as she had done for Teddy Cross (except to help Teddy have a peaceful death after he reached the point of dying from tuberculosis). She knew Einar better than he knew himself; she allows and encourages Einar to live as Lili because she knows that's what he wants. She also required Lili to draw paintings, which helped her achieve great success in her career after a long period of rejection. Greta, on the other hand, was not a saint; she needed Einar, she needed her husband, and she yearned for a real marriage, with a man. Greta is torn between her own desires and her desire to make Einar happy, and Einar is torn between her manhood and her innate desire to be a woman. You've had it since the day you were born.
Even though it deals with the sensitive subject of gender and transsexuality, "Danish Girl" embraces an elegant and sophisticated European style and breath. Whether in Copenhagen, Denmark, Paris, France, or Dresden, Germany, "Danish Girl" maintains an elegant, graceful color and style as if the sentence itself. Einar and Greta painted a beautiful picture with their story. But the story is never boring or monochromatic because, when nakedness and intensity are required, David Ebershoff is still able to describe that haunting intensity with a pen. gloomy expression. The author describes the process of self-discovery, discovering the physiological part of Einar's desire to be a woman, using tape to tape his penis - the part where he felt more and more like a shrunken lump of flesh - pressed against the bottom of his thighs, having to go to a strip club in Paris regularly, learning how to be a woman from the curtain performance of freestyle dancers exposing their genitals. And Einar's - or Lili's - desire was finally realized when Einar met Dr. Bolk thanks to Lili's research and introduction.
Lili's quest for the right gender identity is pushed to the limit, with surgeries, particularly ovarian and uterus transplant surgery, to help transform Lili into a real woman, followed by The pain was so intense that Lili could only get it under control with morphine. That journey would be impossible without the challenges posed to Einar and Greta's marriage, as well as to Lili's memory of a man who no longer exists. What, after all, is marriage, and what role does love play in it? Greta has feelings for both Einar and Lili. And where will Lili's memory as Einar go, who will it belong to, or will it die with the human? Einar's shape? And how does Greta feel about Lili now that the person she married is no longer alive?
Greta and Lili have had a difficult time adjusting to their new lives and living together without Einar. The King of Denmark, of course, declared their marriage null and void, but what matters more than the marriage certificate is the bond and invisible thread that binds these two extraordinary women together. Greta once rejected Hans, Einar's childhood friend whom she reconnected with because of Lili, who had partly helped her satisfy her simple male desire that Einar could no longer satisfy - for Lili because of the journey to help Lili live fully is herself. And she kept rejecting Hans, denying his love, until Lili settled down and moved on to the next chapter of her life. Greta and Lili used to fight constantly when Lili decided to have a third surgery to transplant a uterus so she could have a child with the man she loved, Henrik. And in the end, even though they both went on with their lives, Greta and Lili's fates were possibly inseparable. After all, Einar and Greta were once a couple with a talent for painting and a story that challenged long-held notions of marriage and love.
Lili's ending in the novel foreshadows her real-life ending, which occurred in September 1931. She writes a letter to her sister after undergoing a transplant that would kill her. "Now I know death is near," she wrote. I had a dream about my mother last night. Mom took me in her arms and called me Lili... Dad was also present..." When a uterus was transplanted into her body, the surgery went wrong.
Cyclosporine, a drug used to prevent transplant rejection, was first used successfully nearly 50 years after Lili's death, in 1980. That summer, she wrote a letter to another friend in which she recounted her life. The letter was heavy with death predictions, but also with the sweet pain of happiness. "That's me, Lili," she wrote. I have a right to life, which I have demonstrated over the last 14 months. Maybe 14 months isn't much, but it feels like a full and happy human life to me."