Girl Meets Boy (Canongate Myths)
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"* "A joy to read" - Metro * 'An ecstatic, exhilarating helter-skelter ride of a story' - Financial Times * 'Clever, complex and thrilling' - TLS * 'By the time I finished the book, my heart was beating and tears stood in my eyes, even as I had the biggest smile written all over my face.' - Kirsty Gunn, Observer"
Financial Times
An ecstatic, exhilarating helter-skelter ride of a story
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It's very rare that a book makes me cry real, actual, physical tears, but Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith had me sobbing like a Brownie. Tears of happiness I might add: tears of happiness for the characters, and tears of happiness because the novel itself, the words Ali Smith had written, were just perfect.
The book is a modern-day retelling of the myth of Iphis, one of the few happy moments in Ovid's Metamorphoses, where Iphis the girl is transformed into Iphis the boy in time to marry Ianthe (a girl), the love of her/his life. In Smith's version, there are two sisters in Inverness, Midge (or Imogen) and Anthea. Midge works for Pure, a company selling bottled water to the middle class masses, while Anthea is dreamier. Anthea falls in love with Robin - a girl with her name spelled the boys way - when she daubs anti-capitalist slogans on the outside of the Pure building.
As the chapters jump from Anthea's voice, to Midge's, and back, we see two sisters coming to terms with their lives and their loves and their true feelings. The endings for both girls are truly euphoric both in plot terms and in the tone of Smith's evocative, provocative stream of consciousness prose:
"We'd thought we were along, Robin and I. We'd thought it was just us, under the trees outside the cathedral. But as soon as we'd made our vows there was a great whoop of joy behind us, and when we turned round we saw all the people, there must have been hundreds, they were clapping and cheering, they were throwing confetti, they waved and they roared celebration."
Ali Smith is at her best, too, when she writes about love. Rarely do I find a writer that can encapsulate the very essence of what it feels like to be in love, but she does it. And she did it in this book time and time again... there were passages I read over and over again just to savour the words and sentences and the feelings they evoked. I could almost taste them.
"I had not known, before us, that every vein in my body was capable of carrying light, like a river seen from a train makes a channel of sky etch itself deep into a landscape. I had not known that I could be so much more than myself."
And as if all this didn't tick enough of my boxes, Girl Meets Boy also contains a heartfelt rallying cry for women's rights. I shall leave you with these words, as they appear in this marvelous, beautiful little gem of a book:
"...sexual or domestic violence affects one out of three women and girls worldwide and it is the world's leading cause of injury and death for women... THIS MUST CHANGE"
Go on yoursel', Ali.
The book is a modern-day retelling of the myth of Iphis, one of the few happy moments in Ovid's Metamorphoses, where Iphis the girl is transformed into Iphis the boy in time to marry Ianthe (a girl), the love of her/his life. In Smith's version, there are two sisters in Inverness, Midge (or Imogen) and Anthea. Midge works for Pure, a company selling bottled water to the middle class masses, while Anthea is dreamier. Anthea falls in love with Robin - a girl with her name spelled the boys way - when she daubs anti-capitalist slogans on the outside of the Pure building.
As the chapters jump from Anthea's voice, to Midge's, and back, we see two sisters coming to terms with their lives and their loves and their true feelings. The endings for both girls are truly euphoric both in plot terms and in the tone of Smith's evocative, provocative stream of consciousness prose:
"We'd thought we were along, Robin and I. We'd thought it was just us, under the trees outside the cathedral. But as soon as we'd made our vows there was a great whoop of joy behind us, and when we turned round we saw all the people, there must have been hundreds, they were clapping and cheering, they were throwing confetti, they waved and they roared celebration."
Ali Smith is at her best, too, when she writes about love. Rarely do I find a writer that can encapsulate the very essence of what it feels like to be in love, but she does it. And she did it in this book time and time again... there were passages I read over and over again just to savour the words and sentences and the feelings they evoked. I could almost taste them.
"I had not known, before us, that every vein in my body was capable of carrying light, like a river seen from a train makes a channel of sky etch itself deep into a landscape. I had not known that I could be so much more than myself."
And as if all this didn't tick enough of my boxes, Girl Meets Boy also contains a heartfelt rallying cry for women's rights. I shall leave you with these words, as they appear in this marvelous, beautiful little gem of a book:
"...sexual or domestic violence affects one out of three women and girls worldwide and it is the world's leading cause of injury and death for women... THIS MUST CHANGE"
Go on yoursel', Ali.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I always enjoy Ali Smith's writing, but have found some of her books to work better than others. "Girl Meets Boy" is the best novel of hers that I have read. It is quite simply sensational and shows an author on the top of her form and completely in tune with her subject.
One of a series in which ancient myths are rewritten as modern stories by a range of authors, this is part love story, part fable, and in part a depiction of the modern corporate world. The characters are brilliantly real - even if this is a modern myth - and what Smith has to say about love and life in this little book is inspirational, not to mention very entertaining. Every piece of dialogue rings true and there are truly great passages such as the very believable (and funny) inner thoughts of Imogen, a.k.a. "Midge" as she realises her sister has fallen in love with another girl; and the stream of consciousness of Anthea expressing how it feels to be in love with Robin.
It is a cliche, but I did actually struggle to put this book down. For its writing, but also its powerfully uplifting message and life-affirming qualities, I must give this book five stars. If only all fiction was as good as this.
One of a series in which ancient myths are rewritten as modern stories by a range of authors, this is part love story, part fable, and in part a depiction of the modern corporate world. The characters are brilliantly real - even if this is a modern myth - and what Smith has to say about love and life in this little book is inspirational, not to mention very entertaining. Every piece of dialogue rings true and there are truly great passages such as the very believable (and funny) inner thoughts of Imogen, a.k.a. "Midge" as she realises her sister has fallen in love with another girl; and the stream of consciousness of Anthea expressing how it feels to be in love with Robin.
It is a cliche, but I did actually struggle to put this book down. For its writing, but also its powerfully uplifting message and life-affirming qualities, I must give this book five stars. If only all fiction was as good as this.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Canongate myths series goes from strength to strength with this addition to the oeuvre. Ali Smith has created a remarkably sweet and funny version of Ovid's gender swapping myth of Iphis, the young Cretan princess brought up as a man to save her life.
The story is transposed to modern day Scotland and the story of two sisters struggling to find love and their place in the world. Set against two contemporary stories of the politics of water and the rights of modern women it manages to tell some shocking truths in a palatable way by weaving them into a story of love and coming of age.
It reminded me in parts very much of the style of Jeanette Winterson, particularly in her earlier works like Sexing The Cherry. But as I love Jeanette Winterson this is no bad thing at all.
The story is transposed to modern day Scotland and the story of two sisters struggling to find love and their place in the world. Set against two contemporary stories of the politics of water and the rights of modern women it manages to tell some shocking truths in a palatable way by weaving them into a story of love and coming of age.
It reminded me in parts very much of the style of Jeanette Winterson, particularly in her earlier works like Sexing The Cherry. But as I love Jeanette Winterson this is no bad thing at all.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Joyful, life-affirming and inspiring
What a gem of a book! A joyful, playful myth about a myth: an absolute, transcendant triumph with a surface sparkle that takes the reader deep into issues of what it means to be a... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Artemis
Not bad...
It certainly touches on many wonderful issues, and the plot is engaging and exciting, but the writing style wasn't for me. Read more
Published on 20 May 2010 by E. Elizabeth
First but not the last...
This is the first book by Ali Smith i have read, and it won't be the last!
I don't want to spoil the story, and many other reviews go over the myth, but from someone who... Read more
I don't want to spoil the story, and many other reviews go over the myth, but from someone who... Read more
Published on 26 July 2009 by N. McCusker
not my cup of tea
-very nicely written
-an interesting idea
-not really very satisfying
and i love mythology
-an interesting idea
-not really very satisfying
and i love mythology
Published on 28 April 2009 by Ms. R. Jimenez
girl meets boy
I am having great difficulty getting into this book and I am struggling at present to understand what it is about. Read more
Published on 18 April 2009 by V. Hilsley
The Thing of Legend
I have to admit that despite my mother being a Classics teacher, though possibly because of that, I have no recollection of many of the great myths. Read more
Published on 30 Jan 2009 by Simon Savidge Reads
Wolverhampton Libraries LGBT Reading Group Review
This contemporary tale, based in Inverness, is more than a modern-day retelling of the Iphis myth. Beginning with memories of the two sisters as children (listening to their... Read more
Published on 10 Sep 2008 by Ms. R. Graham
Nice read, hardly life changing
If you're more concerned with the style of writing rather than content then this book is for you. It's well written and has a certain flow to it. Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2008 by Ayn Rand
Girl Flows Into Boy
Ali Smith's work is poetic and lyrical even if it is often about the mundane: offices, supermarkets, overpasses, high street stores, people stuck in dead-end lives. Read more
Published on 8 Aug 2008 by Oliver Redfern
Delightful little book!
Very witty little book, which makes some interesting points eg comparing advertising with myth-making. Smith's usual skill with puns and wordplay is very much in evidence. Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2008 by Lovetoread
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