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Ben MarcusBen Marcus's books The Age of Wire and String and Notable American Women were considered "experimental" fiction because of his unconventional use of... Continue »
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1 Remote Warehouse Mythology- Folklore and Storytelling

Girl Meets Boy: The Myth of Iphis

by Ali Smith

Girl Meets Boy: The Myth of Iphis Cover

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Girl meets boy. It's a story as old as time. But in Whitbread winner Ali Smith's lyrical, funny, mash-up of Ovid's most joyful gender-bending metamorphosis story, girl meets boy in so many more ways than one. Imogen and Anthea, sisters that are opposites, work together at Pure, a creative agency attempting to "bottle imagination, politics, and nature" in the form of a new Scottish bottled-water business with global aspirations. Anthea, somewhat flighty and bored with the office environment, becomes enamored of an "interventionist protest artist" nicknamed Iphisol, whose billboard-size corporate slurs around town are the bane of Pure's existence. And when Anthea and Iphisol meet, it's a match made in heaven. Girl Meets Boy is about girls and boys, girls and girls, love and transformation, the absurdity of consumerism, as well as a story of reversals and revelations that's as sharply witty as it is lyrical. Funny, fresh, poetic, and political, Girl Meets Boy is a myth of metamorphosis for a world made in Madison Avenue's image, and the funniest addition to The Myths series from Canongate since The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood.

Review:

"Veteran British novelist Smith returns from 2006's Whitbread Award — winner The Accidental with a cheerful, sexy, disorienting take on the gender-shifting myths of Iphis (as told in Ovid's Metamorphoses). Fragile, rootless Anthea arrives at the Inverness, Scotland, offices of the slick, multibrand corporate behemoth Pure, where her up-and-coming sister Midge has gotten her a job. Raised on their grandfather's strange stories of rebellion and gender switching, the sisters undergo very different transformations when confronting 'Pure oblivion,' the corporation's goal of being simultaneously ubiquitous and invisible. Drifting at work, Anthea meets kilt-clad graffiti artist Robin, who awakens destructive passions within her. Midge, meanwhile, is summoned to Pure's London headquarters by Keith, the charismatic 'boss of bosses,' and her meeting with him sets her on an unexpected course with the company. Smith's spare and sharp lyricism makes the action secondary, but the ironies that arise from the corporate setting for a very old myth are handled with glee (including jabs at water supply privatization), and Smith's cadences, which read like classical drama, carry the novel along beautifully." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Smith's small novel imaginatively touches on big subjects of political and social importance." Library Journal

Review:

"The politics don't especially convince, but the comic, smart, spirited tale-spinning often amuses." Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN:
9781847670199
Subtitle:
The Myth of Iphis
Author:
Smith, Ali
Publisher:
Canongate U.S.
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Fairy Tales, Folklore & Mythology
Subject:
Mythology, classical
Subject:
Metamorphosis
Subject:
Psychological fiction
Edition Description:
Trade Cloth
Publication Date:
20071221
Binding:
Hardback
Language:
English
Pages:
176
Dimensions:
7.75 x 5.00 in 9.50 oz

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Girl Meets Boy: The Myth of Iphis Used Trade Paper
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$5.95 In Stock
Product details 176 pages Canongate U.S. - English 9781847670199 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "Veteran British novelist Smith returns from 2006's Whitbread Award — winner The Accidental with a cheerful, sexy, disorienting take on the gender-shifting myths of Iphis (as told in Ovid's Metamorphoses). Fragile, rootless Anthea arrives at the Inverness, Scotland, offices of the slick, multibrand corporate behemoth Pure, where her up-and-coming sister Midge has gotten her a job. Raised on their grandfather's strange stories of rebellion and gender switching, the sisters undergo very different transformations when confronting 'Pure oblivion,' the corporation's goal of being simultaneously ubiquitous and invisible. Drifting at work, Anthea meets kilt-clad graffiti artist Robin, who awakens destructive passions within her. Midge, meanwhile, is summoned to Pure's London headquarters by Keith, the charismatic 'boss of bosses,' and her meeting with him sets her on an unexpected course with the company. Smith's spare and sharp lyricism makes the action secondary, but the ironies that arise from the corporate setting for a very old myth are handled with glee (including jabs at water supply privatization), and Smith's cadences, which read like classical drama, carry the novel along beautifully." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review" by , "Smith's small novel imaginatively touches on big subjects of political and social importance."
"Review" by , "The politics don't especially convince, but the comic, smart, spirited tale-spinning often amuses."
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