This innovative novel from German author Thomas Meinecke takes a thought-provoking look at the role of gender in the social, artistic, and intellectual pursuits of a group of inquisitive university students living in Heidelberg. The clique includes bisexual Korinna, a star tennis player and obsessive reader of Michel Foucault’s and Judith Butler’s theories of sexuality; Frauke, a lesbian doctoral student writing her dissertation about Christ’s foreskin; Frauke’s fiancée Angela, formerly Angelo, a Bible-reading Italian Catholic who considers himself a lesbian; and Hans, a self-described male feminist who believes that men suffer from “reproduction envy.” Last but not least is Vivian, a half-German, half-American student whose work on her master’s thesis leads her to throw out an incessant series of questions to these friends and classmates—and thus to us, the readers. Structured around Vivian’s questions, Tomboy examines why things are the way they are, particularly regarding the perception of gender between individuals and in society as a whole. Fans of novelists David Foster Wallace and J. G. Ballard, as well as such theorists as Foucault and Butler, are sure to be intrigued by this extraordinary postmodern exercise in literature.
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The curious thing about this book: what sounds like a repulsively trendy idea in summary actually makes for pleasurable, funny, witty and exciting reading.
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Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich