I purposefully avoid reading too much about a book before I dive in, so I had no idea what to expect upon encountering the first few pages of Ali Smith’s Girl Meets Boy. Its interweaving of legend and reality, its voice perched on the barrier between the real and the surreal, took a few minutes to get used to, but once I was in, I was hooked. Poetic, lyrical, and voice-forward – occasionally to the detriment of comprehension – I found this compact mythologically-influenced story of gender, personal responsibility, and love to be a beautiful treat.
The story, told alternately from the points of view of two sisters, weaves a tale of first queer love and the effect that coming out has on a this small, two-person family in Inverness. The interplay of the distinct voices – the self-critical Imogen, the self-actualized Anthea – is beautiful, though I found myself wishing the story would dig a bit deeper in some places. At its core, this book is a retelling of Ovid’s Metamorphosis – and a particularly self-aware one at that; knowing this is part of the secret to enjoying it. While not outwardly critical of the original myth, the novel does explore the nuance of what queer love and gender look like today versus what Ovid could understand and accept in his time. For this, the eco-warrior plot – the thread that ties the myriad stories together – disappears somewhat, and it was this that left me feeling as though I was constantly being kept at an arm’s length from the story being woven.
In a completely distinct way from fellow Scottish author Irvine Welsh, Smith’s prose affords a unique musicality. To me, reading this book less as a novel and more as a poem fully earns its status as one of 2007’s best.