Tomboy

Name: Tomboy
Brand: Brilliance Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Thomas Meinecke
ISBN: 9781469200989

Author: Thomas Meinecke, Daniel Bowles

Narrator: Kate Rudd

Unabridged: 8 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Published: 12/11/2012

Categories: Fiction, Lgbtq+, Literary Fiction

Synopsis

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.

About Thomas Meinecke

Thomas Meinecke was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1955. He is the author of five novels, all of which use an innovative writing technique similar to music sampling. This approach allows him to deal with a variety of topics, from popular culture, music, and gender roles to the German, Jewish, and African Diaspora in the United States. When he isn’t busy writing, he plays in the experimental rock band F.S.K. (Voluntary Self-Control) and works as a club DJ in Berlin.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Gavin

Gendern, diverse Geschlechter, Identitätsfragen in Zeiten unsicherer Rollenzuschreibungen: Das Buch zur Stunde! Moment – Thomas Meinecke hat TOMBOY (1998) bereits vor nahezu 25 Jahren geschrieben? Oh… Offensichtlich hatte Meinecke schon damals genug vom Thema. Anders als heutige – meist hasserfüllte......more

Goodreads review by Thorben

In wilder Ritt durch die Gender Studies, das Neckartal und die jüngere deutsch-amerikanische Geschichte - für sich genommen alles sehr spannend. Was hier genau (und ob überhaupt etwas) passiert, kann ich aber leider nicht sagen.......more

Goodreads review by Patrick

Tomboy is a self-indulgent, smug exercise in faux-intellectual writing that is all method and no content. Meinecke claims to be "sampling words and texts the way a disc jockey samples music", but that has no value unless it creates something worthwhile. Sadly, in Tomboy style is an end in itself. An......more

Goodreads review by Kathleen

Es ist geschafft. Verkopft, nicht sehr einladend und daher interessant, weil eigen. Verschiedene Theorien werden rezitiert. Termini fliegen um die Ohren. Popliteratur altert schnell. Ein gelungener Mikrokosmos dauerstudentischen Lebens, mitsamt Arroganzen, genauen Subkulturbeschreibungen. Widerspenstig,......more

Goodreads review by Grady

A Challenging Read, An Introduction to Thomas Meinecke Thomas Meinecke, born in Hamburg Germany in 1955, is a German musician , writer and DJ who went on to study drama, modern German literature and communication studies in Munich. With a rich background in creativity it is not surprising that he sh......more

Quotes

“The rhythm really grabs you. There are few authors, with whom this is the case. You can hardly stop reading.” —Elfriede Jelinek, 2004 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature“The curious thing about this book: what sounds like a repulsively trendy idea in summary actually makes for pleasurable, funny, witty and exciting reading.” —Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich“[Tomboy] grooves, stops, crunches, broods…Meinecke simulates the spinning of a turntable…[in] the phenomenal performance of this concept-novel.” —Die Tageszeitung, Berlin