Billy and Girl

by Deborah Levy

Book Overview

In this brilliant, inventive, tragic farce, Deborah Levy creates the ultimate dysfunctional kids, Billy and his sister Girl. Apparently abandoned years ago by their parents, they now live alone somewhere in England. Girl spends much of her time trying to find their mother, going to strangers' doors and addressing whatever Prozac woman who answers as Mom. Billy spends his time fantasizing a future in which he will be famous, perhaps in the United...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1564782026
• ISBN13: 9781564782021
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

...mom.

Wow! Really heavy, sweet, sad, and quirky.Great book to read on a rainy day.=^..^=

Excellent- loved it

This is my new favorite book. It's the story of 15-year-old Billy who's someday going to be a world famous doctor and 17-year-old menthol-smoking Girl, living abandoned and alone in England. The story is told partly from Billy's point of view, partly from Girl's and partly from a third person narrative. It's a quirky and interesting story- very original. It will definitely leave a lasting impression in the minds of its readers.

very good novel from Levy.

Deborah Levy's "Billy and Girl" is an excellent read for anyone who enjoys books that push form and are willing to experience a narrative that is often quite confusing and spontaneous. Just remember- actions and events don't always make sense in this novel, although they all come together in the end. The book concers two orphans and their misadventures in London at the end of the 20th century. Often dark and extremely funny, the narrative switches between 3rd person omnicient, and the thoughts of Billy (a 15 year old who wants to be a pain specialist and make pizzas) and his sister, Girl (a 17 year old searching for the perfect cocktail) together they create chaos out of all of those who encounter them while searching for their mother.Really great, and worth the effort.

Street-smart sass and sorrows

Written in riveting prose that pulls you between humor and despair, Billy & Girl depicts a brother and sister who live alone with memories of a mother that Girl searches door-to-door for and a doubledealing father who they thought was dead. Their methods of survival are intricate patterns of interdependence: Billy becomes psychiatrist to Girl's sociopathic alter egos, they conspire to kick out their sole adult provider (grandfather) because he tells pathetic jokes, the supermarket's express register falls prey to their collaborative theft, Girl tolerates Billy's culinary obsessions, they are the person that the other can and does say anything to.Despite their abandonment, it's hard to feel sorry for Billy and Girl because they are so wickedly smart. Sure, they'd be different children if they had been raised by a dream Mom and a nonabusive father. But they wouldn't be nearly as delightfully Bad.