Middlesex tells the complicated story of Calliope
Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family as
they travel from eastern Greece to 1920s Detroit, endure the race riots of
1967, move out to leafy Grosse Pointe, and take a single genetic mutation with
them. Calliope's first words in the novel are, "I was born twice: first,
as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and
then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in
August of 1974." A hermaphrodite raised as a girl, Calliope changes her
name to Cal when she is 14 and decides to live as a male.
But the story is about so much more than
Callie/Cal's experience as an intersex person. Eugenides weaves a
breathtakingly beautiful portrayal of a lovable but deeply flawed family and
their journey through the generations. It's a story about love, war,
immigration, assimilation, and coming-of-age.
The book is long at over 500 pages, but it doesn't feel like
it. The story never failed to keep me entertained. I was also really impressed by Jeffrey Eugenides' voice. I guess this is why he won
the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for this book in 2003.
Needless to say, I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. I give it an A.
Are you on goodreads.com? I'm a fellow Chicagoan who recently retired from teaching, and I, too, have vowed not to spend money buying books. I find books I want to read on Amazon or Goodreads and reserve them online from the Chi Pub Library, and I always seem to have a book waiting for pick-up. I also LOVED "Middlesex". I loved the "Virgin Diaries" less, and I just plain didn't like "The Marriage Plot."
ReplyDeleteI don't use GoodReads, but I might start using it when my list of friend-suggested books runs low. I'm bummed to hear you didn't like The Marriage Plot because it's on my list. I actually checked out Middlesex because I wanted to read The Marriage Plot, but all the library's copies were checked out.
DeleteI have lots more Book Report posts lined up, so hopefully they'll help you find more books to read!
I'm listening to the audiobook of Middlesex right now, and I'm only about two discs in so far (out of like 15), but so far I find it interesting. My husband thought it was weird and decided I should finish it without him. :)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that book, and I LOVE Jeffrey Eugenides
ReplyDeleteThis is Heather McG btw - not a random internet stalker!
DeleteHi Heather! I'm glad you like Eugenides. I definitely want to read more of his work.
DeleteLove this book! And I love using the library too. Even though I love buying new books the $$ and lack of space to store them has made me a diehard library patron. I go down my goodreads to-read list and put everything on hold. Plus my local branch is right down the block so it's perfect.
ReplyDeleteYour Subway Reads inspired me to do my own book reviews. :-)
DeleteLibrary cards are the best! I'm adding this one to my list, it sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteAs I am going through your older blog posts, I'm pleasantly surprised by some of your book choices because I have read several of them. I spent a weekend in college reading this one and liked it a lot.
ReplyDelete