I found myself disengaged from this highly ambitious novel until about 300 pages in, when we finally got to really meet the narrator and follow her through her early childhood. I didn't like that there were essentially three different plots, each one a generation removed from the next, and I didn't like how Eugenides tried to use historical events to drive the narrative for him so often. That said, Eugenides is a wonderful writer who almost pulls off an epic masterpiece with this novel. I would've enjoyed this novel a lot more if it had just stayed with Cal from the beginning and weaved in the back story of the earlier generations along the way.