Middlesex in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Jul 24, 2008 Rincey rated it liked it

There were parts of the story that I just got really bored and the ending was kind of underwhelming.

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Jan 03, 2008 Kate rated it liked it

Three stars seems too harsh, but four too generous. This is a very interesting book, very consciously trying to be an epic. Huge sections of the book are taken up with the family history of the main character, and very little is actually devoted to his own life. Almost no time is devoted to the period after he finds out he is male, in spite of being raised female. Kinda misses the point, don't you think?

My other major criticism is the author's voice. He is so in love with this own ability to pr ...more

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Aug 30, 2007 Valerie rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-08

I can't say that I didn't like this book, because I did. The problem was that I only liked parts of this book. At times I felt like a treasure hunter, picking through myriad details that were, at times, pointless (I thought), to get to the parts that interested me. I ended up skimming entire pages at times. (Warning, spoilers ahead.) Was I really supposed to care that the Greek commander thought his legs were made of glass? I felt details like this added nothing to the story; rather, it made me ...more

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May 22, 2008 Juliezs rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library, read-in-2008

Great read, I love sweeping intergenerational stories like this one. The exploration of gender and culture and family are really well done and caused me to question some of my existing assumptions. The characters are great and the portrait of America changing over the years is very poignant.

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