Middlesex in Queereaders

Oct 12, 2007 Tynan Power rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction

I was expecting to enjoy this book as it was well-recommended, but I found that I LOVED it. It is one of the best books I've ever read. The writing is beautiful, sense details lyrical and enriching, the story makes is clear and compelling. The author nails many aspects of the gender transition experience so well that I wanted to extract whole passages of it, to remember. Beautiful, beautiful book.

There were only two things, really, that I found flawed in the book. 1) Cal's epiphany moment of st ...more

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Aug 06, 2007 Charles rated it liked it · review of another edition

I found this unconvincing. The opening sections in Smyrna felt like a smarter (i.e. more self-conscious) rewrite of Birds Without Wings, and I couldn't get over the issue of how a first person narrator could know so much about the lives of her/his grandparents. This shouldn't bother the reader after a while (suspension of disbelief). When it does it's a problem of voice. I found Cal(liope) facetious and self-preening. Having said this, the novel developed into a perfectly readable, if pretentiou ...more

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Jul 24, 2024 Scott rated it really liked it

Shelves: thepinkroom, recommended

I really enjoyed the three generations of this book. The story of a family immigrating the United States as they fled the conflict of war. Knowing that the narrator was living a life that they found satisfying, if not completely wonderful was nice for a novel about a nontypical gender person. So many books about nonbinary individuals end in tragedy, and, although there is tragedy as in everyone's life, it was nice to know that this character was going to overcome.

I would read this book again and ...more

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Jul 02, 2007 David rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5q

This book was such an unexpected delight. Quirky and engrossing - a wonderful story.

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Sep 22, 2007 Jeff rated it it was amazing

The author definitely took his time illustrating the Stephanides family tree, and the first 100 pages or so kind of dragged. The final chapters, however, flew by so quickly that I'm not even sure I caught it all. There were many rivetting, touching moments, and the author writes beautifully. This is a truly great book. ...more

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Aug 12, 2007 Teddy rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2007

You can see my review on either Amazon.ca or my blog. The links are below. I'd be very interested in your rating of Middlesex,so if you read it, please vote on my blog.

I hope you enjoy my little review.

Amazon.ca:
http://tinyurl.com/2xa7uc

My Blog:
http://teddyrose.blogspot.com/
...more

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Nov 18, 2007 Zweegas rated it really liked it

When writing about another book, I said that gender studies don't interest me. This does a better job of making gender studies interesting. There's enough of a story going on so that it's possible to read this whole book without ever considering gender theory. And that's a good thing.

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Jun 23, 2007 Lobeck rated it did not like it

Shelves: fiction

Ok, ok, so maybe I only read a few pages, but the writing was terrible, and everything about being trans was Completely Made Up. That's right - this is a complete work of fiction by a cissexual man. ...more

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