Middlesex in Our Shared Shelf

Dec 11, 2007 Heather rated it liked it

Shelves: adult

Wow - that was a long ride. I'm really glad that the end felt fairly fulfilling/rewarding and that it brought the beginning back around, because otherwise I'm not sure it would have felt worth it. As it is, I'm not sure I would recommend it to others. I feel like the main topic was explored really well, but it was almost like reading 2 separate books - a) the family history, and b) the narrator's own story / the main topic, and the whole thing was incredibly dense. I found the second half much m Wow - that was a long ride. I'm really glad that the end felt fairly fulfilling/rewarding and that it brought the beginning back around, because otherwise I'm not sure it would have felt worth it. As it is, I'm not sure I would recommend it to others. I feel like the main topic was explored really well, but it was almost like reading 2 separate books - a) the family history, and b) the narrator's own story / the main topic, and the whole thing was incredibly dense. I found the second half much more readable than the first. Overall, it just really felt like WORK to read.

My reaction to it reminds me of 2 other books: 1) Blindness, about which I also felt that the content was powerful but that the process was excruciating (although I would not call the process of reading Middlesex excruciating - but it was difficult at times), and 2) The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay, which also happens to have won the Pulitzer Prize, and which also was a very long, dense epic.

I'm discovering that maybe epics are just not really my taste - the detail can be dense and beautiful, but I'm more apt to like a story that gets to the damn point!! I think it's because epics like this tend to lack the level of suspense I need from any story - it's beautiful description, character study, etc., and I enjoy it while I'm reading it, but there's no pull to return after I put it down.

I was able to appreciate it, which is why I'm ultimately giving it 3 stars, but as good as it was, I can't give it anything higher, because the process of reading it was very arduous. I certainly don't need every book I read to be fluff, but this one really required a lot of effort.

Some specific notes about the content (including SPOILERS):
*The whole story was grounded in a plot development that I did not think was explained well enough - Why would a brother and sister want to marry each other?!? I get that they grew up isolated from others, and that it was somewhat cultural (though clearly not entirely, since they felt the need to lie about it, even to people from their area). That was not enough for me.
*Sorry, waiting till the end of the book to find out why Cal's brother was nicknamed Chapter Eleven did not do it for me in the suspense department - an earlier omission of explanation seemed overly obvious that it would come up later, and given that everyone knows what Chapter Eleven is, it wasn't all that suspenseful anyway!
*In general, I don't feel like I needed the entire history of the contributing genes in order to appreciate Cal's own life story.
*It seemed like a really honest exploration of identity development, and a good description of the types of problems and prejudices that those with gender identity or sex changes or issues would experience, and that was probably what I liked the best. I wish the author gave us more of Cal's emotions and experiences (of all things, half of THAT life gets left out?!) and less of the others. ...more

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Jan 23, 2009 Glenna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: femmie, contemporaries

This was an excellent book. It is very well written and an interesting psychological ride into the depths of gender and sex. Perhaps a little elementary if you have done any extensive reading in gender studies, but a very good fictionalized account of some very deep issues. It also made me want to visit Detroit, randomly.

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Mar 14, 2008 Caroline Donahue rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

i listened to the audio version of this- scandal! but actually loved it. it was quite a good narrator. the book works quite well in audio as the epic nature of it as well as the fantastic yet commonplace situations. eugenides is an excellent writer along with this, in that the language is enjoyable and vivid. an epic treat.

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Jan 27, 2008 Lord Beardsley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, books-read-2005, read2011

This is one of my absolutely favorite books of all time, told from the point of view of a hermaphrodite who lived half of his/her life as a girl and the rest as a boy/man. It's beautiful and a great story, very expertly crafted. It also made me wish I was born a hermaphrodite. ...more

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Apr 12, 2007 erin rated it really liked it

It turns out I read part of this book as a short story in the New Yorker before I read the book itself. Which made coming across that chapter later on pretty weird. But then, the book itself was weird, so...

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