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What Members Thought
Probably the best way to describe my opinion about this book is to say it is 500 pages of occasional brilliance. I had no expectations of this book going in other than I knew it was a Pulitzer winner. So what turned me off was the incessant harping on about the Greek experience. The first 100 pages were great, 100 - 250 infuriating in there indulgence and also just weird and I was really uncomfortable reading some of the passages (and I am no prude). To be clear it is not the uneasy feeling I go
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This is the story of an immigrant Greek family over three generations with our narrator as the end product. It is important to understand that going into the book. I came for the spectacle of hermaphroditism only to realize that Cal is a person with a history and not a spectacle. He just so happens to have the added difficulty of intersex as part of that history.
Once I stopped expecting the book to be about a hermaphrodite, I really got a chance to enjoy the story. I appreciate that it is writte ...more
Once I stopped expecting the book to be about a hermaphrodite, I really got a chance to enjoy the story. I appreciate that it is writte ...more
7/10. I listened to this on audiotape and it was FANTASTIC. The narrator was really good and made the entire experience better than it would have been had I only read it in print. The story itself is very interesting, creative, and insightful. Steeped in Greek culture, 20th century American history (esp. Detroit), and very atmospheric. Great characters - Desdemona, Lefty, and Milton were most endearing. All the characters were 3-dimensional and interesting. Whenever one of the main characters pa
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Feb 22, 2010
Vivian
marked it as didn-t-finish
Couldn't get into it initially, but on my list to try again
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What a book ! A page turner indeed. It was at times funny , at times sad. I would recommend it to everyone. I am thinking that it will get a re read at some stage. It is one of those books that one feels they are living in !
The writing was very good in this book. I’ll have to go back and revisit some more of his books. Great story for the time it came out - before gender identities was well know.
Feb 18, 2010
Mandy
marked it as to-read
May 30, 2010
BookFiend
marked it as to-read
Dec 20, 2011
Alcqueline
marked it as to-read
Nov 17, 2012
Nancy
marked it as to-read
Feb 03, 2017
Lisa
marked it as to-read
Jun 29, 2018
Teddie
marked it as to-read
Aug 31, 2019
Evelyn
marked it as to-read
