Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Middlesex: A Novel
Book Review: A beautiful epic about a what?
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been a fan of Eugenides since The Virgin Suicides, so I came into this book with high expectations. I would have to say that they were met and nearly exceeded. The book is thoughtful and poignant, beautifully illustrating the struggles of fitting in. Certainly not all people can relate to Callie and her hermaphoditism, but all can relate to the pain and uncertainty of being 13 and not knowing your place. Eugenides has a way of inviting the reader to care about his characters. Throughout the reading of Middlesex I found myself wanting to personally know his characters, and could see parts of my family and friends in them.
Eugenides seemlessly blends a spanning history while keeping in contact with the main character. I would have to say that the only downfall of this novel is that it ends too abruptly. The end seems to have been cut off for fear that people would lose interest. I believe that based on Eugenides powerful narrative that this book could have easily been another hundered pages longer. I wanted to know more about Cal and what happens to him and his family. But overall, I would have to say that this book is well written and well worth the time it takes to read and reread it.
Book Review: A bit of Greek to me
Summary: 3 Stars
There were lots of interesting moments but nothing much deep nor writing style very clever to keep me involved. Plus I think the author took a couple of impossible short cuts. Perhaps my opinion is tainted by dissapointment with an event that we never get to see to its fruition--the hero's first full-blossomed romantic relationship. To me it was good, basic reading but nothing special.Book Review: A book you can't put down...
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is so engrossing and well written I could not put it down. Do not let the subject(hermmphrodite) keep you from reading about this Greek family. The story is more than just about Cal the narrator. It's a rich story about generations of a Greek family and their tragedies, successes,and adjustments moving through decades in America. It weaves their tale along side real events in history so perfectly that you will find yourself checking the book for pictures of these people. That is why he earned a Pulitzer! This story is amazing. You will laugh outloud and your heart will break and you will think about the Stephanides family long after you finish the book.Book Review: A brilliant panorama, original and very important
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the sort of book that only comes along once a decade or more. A brilliant, sweeping portrait of a nation, a life, a history, a world, and what it means to be alive, to belong and to be a part of everything. It is beyond definition, as it's definition is itself. As soon as I read his debut The Virgin Suicides (another excellent novel) i immediately started on this one, which i already owned. I found the words swimming by, the pages turning as if blown by the breeze, the real present dissolving into the world of the brilliant, brilliant story Eugenides mesmerisingly tells.
This novel covers so many issues, tells us so much in its reading: it deals with war, racism, depression, notions of nationality, notions of the American dream, notions of who we really are, notions of love, mystery and so very much else. As a Great American novel, it is probably the best I have read, by a long long way. It is warm, amusing, touching, but also sad in places, incredibly moving and enchanting. To be honest, my head is so full of thoughts and praise for this book that i can't really expurgate them to words coherently or logically, although i am not confident that Jeffrey Eugenides is probably the most important writer working today.
He shows incredible talent here to tell his story. In the brilliant of his narrative voice, the astuteness with which he draws his characters, (particularly our charming narrator, Cal) and the brilliance of his subtle, fluid plotting. The events of the century, as the characters move from Smyrna to Detroit, flow past as the characters experiences form something vaguely encompassing a huge work of universal life. This book, really, could be about any one of us. The experiences of the characters are our own, though shaped and moulded in some different way.
This brilliant panoramic read is a wonderful novel, a complete reinvention of the great American Novel. Jeffrey Eugenides is a remarkable writer, and this is just genius. As a review, this fails entirely to convey what I think about this book.
Book Review: A compelling epic
Summary: 5 Stars
Middlesex is about more than a hermaphrodite. It's the story about how he came to be that way, his familys past. It's about what it was like growing up, knowing something was unusual, but not being sure what. It's about struggling to overcome self-hate.This story was much more than I thought it was going to be. I truly enjoyed the generational stories from his grandparents coming to the US to his parents, falling in love. And most of all I enjoyed Cal's story, his prose, his description, his feelings. This was an extremely well written book.
And for anyone who might not think this book is for them because of it's central premise, reconsider. Middlesex really is about so much more. It's about innocence, survival, tragedy, betrayal, inadequacy, lust and love. And if you're from Michigan and the Detroit area, you'll thoroughly enjoy the descriptions of home.