Middlesex

Rating:
Summary: Like open arms
Review: "Middlesex" hugs you in its warm, curious embrace from page one. It's a hard book to classify, so why try? It is a lively family saga, a story of sexual confusion and gender decisions, AND smart take on the rise of early 20th century industry.

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petosky, Michigan, in August of 1974." Thus begins Jeffrey Eugenides'
remarkable saga of Calliope Stephanides, who began life as the adored daughter of Tessie and Milton, first cousins and the children of quirky, adventurous immigrant parents. The new lives Lefty and Desdemona build for themselves in Detroit after fleeing Turkey are the classic stuff of immigrant
tales, given a couple special twists that make their story unlike any other.
At the risk of giving too much away, how and why Call becomes Cal is a marvelous story, and Eugenides' ability to lovingly reach into the soul of
both sides of the same person is a delight to read.

Eugenides takes his time dressing the set of "Middlesex." Detroit becomes another warm and earthy character in the novel, bustling with newcomers from
the world over who've come to work in the Ford plant. For a while it seems as
though grandpa Lefty may head for a life of crime and grandma Desdemona might become attached to the early Nation of Islam, but ultimately, the fortunes of the Stephanides family and their beloved city go hand in hand.

What a fine achievement: a literary novel that breaks new ground, engages the mind, and will please a wide range of readers.

Rating:
Summary: A near miss at greatness.
Review: I'd like to start off this review talking about the things that are really nice about this book-- mainly because there's a lot of them, and I actually think that nothing negative that I say should detract the potential reader.

_Middlesex_ is a multigenerational history of a Greek-American family which begins with a silkworm farm in Asia Minor and ends somewhere in Berlin. Along the way it takes you through the burning of Smyrna, the 1967 Detroit race riots, the depression and the rise of the Nation of Islam. It treats subjects as wide ranging as hermaphrodism, family secrets, the nature of marriage and the occasion to trust.

What's amazing is that Eugenides writes all this with an eye for detail that's really astonishing. You could read this book for its richness of detail and the fine nuances alone and come out a happy and satisfied reader. He pulls off the family story through all its generational turns and creates characters who are very human and very real.

I suppose that simply because I enjoyed it so much I wondered to myself if this was a book that was going to stick with me, or one that would molder on my shelf unread in 20 years.

While I'm probably not going to argue for unread, I also didn't find it a masterpiece. The character arc of the adult Cal felt contrived and unsatisfying-- I couldn't anchor his fear of intimacy in the history that the book reveals and I didn't believe (or didn't care) about its ultimate conclusion. Even given that the history was clearly the focal point, I still wanted to care about the present. At the very least, I didn't want to find the moments in the present aggravating-- which is unfortunately how I did find them.

So. A near miss. I will however, go back and read _The Virgin Suicides_ and whatever else he may write in the future. A near miss is after all better than not even being in the running...

Like I said, don't let this review dissuade you from reading. The book is the Book of the Hour for good reason, so you'll waste no time deciding for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: A bit of Greek to me
Review: 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.