Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Tremendous, sweeping, elegant, jarring, yet so engrossing as well.  Did not want to leave the text the whole time.  This is an EPIC, yet also deeply personal.  In much the way Tolstoy handled the sweep of history by creating personal characters and making them EMBODY the history, so Jeffrey places equal value on character development and involvement, with that of historical insight.  Powerful book, and one I'm not soon to forget.

The first part of the book, while in Eugenides style of "shock and awe" he discloses to us his intentions to a great degree, and reveals the "end" as it were of the gut of the book, is mainly history and backstory, it is nonetheless essential and never leaves us gasping for the narrator to "get to the point".  He keeps it interesting and engaging, always returning to the current situation of the narrator in order to hook us in.  And the narrator in this case is the main character of the novel, so therefore, we are being witness to what feels like a first person account of the life and times, and origins, of something we hardly ever think about, let alone encounter, a true Hermaphrodite; the sexual organs of both female and male in a strange mix that is so genetically rare.  And we encounter how just such a thing can happen genetically, and personally, via the family history that brings it about.

This book is just too good to pass up, and is a must read.  There is a reason that the Pulitzer was placed on this book, having both historical implications and accuracy, but also personal and social understanding that is not just revealing, but also relevant to the climate of universal human understanding that we find ourselves in today, the 21st Century that looks back on history with fresh eyes.

Get it.


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