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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
Unique premise, interesting and well developed characters
Enjoyable read...Stephanide's has a very nice prose to his writing. It was interesting and I wanted to keep reading..but it wasn't life changing or anything but good.
I loved the extensiveness of this book. The range of settings, from Greece/Turkey to Detroit to San Francisco, and - above all - the omniscient first-person narrator really made the book for me. I found myself thinking of [b:The Tin Drum|35743|The Tin Drum|Günter Grass|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327945103s/35743.jpg|922581] when he was describing his birth; I haven't read it in about 20 years, but I need to dig it up and re-read a bit of it to see if there are more than surface similarities in the narration.
One of the other reviews talks about Cal's hermaphrodism being a sensationalist device to draw publicity. I don't quite agree. I think it's part of what makes the narrator's omniscience more believable. In some ways, it represents any quality or aspect that a parent doesn't want to see in his or her child (sexual preference, divorce, choice of majors, haircut); it's something that a parent can deny, come to terms with, accept.
I didn't give it five stars because there are some parts of the book that feel like they're not quite finished. (Cal's relationship with Julie, for instance.)
Read for January 2008 book group.
One of the other reviews talks about Cal's hermaphrodism being a sensationalist device to draw publicity. I don't quite agree. I think it's part of what makes the narrator's omniscience more believable. In some ways, it represents any quality or aspect that a parent doesn't want to see in his or her child (sexual preference, divorce, choice of majors, haircut); it's something that a parent can deny, come to terms with, accept.
I didn't give it five stars because there are some parts of the book that feel like they're not quite finished. (Cal's relationship with Julie, for instance.)
Read for January 2008 book group.
Well written, fascinating, engaging, and Detroit.
I tried three times to get into this book...once via audiobooks and twice via traditional book. It felt too much like work...so I am reshelving it.
Growing up where I did, Detroit has long been a huge cultural reference point for me, and I really enjoyed how it was used as a back drop for this story. I'd heard a lot of that history from my grandparents and their friends, and it was super well written and represented here. I also really liked the immigration/multigenerational stories.
At first, the narrative style was a bit jarring: first person narration of events and feelings about which the author could not have known, switching suddenly to present tense, even while narrating past events, for no apparent reason. After awhile, the style became natural. He narrates events as if describing the actions on a movie scene, which at times makes them exciting and immediate, but at times it also becomes obtrusive, strained. Some of the content was a little too V.C. Andrewesque for me, the historical manipulation a little Forest Gumpesque. But, on the whole, a very good novel - - one that seized my attention from the very first paragraph and (largely) held it through the massive length of the book. The characters were alive, well-developed, unique, quirky, although I cared far more about that narrator's family than the narrator himself. This is the story of a hermaphrodite born to an inbred Greek Orthodox American family, but, ultimately, it is the story of America itself, weaving history in at every turn. However, like most modern stories of "America itself", it dispense with a rather large sector of America, those who live and labor and die in normalcy.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
tense
medium-paced
This is one of my top five favorite books of all time. It came to me in a dire time, I had just finished the first Twilight book and was in a disgusted reading funk. And I read Middlesex and rejoiced.
I love the story of the family through the generations. The characters are real and well-developed. The anecdotes are amusing. I don't really know what to write except— GO READ IT NOW!! Every friend I've ever recommended to read it has loved it.
I love the story of the family through the generations. The characters are real and well-developed. The anecdotes are amusing. I don't really know what to write except— GO READ IT NOW!! Every friend I've ever recommended to read it has loved it.