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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
Great writer. Focused more on character than plot. Really captured the feel of liberal arts college!
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I wanted to give the book four stars but eh ended up giving it three.
I thought the story was interesting and though the three main characters were annoying at times they were realistic. The story mainly focuses on Madeline and her love life and ups and down as a college graduate trying to find herself, but it also includes two male characters Leonard and Mitchell who love her and then theres the love triangle thats to be expected. I probably would have enjoyed the novel more if it was just about Mitchell, though he was as annoying as indecisive/naive Madeline and depressed Leonard, his story was more fun to read because he was traveling and hilarious at times. Though the religion parts did get a bit boring at times, there were other times where I learned a lot of interesting facts about religion that I never noticed.
Overall I wasn't blown away by this book but it was still a good read.
I thought the story was interesting and though the three main characters were annoying at times they were realistic. The story mainly focuses on Madeline and her love life and ups and down as a college graduate trying to find herself, but it also includes two male characters Leonard and Mitchell who love her and then theres the love triangle thats to be expected. I probably would have enjoyed the novel more if it was just about Mitchell, though he was as annoying as indecisive/naive Madeline and depressed Leonard, his story was more fun to read because he was traveling and hilarious at times. Though the religion parts did get a bit boring at times, there were other times where I learned a lot of interesting facts about religion that I never noticed.
Overall I wasn't blown away by this book but it was still a good read.
Interesting read, different from most. Not my favorite though.
This book should have been a pretty quick read but somehow I found myself trudging through it. Partly, it's not what I was expecting - the time horizon was much shorter than I thought it would be (about a year), and frankly, I thought it would be more of a "marriage plot" (silly me!). The main way in which it was not a marriage plot, was there was really no romance I was hoping would work out in the end - that's certainly probably part of the point Eugenides is trying to make, but it ultimately made the book kind of hard to get through.
More importantly, the female protagonist was not someone I liked very much. I really wasn't rooting for her much and she had few redeeming qualities. Was this also intentional? If so, that's a literary choice I can't support - at the very least, in the Pride and Prejudices and Middlemarches of the world, I really, really liked the female lead. She was strong-willed, loyal, honest, principled and even if I wasn't sure what ending I wanted for her, I knew I wanted it to be good. Madeleine Hanna inspired no such feelings of hopefulness. And if, in fact, the protagonist was Mitchell, her friend who loved her but was always stuck in the friend zone, it was a similarly unsatisfying plot that didn't spend enough time on him vis-a-vis Madeleine.
The best part of this book, for me, was actually the compassionate look it takes at being in a relationship with someone suffering from mental illness and all of the complexity and difficulty and pain it involves. Unfortunately, that was ultimately just a sub-plot fueling Madeleine's entry into adulthood.
More than anything, this is a just book about a bunch of kids leaving college and trying to figure out what's next and realize nothing is as simple as they thought it would be. Big whoop.
Middlesex is one of my favorite books, so it pains me to pan this one, but I just can't, in good conscience, recommend it.
More importantly, the female protagonist was not someone I liked very much. I really wasn't rooting for her much and she had few redeeming qualities. Was this also intentional? If so, that's a literary choice I can't support - at the very least, in the Pride and Prejudices and Middlemarches of the world, I really, really liked the female lead. She was strong-willed, loyal, honest, principled and even if I wasn't sure what ending I wanted for her, I knew I wanted it to be good. Madeleine Hanna inspired no such feelings of hopefulness. And if, in fact, the protagonist was Mitchell, her friend who loved her but was always stuck in the friend zone, it was a similarly unsatisfying plot that didn't spend enough time on him vis-a-vis Madeleine.
The best part of this book, for me, was actually the compassionate look it takes at being in a relationship with someone suffering from mental illness and all of the complexity and difficulty and pain it involves. Unfortunately, that was ultimately just a sub-plot fueling Madeleine's entry into adulthood.
More than anything, this is a just book about a bunch of kids leaving college and trying to figure out what's next and realize nothing is as simple as they thought it would be. Big whoop.
Middlesex is one of my favorite books, so it pains me to pan this one, but I just can't, in good conscience, recommend it.
03/14/2013 Noble Readers Book Discussion. I tried to read this book, but just really didn't like it and didn't finish it.
Wanted to like this more, much more. Didn't care for ANY of the characters, wasn't really rooting for any of them to succeed, plus I guess I expected more of a classic-style "marriage plot" given the title. It pays homage to the classics, to college and post-grad life, to the 80s, but overall, I can't imagine recommending this to anyone in particular.
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes