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A review by lauraborkpower
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
5.0
I'm so happy to have read this book a second time--thank you, book club babes!
This second read-through not only refreshed my memory of what an interesting narrative style Eugenides uses (let's call it first person omniscient?) but it also allowed me to pay attention to his prose instead of just his story. And his prose is just so spectacular. The descriptions of the Object's freckles, the list of bottles and doodads in Callie's medicine cabinet (reminiscent of the Glass family medicine cabinet in Franny and Zooey), Callie's hair, Middlesex itself, the sex scene between Lefty & Desdamona--and on and on. It's almost all noteworthy. Eugenides gives us a unique narrative style driven by pages and pages of luscious and memorable imagery that is straight forward and poetic at the same time, and always has a sense of humor.
I might make this a book I revisit every decade or so, or at least flip through for a bit of literary brain candy.
This second read-through not only refreshed my memory of what an interesting narrative style Eugenides uses (let's call it first person omniscient?) but it also allowed me to pay attention to his prose instead of just his story. And his prose is just so spectacular. The descriptions of the Object's freckles, the list of bottles and doodads in Callie's medicine cabinet (reminiscent of the Glass family medicine cabinet in Franny and Zooey), Callie's hair, Middlesex itself, the sex scene between Lefty & Desdamona--and on and on. It's almost all noteworthy. Eugenides gives us a unique narrative style driven by pages and pages of luscious and memorable imagery that is straight forward and poetic at the same time, and always has a sense of humor.
I might make this a book I revisit every decade or so, or at least flip through for a bit of literary brain candy.