Middlesex

I read this novel as a part of the 1% Well-Read Challenge that I joined in May.  Jeffrey Eugenides won the Pulitzer Prize for Middlesex.  The novel is both a coming-of-age story and an intergenerational saga, both of which appeal to me.  The narrator is Cal, an intersexed person who is raised as a female, but later identifies as a male.  Cal traces his genetic difference by relating the fascinating story of his grandparents. 

The writing is strong and specific, never overdone, but often witty.  I'm interested in the faux memoir (I guess what we once called first-person narrative, but with a difference) as a genre, and I took a lot away in terms of how to work this form.  I also, in part because of the unpublished novels I'm reading for my master class in July, interested in how a writer successfully integrates history into a novel without becoming didactic.  The research is there; the trick is to make it a natural part of the story, which Eugenides does with grace. 

I was so immersed in the story, so attached to Cal and his world, that I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to finish the novel, and I was bummed when I finished.  I'm going to have to return to The Virgin Suicides, which I listened to on tape years ago.

In between manuscripts, I'm reading Jonis Agee's The River Wife, which I'm enjoying so much. Jonis is leading the master class I'm taking, and before this I'd only read her short stories.  As I read her novel, I'm even more excited for the class.

Comments

[Nora]

I really enjoyed Middlesex, as well. I read it several years ago, and I couldn't put it down. I never did read the Virgin Suicides.
Thanks for giving us your take.

[cari]

I liked The Virgin Suicides but I read it in college and think I was sort of too young for it. I may have to revisit it also. I've always meant to read more of his work, so I'm glad to hear you liked it.

[Frances]

I had tried to read Middlesex before, but couldn't get into it. Your review makes me want to try it again.

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