Middlesex: Finale

I finished Middlesex this week. The book was very engaging. As I previously stated, the language was rather beautiful and descriptive, but not so overdone that you're like, "C'mon already, get to the dialogue," like some books can be. I enjoyed reading about the family over the generations - it was an interesting way to tell the story.

Now, the ending. Particularly the last 50 pages. A little bit of a disappointment. I won't go into great detail, and I don't know what I was really expecting or hoping for, but those last pages just didn't do it for me. It seemed overdone. It felt like the author took it one or two steps too far. It was too dramatic. Again, I know it's fiction, but part of me thought it really could've been a true story. Until the end.

Despite this, the final five pages redeemed the previous 45, and I closed the book satisfied. So, check it out.

For those who've read it - do you agree about the ending, or am I off track?

Middlesex: Spoiler Post

If you haven't read Middlesex, but plan to (I recommend it, by the way), please don't read past this paragraph. Or do so at your own risk. For those of you who have read the book, I have some questions/feelings that I wanted to run by you. Please fill me in on your thoughts.

(P.S. I tried to figure out how to make a jump to a new page, but don't get me started on how I almost lost my blog completely trying to do so. So, we'll just have to deal. If anyone knows how to do this without messing with spatterings of html code, let me know.)



*******SPOILER ALERT********



****READ BEYOND AT YOUR OWN RISK****



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I began Book Four today, so I've now met Dr. Luce and he's given Callie and her parents his diagnosis: she should remain a girl.

1. I know this is his profession, he's a doctor and his work should be beneficial to Callie, however, did you ever feel his actions were a bit inappropriate? Showing her porn. Seeming to get pleasure from the porn himself. "Examining" her without letting her know what he was doing and why. I know it was the 70s and I know it's fiction, but I still feel all those "tests" should have been explained and consent should have been given (waivers signed, etc.). I mean, as a 14-year-old girl, I would think all of that would have felt really, really wrong.

2. Do you think that Callie making her decision to become a boy happened a little quickly? She decided within hours. I know her surgery was coming up quickly, but in reality, if you lived as a girl for 14 years, would you be able to change your mind that easily? Would you be able to make such an 'adult' decision that quickly? I almost feel a child that age would go along with what her parents and doctor wanted because she wouldn't know what else to do. Or do you think Callie was feeling so much like a boy already, it just made sense to her once she found out - which in turn made the decision easy?

It's all very interesting to me and very sad. Sad because I wish the adults in this situation could've gotten things figured out much sooner. Thoughts? Anything else that puzzled you?

Middlesex: Family Trees

If you read the Publisher's Weekly review I posted two posts ago, you know that Middlesex, and the main character's messed up chromosomes, has some to do with incest. It's kind of creepy actually, but once you get into the story, you forget about all the inter-family marrying going on. However, this did get me thinking about family trees. How much do we really know about our ancestors? I mean, you may know their names and birth dates, but do you know much about your grandparents' or great-grandparents' medical history? Do you in fact know that you're not caring a dormant gene that could spring up and wreck havoc in your children or grandchildren?

It would be wasteful if everyone went around getting a series of genetic tests just to be on the safe side, since most people would turn out just fine. But, it made me think about it. Plus, if anything, it makes me want to learn more about my ancestors.

Also, I'm fascinated by the language and the writing of this book. It's so captivating and descriptive. Another reviewer on the B&N Web site wrote about how this book could be a movie. I agree. As I read, I can see it playing out on screen so easily. I can hear the voice over. I can see the scenes set in Greece, the scenes set in 1930s Detroit. It's a longer book, so the movie would have to be a condensed version. Which, in the end, wouldn't do justice to the novel. But, it's fun to think about.

Middlesex

I've been reading Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides for the past week. I've looked at this book on the shelves and on Amazon for years (it was published in 2002), but the subject matter kept me from buying it. I just wasn't sure reading about a hermaphrodite in 1960s Detroit was something I'd enjoy. However, I saw more and more good reviews of the book, so I added it to my list. I'm probably about half way through it now. It's hard for me to know what to post about just yet, because I don't want to spoil the story for anyone. So, to start, here's a review from Publisher's Weekly:

As the Age of the Genome begins to dawn, we will, perhaps, expect our fictional protagonists to know as much about the chemical details of their ancestry as Victorian heroes knew about their estates. If so, Eugenides (The Virgin Suicides) is ahead of the game. His beautifully written novel begins: "Specialized readers may have come across me in Dr. Peter Luce's study, 'Gender Identity in 5-Alpha-Reductase Pseudohermaphrodites.' " The "me" of that sentence, "Cal" Stephanides, narrates his story of sexual shifts with exemplary tact, beginning with his immigrant grandparents, Desdemona and Lefty. On board the ship taking them from war-torn Turkey to America, they married-but they were brother and sister. Eugenides spends the book's first half recreating, with a fine-grained density, the Detroit of the 1920s and '30s where the immigrants settled: Ford car factories and the tiny, incipient sect of Black Muslims. Then comes Cal's story, which is necessarily interwoven with his parents' upward social trajectory. Milton, his father, takes an insurance windfall and parlays it into a fast-food hotdog empire. Meanwhile, Tessie, his wife, gives birth to a son and then a daughter-or at least, what seems to be a female baby. Genetics meets medical incompetence meets history, and Callie is left to think of her "crocus" as simply unusually long-until she reaches the age of 14. Eugenides, like Rick Moody, has an extraordinary sensitivity to the mores of our leafier suburbs, and Cal's gender confusion is blended with the story of her first love, Milton's growing political resentments and the general shedding of ethnic habits. Perhaps the most wonderful thing about this book is Eugenides's ability to feel his way into the girl, Callie, and the man, Cal. It's difficult to imagine any serious male writer of earlier eras so effortlessly transcending the stereotypes of gender. This is one determinedly literary novel that should also appeal to a large, general audience.

I know some of you have read it - let me know your thoughts.