Another book done!

Goal: 150-200 pages per week but really, a book every 2 weeks. This one was once a part of Oprah’s book club thing and the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. Read in 12 days with initiation and formal in between (welcome new Brothers of Phi Delta Chi!). Not too bad at all. I think I’m going to make quiche tonight too.

Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffery Eugenides

Synopsis: (from Amazon)

“I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver’s license…records my first name simply as Cal.”

So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.

What I thought

I loved this book, the story, the way it was written, the point of view, everything. Written from Cal/Calliope’s point of view, he goes through three generations of family history, really going through the minds of each character. The author goes to great depths in developing all the characters in this novel, making it really personal. It is a very emotional book, which each family member going through many difficult obstacles and hardships. Although the premise of the book is about Cal discovering his genetic mutation, Eugenides does a wonderful job of creating a memorable story of all three generations of the Stephanides family. That even though Cal felt like a monster at times, he did not hate his family, he does not hate himself and that he is the way he is for a reason. Him telling the story from his point of view shows the love he grew for himself and his family.

Anyhoo, I’m getting really tired of reading Eat, Pray, Love. I tried picking it up again today and just couldn’t do it. I’m thinking about starting Swamplandia! or The Princess Bride for something more light hearted and easy.