Middlesex

Title: Middlesex
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Finished: January 23
Pages: 529
Published: 2002
Challenges: Book Awards II, A-Z Challenge, 999 Challenge, 50/100+ Books, New Authors, RYOB 2009, TBR Challenge, Winter Reading Challenge

A coming of age Pulitzer Prize winning novel about a teenager in Detroit coming to terms with his/her own sexuality, while telling the family history.

“I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.”

I think that opening line will create the history of the book more than anything else. I knew nothing more than this statement for a long time before I read the book and it alone made me want to find out the story behind it.

I have to admit, despite the hype, I had a hard time getting through the book until about the last 200 pages. I’m not a huge fan of historical fiction and so having to wait so long to find out the narrators personal story was hard. After the fact, it was nice knowing the geneology of Cal’s family prior to the reveal, but when you already know what happens it’s hard to sit through everything else.

Overall, it was a very good book, but not one I felt I could read quickly without missing important details pertaining to the story. Well worth the read and it’s spot on the 1,001 Books list.

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