Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides

So it's kind of sad that we have no posts for August, so I figured I would stop procrastinating this update and do the first one of September. Last month though, I went through major 90s nostalgia in a week, and read the The Perks of Being a Wallflower (am I the only one who hadn't read this? wonderfully quirky and a very short, easy, and predictably touching book), The Client (the first Grisham book I was unhappy with reading... not exciting at all) and then watched The Patriot Games. Yes I know, not a book, but I'd never seen it and young Harrison is quite wonderful.

Anyways, on to the great book I just finished: Middlesex. It won the 2002ish Pulitzer, and I have been meaning to read it since I finished his first novel The Virgin Suicides (sophomore year, which is coincidentally another great, albeit dark, read.)

Middlesex is about a Greek-American hermaphrodite, and the story follows the generations before her who caused her genetic abnormality (through incest). The entire story, including the parts that follow her great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents, is written from Callie's mostly omniscient point of view, and there's nothing boring in the entire book. Eugenides has great descriptions of family relations and human emotions, and hey, I even learned a new word (periphescence). Callie's actual story doesn't become the focal point until the latter half of the book, but hers is by far the most intriguing, despite the suffering and characters present in her ancestor's stories. She begins life as a normal beautiful girl, and slowly gets horribly tall, manly, and disconnected from her place in society. She crushes on girls, fakes her period, and probably my favorite section of the book is about her "Obscure Object of Desire."

I am hardly doing this book justice with this review, but I am pretty sure it will be the best book I read this year and it is truly a touching, easy, and involving read. 10/10, and if anyone does/has read it I'd love to hear any thoughts!