Book Review: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

* Name: Middlesex
* Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
* Year Published: 2002
* Details: Paperback, 529 pages
* Awards/Recognitions: Pulitzer Prize
* BTL Recommends: Definitely
* Key Locations: Mount Olympus, Detroit, Los Angeles, Germany
* Review: When I’m looking for a new book to read, the Pulitzer Prize logo draws me like a moth to a flame. Regardless of what thousands of junior high school students believe when they’re force fed The Grapes of Wrath, those books became prize winners for a reason. And when I turn the book over and the first review calls it, among other things, “part Ishmael,” which is my FAVORITE book of all time, I just can’t help myself. So when I forgot my book at the airport (AGAIN), I had to pick up a copy of Middlesex.

I consider myself an EXTREMELY liberal person, but the frank telling of the Greek hermaphrodite was a little uncomfortable, even to me. I believe much of the material will strike a nerve in most western bodies. That’s good. People are so desensitized to…pretty much everything, we need to go a little out of our comfort zones. Middlesex put me there and I was engrossed. Really, I couldn’t put it down. If you have serious moral or religious hang ups and you think you’ll vomit at the telling of a little sibling love-action, you may want to stick to Danielle Steele. Otherwise, definitely give Middlesex a shot.