I will be forever grateful to my friend Madalina (@thereaderswardrobe on Instagram) for picking out Middlesex for me to read this month; I dread to think that I might have left this one languishing on my TBR for any longer and deprived myself of its amazingness!
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It’s exactly the kind of book that I love: an expansive saga spanning multiple decades, slow-paced, incredibly detailed, wonderful characterisation... within 50 pages I was completely absorbed in this novel, it gave me that happy feeling in my chest whenever I picked it up because I knew I was in for such a treat. I never wanted it to end!
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Narrated by Cal, formerly Calliope, he details the story of his grandparents’ immigration from Anatolia to America, down through the generations until he was born and raised as a girl, as Cal is intersex. I love immigrant narratives and I love explorations of gender identity and sexuality so y’all best believe this was just PERFECT for me.
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Strong characters are a must for me, and Eugenides certainly delivers with Middlesex. I could have read a full length novel about any one of the characters, major or minor, and they were all so carefully developed that I felt like I HAD read a novel about them because you get to know them so well!
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And the writing. The writing blew me away, but slowly. It was like I was swept up in it, it reminded me of Donna Tartt’s writing actually, which I love. It’s slow-paced but never drags, it approaches heavy topics but Cal’s light humour sprinkled throughout offsets the darkness, gah I just loved everything about it.
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A new favourite and one I’m already looking forward to rereading in the future!