Shawn
Middlesex is a big, ambitious novel that earns its Pulitzer. Eugenides traces a single gene across three generations — from a Greek village in 1922 to Detroit to 1970s San Francisco — and somehow makes the whole thing feel personal rather than epic. The first half is mostly family backstory and requires some patience, but once Cal is on the page the book becomes hard to put down. The locker room scenes, the Obscure Object, Milton on the Ambassador Bridge, the final scene with Desdemona — it all lands. Impressive piece of storytelling.
Middlesex is a big, ambitious novel that earns its Pulitzer. Eugenides traces a single gene across three generations — from a Greek village in 1922 to Detroit to 1970s San Francisco — and somehow makes the whole thing feel personal rather than epic. The first half is mostly family backstory and requires some patience, but once Cal is on the page the book becomes hard to put down. The locker room scenes, the Obscure Object, Milton on the Ambassador Bridge, the final scene with Desdemona — it all lands. Impressive piece of storytelling.