Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides)

I’m finally getting around to reading Jeffrey Eugenides’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Middlesex over a decade after it was published.  Better late than never I suppose, as this was one of the best novels I’ve read in a long time.

Yes, this is the story of Cal/Calliope Stephanides, a hermaphrodite, but it’s also about so much more than that. It’s a sweeping tale of three generations of the same family, starting with Calliope’s grandparents, Desdemona and Lefty. They flee their home to come to America and share a big secret, one that will eventually affect Cal/Calliope in a big way.  Tessie and Milton are Cal’s parents and love both of their children dearly.

The perfect combination of warmth, humor, heartbreak and surprise, Middlesex takes you on a journey with the Stephanides family that you won’t want to see ever come to an end. It gets my highest rating.

MY RATING - 5

Gilead (Marilynne Robinson)

I've been wanting to read the Pulizer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award winner Gilead for years, but I never got around to it.  I was excited to finally pick it up, but I'm sorry to say that this is one of those books that I just understand the hype about. At. All.

Reading a simple synopsis of Gilead, you'll probably think that it's going to be a wonderfully inspirational novel. Reverend John Ames, slowly dying from a heart condition, is an elderly pastor who is putting an account of his life into writing for his young son. The inherent problem with Gilead is that it seems like one big stream of consciousness at times, with Ames's rambling going on for pages and pages.  I found myself reading a page and then losing my train of thought, only to find myself a few pages later not knowing what I just read.

Judging by the amount of four- and five-star ratings on Goodreads, my review seems to be in the minority.  But Gilead just didn't stick with me when it was over, and to be absolutely honest, I couldn't wait for it to be done.

MY RATING - 2

The Eternal Wonder (Pearl S. Buck)

The story behind Pearl S. Buck’s The Eternal Wonder is almost as interesting as the book itself.  Of course, Buck is most known for her Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Good Earth, and you normally would not expect a new piece to be published decades after the author’s death.  The manuscript for The Eternal Wonder was found in a storage unit in Texas; how it got there is a mystery, but it was returned to the Buck family for a small fee.  Buck’s son, Edgar Walsh, decided to go ahead with publishing what will, unless a new piece is found, most certainly be her last book.

Randolph Colfax (Rann for short) is a hugely gifted young man who loves to “know.”  His parents tried him out in normal school, but he was deemed far too extraordinary to fit in with his classmates.  He is constantly searching for meaning in his life, and this search takes him to New York, Paris, and Korea.  Surprisingly racy in much of its content, The Eternal Wonder takes the reader on quite the journey right along with Rann.

Buck’s hypnotizing writing is a reason why she is one of the greats, and The Eternal Wonder is certainly no exception. However, this is no The Good Earth, and Walsh in his foreward says that he realizes this. The plot is all over the place at times, and the ending is just odd (although the beginning is absolutely beautiful).  For rabid Buck fans, though, none of this will matter.

MY RATING - 4