2nd book of '08

"Middlesex" was one of those books I was sad to say goodbye to. A fascinating peek into the life of a Greek immigrant family, one member of which (the omniscient narrator) faces total upheaval in his early teens after discovering he is a hermaphrodite. He has been raised as a female his whole life, but not without some agonizing moments of uncertainty, fear, and despair that he tells us about in hindsight. He decides at age 14 against the surgery that will finalize the femaleness that everyone has always assumed and opts instead to live in a genderless state. It's the story of his journey through a sexually ambiguous and frightening childhood/puberty, and also the story of his family and their immigration to the U.S. Oh and also their inbreeding, which caused his condition! Let's not forget about the inbreeding!

A very good read. Captivating, energetic writing style. The book has a very large scope, but I was never not interested in what was going on. And a great deal of the book is not directly about the main character. His story doesn't really grow legs til after the book is halfway done. My only gripe is that I got annoyed when the narrator speaks directly to the reader, which he does a fair amount. Not one of my favorite narrative frameworks. But it didn't sully the experience of reading this book. Highly recommended, although I am one of the last people to read this book from 2003 and don't really have any business recommending it. But I still do.