Middlesex

I found myself wanting a little more exploration of this intersex/gender identity nearing the end. realized on its last pages that gender identity is only a small section of a life. Considering the book was very long, it just doesn't make sense how much time we spent with the grandparents. (not that i didn't enjoy it!) I'm torn because the book doesn't pride itself (blurb wise) on being solely about the gender identity of Cal, but everything is riding on this one detail. I almost felt guilty wanting a bit more (I mean how much can you really talk about your genitals?) but I think what's obvious here is the physical barrier of the author. I think authors can take on identities to create characters (ex. white author writes black character into story) but it feels a bit inauthentic to, quite literally, take on Cal's identity (imagine that same white author writing a story about the black experience?) being...not intersex. I think Eugenides tackled it. The medical aspect and the relationships were throughly explored. It's the mental I thought was being hid from us. What Cal felt had very little airtime, in my opinion. And what airtime it did have, felt surface level or at the very least, predictable. I guess I'm just the kind of reader who can't separate the writer from the work. If I'd gone into it blind, maybe I'd think different.

Apart from that, the prose is great! I mean it won a pulitzer.