Really Random Tuesday #2: A Meme of My Own, Book Winners, and a Video

Welcome to the second "edition" of Really Random Tuesday. I've always wanted to create a meme of my own, and although the alliteration could be improved, I've decided that a meme which allows me to post random yet book-related things is worth repeating. If you're inspired by this idea, feel free to copy the button at the end of the post, use it on your own blog, and link back to me--I would be so grateful. Tuesday might even become my favorite day of the week. :)

Congratulations to the latest winners of my book giveaways! Nancye won a copy of Boys Lie: How Not to Get Played by Belisa Vranich and Holly Eagleson, and Erika from Moonlight Book Reviews won a copy of 1001 Life Changing Quotes 4 Teens by Laura Lyseight. Thanks to all who entered these book giveaways. Please stay tuned for more giveaways in the future.

While I'm driving in the afternoons I often listen to Fresh Air on NPR, a radio show hosted by Terry Gross. I absolutely love listening to these in-depth interviews. Yesterday I heard a terrifically engaging interview with author Gary Shteyngart about his new book, Super Sad True Love Story, a futuristic, dystopian novel, and I learned about the farcical book trailer I present here. If you're a fan of the absurd, you'll enjoy watching this video, which features some well-known authors including Jeffrey Eugenides and Mary Gaitskill.

Middlesex

I didn't know what to expect with this one. I'd heard of it but hadn't read any reviews of Middlesex(at least, none that I remembered) before finding it in a bookcase at the cabin we were staying in. I had already picked out my reading for the weekend, but changed my plans once I opened up this book, startled by two things. First of all, the sheer volume of acclaim in the pages before the first chapter whetted my interest. And second of all, I also learned what this book is about.

Middlesex is a novel about a hermaphrodite. To be honest, reading a novel about a hermaphrodite was the furthest thing from my mind. Furthermore, this book is over 500 pages. But I dove into it and finished it quickly. The author, Jeffrey Eugenides, is a talented writer; he also wrote The Virgin Suicides, which was published in 1993, and adapted into a film by director Sofia Coppola in 1999. In 2002, Middlesex was published, and in 2003 it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

This international bestseller is a multi-generational novel. It's not just about Calliope Stephanides--called "Callie"--discovering that she or he is a hermaphrodite. It's the story behind the recessive gene which caused the hermaphroditism in the first place, of the family history, and history in a larger sense as well. Omniscient narrator and protagonist Cal Stephanides, now a 41-year-old male, tells a story which spans three generations, starting with his Greek grandparents, who leave Turkey in 1922 and travel to the U.S., settle in Detroit, and work hard to carve out a new life. The book covers a lot of history, including Prohibition and Detroit's 1967 race riots, and is at times insightful, painful, funny, and gripping.

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; an then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petosky, Michigan, in August of 1974."
~Opening lines, Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides

Before reading this book, I never really thought about hermaphrodites or how they might feel. I think Eugenides does a remarkable job writing about how it feels to live with a mixed gender or one that isn't quite right. Raised as a girl until she's 14, Callie is embarrassed about not developing like other girls as a teenager, and senses that something is wrong with her. She also falls in love with a female classmate, "the Object", which is troubling and confusing to her. Middlesex is very much a coming-of-age novel, made more unusual by the fact that Callie is a hermaphrodite, an intersexed person. Although Callie's parents love their child unconditionally, and try to help once they're aware that there's a problem, ultimately it's Callie who takes charge in this unconventional, unforgettable story.

If you've read Middlesex or have a related thought to share please leave a comment.