So...
I did not hate this book. But I didn't love it, either. (Duh, Kris, that's pretty much what the 3-star rating is all about.) This was a good multi-generation story about a Greek family emigrating to the US, and it's also a personal history of early 20th-century Detroit, detailing the beginnings of the auto industry as well as other early history of Detroit. Eugenides does a good job of detailing the rise and fall of the Motor City, showing how parts of the city fell into ruin, and how a city with such promise became the urban wasteland that much of it is today. One of my big interests is how a city grows physically, architecturally, and I enjoyed that aspect of the book.
I really couldn't get invested in the story of the main character, Cal, though. Which is surprising, because we had some things in common. No, not the hermaphrodism; the interest in foreign cultures. I really didn't understand the purpose of bringing the subject of hermaphrodism into the story. I don't have a problem with the subject, I just didn't see how it advanced the plot or drove home the theme of the novel. In general, though, I did enjoy many of the characters in the book.
I did not hate this book. But I didn't love it, either. (Duh, Kris, that's pretty much what the 3-star rating is all about.) This was a good multi-generation story about a Greek family emigrating to the US, and it's also a personal history of early 20th-century Detroit, detailing the beginnings of the auto industry as well as other early history of Detroit. Eugenides does a good job of detailing the rise and fall of the Motor City, showing how parts of the city fell into ruin, and how a city with such promise became the urban wasteland that much of it is today. One of my big interests is how a city grows physically, architecturally, and I enjoyed that aspect of the book.
I really couldn't get invested in the story of the main character, Cal, though. Which is surprising, because we had some things in common. No, not the hermaphrodism; the interest in foreign cultures. I really didn't understand the purpose of bringing the subject of hermaphrodism into the story. I don't have a problem with the subject, I just didn't see how it advanced the plot or drove home the theme of the novel. In general, though, I did enjoy many of the characters in the book.
-read by Kris 7/26/15
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