oops, i meant, the way that the Stephanides' story played out to coincide with important or significant historical events...

and...i really liked that every now and then, there was some allusion to art: klimt-like rugs and sourmelina as georgia o'keefe's painting...

ana | February 23, 2004 11:59 AM

I read Middlesex when it first came out in paperback (Sept 2003) and my thoughts after reading it then were: “Good book.” While I didn’t re-read it for this months discussion, I skimmed it slowly, writing comments and observations, and came away much more impressed with the novel as a whole. It must be tough to tackle subjects such as sexual identity, culture shock/immigration and racism with finesse. It must be a whole lot tougher to put it all into one book; I think Eugenides executed this story extremely well.

Initially, I wanted to hear only Callie’s story and became frustrated by all the background stories about her grandparents and parents, but I realize now that to understand Callie, you needed to see the progress of her family and the choices they make (in the time periods they make them).

I thought the writing style was great; the foreshadowing sentences here and there about Dr. Luce and the small sections about present-day Cal kept me interested in book, wanting to find out where the story was headed.

My favorite part of the book was Callie’s relationship with The Obscure Object. I enjoy reading about teen angst and this took it to a whole new level. These feelings Callie were having (for someone she probably shouldn’t) were kind of raw and heady and new.

The end of the novel was sad (Cal’s trip out to California and the things that happen out there) but it was good that she met Zora. Zora was, I think, the first person she could talk to truthfully about who she (he?) was now. Then she came home and, I guess, just learned how to live one day at a time. I was really happy that her parents were completely supportive of her while they were in New York City, seeing Dr. Luce (who was a jerk and only saw Callie as a way of furthering his career!).

About the Pulitzer: I’ve never had a bad time reading a Pulitzer winner. The Pulitzer for fiction is awarded to an American author who (preferably) wrote about American life and I think Middlesex was a fine choice. The different events and movements (prohibition, early 70’s rebellion, race riots in Detroit) and the Stephanides immigrating to America, adding to the melting pot, all wound together to make a great, quietly epic, story.

amy | February 23, 2004 12:31 PM

I have only read to page 178....but I am really enjoying this month's pick!! The narrator's habit of occasionally addressing the reader directly works surprisingly well... because it is so casually and smoothly done. Makes me feel like he is sitting right there, talking to me alone.

The level of suspense (so far) is carrying me along. I am anxious get further along.

Here are my four new vocab words so far: postprandial, apostate, diaspora and vitreous. Thank you, Mr Eugenides.

barbara | February 23, 2004 12:36 PM

I forgot to mention that if the subject matter of Middlesex intrigued you, you might want to read She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan. It’s not about hermaphroditism, but rather about being ‘transgendered’. An interesting read (from what I hear).

amy | February 23, 2004 12:38 PM

quick addition before i comment along with everyone else...

the book cover deisgn...how the cigarette's smoke smoothly and easily turns into the sea...foreshadow of the story itself...and the way it's written...

ah, the importance of book cover designs (giggling)

ana | February 23, 2004 12:39 PM

I didn't read the book, but Eugenides, Suicides, Stephanides. It all seems just a little bit fishy to me.

Hee.

KC | February 23, 2004 06:26 PM

I admit I'm not finished. However, this should surprise no one since finding difficulty in finishing books has become a habit for me of late. I'm also one of those people who can't read more than one thing at a time (unless the other books are non-narrative non-fiction), so I got a late start due to having to put Norwegian Wood to bed.

This is my second Eugenides book and, like everyone else, I find the writing style wonderful and enjoy how we're pulled into the story through beautiful yet comprehensible language (despite the $20 words). When I teach writing to my 3rd graders, we often talk about craft and I did a lesson on repetition just before mid-winter break. Although the example I used was from Days with Frog and Toad, I couldn't help but compare it to Middlesex when I read the passage Ana mentioned above: "Wierzbicki reams a bearing and Stephanides grinds a bearing and O'Malley attaches a bearing to a cramshaft."

More later, but for now, did anyone else think of this book as the Greek version of Forrest Gump? True, Forrest was a slow-learner and not a hermaphrodite, but the brushes with the (in)famous (FG: Nixon and M: Zizmo/Fard) and starting trends (FG: "have a nice day" and M: dream books) strike me as being very Gump-esque. I almost expect JFK to show up for tea in Middlesex at any moment.

marydell | February 23, 2004 06:54 PM

This is my first post but I was intrigued by the club's selection of books. I was leary at first of reading Middlesex and did not want to buy it but overall, I thought it was an excellent novel. I found myself thinking about it when I wasn't reading it. It was hard for me to get into at first because I found it a tad too wordy for the first 150 pages but after that, the story was magical. I loved it. I personally enjoyed the story of the grandparents from the get. I mean that's what it's all about -- developing the story and suspense. The part that stuck out for me was when Zizmo turned out to be Minister Fard. I thought it was going to be Malcolm X or someone. I loved it and I'm looking forward to more good books.

mari | February 23, 2004 07:32 PM

amy:
i'm glad that you liked the novel more the second way around. i think i would definitely recomment this one to someone. and i agree, i think he fit all of the different subjects with "finesse." the novel transitioned smoothy. i can't help but keep thinking about the book cover, i've already mentioned this, but i think it's a genuine reflection of the novel itself.
initially, i wasn't sure what i wanted to read about. the opening lines, "I as born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." intrigued me in wanting to know Cal's story right away, how this could've happened. Then it slowly retrocedes to before she was born, all the way back to when her grandparents were in asia minor.
after that, i wanted to read more about the past, more than his present life...something about his present life felt creepy...i don't understand how he could easily become a man...or accepted it so easily, having grown up as a girl...but anyway,
the foreshadowing is great.
i think my favorite part was everything that happened to the grandparetns and her parents, not so much her story...i don't know why.
and you are right, even though i found the part in the story where she runs away and starts working in the peep show and living with zora the least interesting, it was important that she met zora, whom she learned to cope with herself from.

as far as the book you suggested, She's Not There. thanks, but i didn't read Middlesex because of the subject matter. it's not a subject matter that i care for in particular, no offense to anyone. it just happened to be in here and it was okay.

barbara:
i also agree with the narrator addressing the reader. it works very well. sort of reminds me of Bright Lights, Big City, kinda.

kc:
"fishy," eh? lol perhaps

marydell:
ah, 'beautiful yet comprehensible language" indeed! and i really really love that entire part, the one that i mentioned about rhythm.
now that you mention it, it is very grump-esque. i think that bothers me now...just a little, but not enough for me to dislike Middlesex, heh
and me too, i also expected JFK to show up somewhere and have some one on one time with one of the Stephanides!

mari:
i also find myself still thinking about Middlesex. for some strange reason, i keep seeing the word "crocus" in my head. i think it's because the way that her very small penis was described made it seem less grotesque and abnormal.
yea, zizmo turned out to be minister fard...funnily enough...but malcolm x turned out to be the next leader there...so it's close enough ;)

ana | February 23, 2004 08:08 PM

more discussion coming right along!

so who was your favorite character? your least favorite character? why?

oh, i think there are so many characters here to give detailed character analysis, but i'll give it a quick try:

Desdemona: i found her to be one of the funniest characters, more so in her later years, but the key to the story.

Lefty: he was also funny, but not as much as Desdemona. I found to have the most compassion for Lefty.

Dr. Philosobian: what can i say...? it was very sad, his life tale, during the war. (by the way, i was commenting to my boyfriend about the war and the part when his family was killed and how...and, ok, he's from Romania, and he told me that he's heard that story before, he actually finished it off taking the words right out of my mouth. i was surprised to hear that it could be true. according to him, it happened and it's a popular story in the east of europe.)

Sourmelina: assimilation, assimilation...she really left greece behind. she seemed fun, yet careless...

Zizmo: i didn't like him from the beginning. i think he could've been paired up with Desdemona in the way that they held the traditional and conventional ways of men and women behaviors.

Milton: in the end, i think he ended up like his father. the way Lefty felt left out after Desdemona had their children, Milton also felt like that too. His death was a tragic one and very ironic.

Zoe: poor her, ending up with a priest.

Tessie: in the beginning, she struck me as having a different character. i thought that having had Sourmelina for a mother, she would be more liberal, but then again, Desdemona did help raise her, so i can see where she became a bit of both. i think that in the end, she might as well have been Desdemona's daughter.

Father Mike: poor guy, at first. but then, i was shocked when he played that terrible joke on Milton and tried to get away with his money.

Chapter 11: i would've been surprised if he hadn't turned into a hippie! it was only expected.

The Obscure Object: i don't think that she was really in love with callie...i think she loved her enough and she was curious about sexual adventures, but as far as love of your life type of thing, i don't know. i only hoped that they could've stayed in touch after she was sent to the hospital...but all's not rosy now is it?

The Obscure Object's brother: (sorry, forgot his name) ... I only saw him as a nerd. I didn't like him very much. and the claim that he fell in love with callie too, i found that to be false...i don't know that he fell in love with her.

Cal: i liked him a lot during narration. i liked how he saw things. outside of narration, like when he spoke of his own present life, i didn't like him all that either...it was kind of creepy...and i hated how he turned out to be one of those "metrosexuals" even though he was "gay." i pictured him as one of those design and fashionably conscious people who eat fine food and blah blah blah...

Callie: i didn't like her at all. i think this is the character i feel the strongest about, but in dislike. i did understand what she was going through, but at the same time, i thought that she was pathetic in some ways. i hated the whole hair thing, how she got lost in her hair. i did have compassion for her for not being as other girls. but i think that she was pathetic most of the time. i disliked her for having lied in her typed stories for dr. luce. her parents didn't help much either, in explaining to her what was really going on. i disliked her even more when she ran away. when she decided to jump the other wagon. i just don't understand how she could easily accept this. i don't know, i don't know...
i only liked her once she came back to middlesex and afterwards.

ah, i can't go into further detail.
anyway,
i couldn't help but compare this to My Big Fat Greek Wedding ... because of the whole greek culture.
this novel makes MBFGW seem crappy...
also, i checked out some Rebetika...and i really liked it. (i'd heard similar...romanians have similar customs and music...they are also orthodox..not all of them...anyway)
i was glad to learn more about greek culture.
i realized that my idea on it was completely different. lol

ana | February 23, 2004 08:34 PM

i think that eventually, milton and tessie turned into desdemona and lefty.

i think this novel was mostly about birth and rebirth. i think that almost every character went throgh a rebirth. desdemona and lefty were born again as husband and wife...when lefty went senile ... or was it alzheimer? ... they were, for a brief moment, reborn again as brother and sister. then he passes away. desdemona is then reborn into a walking death, so to speak.
milton and tessie, in my opinion, they were reborn into desdemona and milton. they resembled them as a couple.
chapter 11, well, he went from nerd to hippie to reformed. (ha)
and callie to cal

i really liked how callie compared herself to teresias.

ah, there was a lot i wanted to say but now i forgot! arrrg

ana | February 23, 2004 08:44 PM

I am a fair-weather poster, only reading/posting about the books I like. Middlesex was one of them! To agree with Ana's first post, I thought the way in which we were transported back and forth to the 40-ish Cal was technically well done- the experience was so seemless I found myself trying to examine the time-traveling text more closely to see how he did it. (Also in agreement with Ana, I thought the cover was great.)

Also smooth was the way in which the issue of sexual 'technicalities' was handled. A modern audience demands details and I think Eugenides realizes this demand but maintains the novel's dignity throughout.

For me, this was a real page-turner and I really adhered to the characters. Cal's neurotic (even in youth) Grandmother Desdemona was somehow adorable, and the imagery of Milton using his clarinet to seduce Tessie is priceless. Lefty cracked me up. These characters seem so tangible and realistic that I wonder if they aren't based on the author's family. Anyone know?

One character that sort of disappointed me was Chapter 11- while he may have served as a background character that shouldn't receive too much attention or detail, I still thought he was predictable while all the other characters were more fresh. When I read about Chap. 11, I saw/imagined him on a movie screen (2 dimensional) whereas the other characters were so believable I imagined them in everyday settings, as possible neighbors or as relatives they reminded me of. (Embarrasing confession: I dont know why he is called Chapter 11, can anyone explain?)

Thanks for turning me on to this great novel!

april | February 23, 2004 08:51 PM

oops- sorry, my post seems a bit out of order-

april | February 23, 2004 08:57 PM

I agree with April, in that I found Chapter Eleven to be flat as well. Whenever he'd be around or show up, I wouldn't really have any invested interest in him.

As for Ana not liking Callie: !!!! Awww... I'm sad about that. I remember being 14-years-old (and what a total monster I was) and I felt so bad for her. She was the tall, skinny girl picked on in school, she had feelings for her best-girlfriend then, surprise! She's technically a boy. Holy cow. In my mind, Callie could have killed someone and I would have said, "C'mon, man. She's a confused teenager under special circumstances."

I think it's important that she ran away because then she could come back as Cal. To have stayed around and tried to get everyone to accept the new her (him?) would have been more difficult.

My favorite character was The Obscure Object. I think, by the time the farmer's tracker hit Callie, the Object really did care for Callie. She's obviously got a total jerk-wad brother and no one at school seems to want to be her friend as bad as Callie.

I liked Desdemona in that she was the clock that never stopped ticking. I was so, so, so happy to see her again at the very end of the book.

amy | February 24, 2004 08:19 AM

I blew off my Vollyball team last night to stay in and read. Stayed up till 1:40am ... still not done, but in the home stretch. Callie just ran off from the hotel in NY.

Obscure Object: bitch! Totally selfish, spoiled, self-centered. But mostly I have a standing aversion to redheads. I bet her real name was Evette.....Mary knows.

Ana, the Object's brother (Jerome) wasn't so bad. Yes, a little nerdy with his vampire movie and all, but he was probably gonna one of those guys who gets better with age. Seems he understood Callie's awkwardness while, at the same time, could appreciate her smarts and her humor.

The whole cast of characters is so well done, the storyline so entertaining and compelling. I couldn't wait to get to Callie's moment of true understanding. Broke my heart that she had to run away....

barbara | February 24, 2004 09:22 AM

am i living in an alternate universe? barbara, i can't- you think- i feel the exact opposite about the object and her brother and it literally stuns me that anyone wouldn't see it that way as well. hmm... interesting... the guess the characters in middlesex are completely open to each reader's own interpretation. i find it interesting that we'd see the characters in completely opposite ways. that must be good writing.

amy | February 24, 2004 10:22 AM

okay, ch.11--i guess we all agree on that how flat he was (of a character).

okay, as for callie (lol)...i did like her at times. i mean, i was compassionate, but still...as a whole, i found her to be pathetic...sorry. perhaps i feel that way because if i would've been in her shoes, i would've informed someone right away of what i thought was different with me. i don't think her feelings for the Object are excused completely because of her being technically a boy. sure, it helps. her feelings are understandable. anyway, i think i was just really angry with her for running away and not wanting to see how things really were and instead trying to handle everything on her own...still a teenager...how old was she? 14? i don't think she was mature enough (obviously, she lies to dr. luce about how she really felt towards girls and boys) to take all of that responsibility of being scared and finding "herself/his self" by her/his self.

okay, barbara, you're right. jerome wasn't so bad. you're right. (hehe)

yea, the obscure object, although she seemed to change with time. i don't remember if she actually hung out with callie in school/public? anyway, she was selfish. just think back to when the four kids were alone in that shack. she got upset with callie for "going all the way" with jerome!
okay, so she did care in the end...

and i don't know why ch.11 was called ch.11 either...does anyone know? maybe he wasn't that worthy of having a name? ha

i think my fave. characters were the grandparents...

ana | February 24, 2004 12:01 PM

Under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a companty may file for Title 11 Bankruptcy, where Chapter 11 means 'Reorganization'.

I think this is the most common meaning for "Chapter 11".

See: http://sec.broaddaylight.com/sec/FAQ_20_260.shtm

amy | February 24, 2004 01:32 PM

Amy - it is curious how different our reaction to characters can be. That's one of the things I enjoy about bookblog. (whatever happened to Rich anyway? He always had an original take on things)

I don't believe the author intends for us to like Object too much. Look at the name itself. Why not just give her a regular name. This is fiction. He's not REALLY protecting anyone's identity. He is keeping her distant and masked. Obscure = unknowable to a large degree.
Yes, we are sympathetic to Callie's first real encounter with sexual desire; the unique & powerful rush of adolescent romance that none of us ever forgets. But look at how O treats Callie? Or the fact the author makes her a country club goin', Charm bracelette wearin', Rex Reese kissin' kinda gal. Ok - I'm being too harsh. She's just a confused kid, too. She does genuinely like Callie -even wishes out loud that Callie could be a boy.

Maybe I just think it is rude to fall asleep after a back rub and then never reciprocate. pffff.

barbara | February 24, 2004 01:36 PM

oh, so that's what chapter 11 is...
well, that's interesting.
i suppose that we overlooked the importance of ch. 11 in the novel then...?

what do you guys think...?
did chapter 11 in one way or another "reorganize" the family?

hmmm...i remember callie mentioning something as to why she was gonna keep the obscure object as the obscure object, put i can't find it right now...maybe later.

oh, did you guys like the way the ... sections were named?
i found it cool.

ana | February 24, 2004 09:23 PM

I don't see how Chapter 11 reorganized the family. Maybe 'reorganization' is too literal an interpretation for his name?

april | February 25, 2004 06:39 PM

I'm late to the party. (Actually, I stopped by Monday but realized I was already late to the party, and had to catch up reading all of your thoughtful comments.)

To stat with the most current topic, my initial impression was that Chapter Eleven was somehow bankrupt as an individual. I didn't consider the name in terms of the specifics of that type of bankruptcy (reorganization), and that's an interesting way to think about it.

Back to earlier topics, I'm especially fond of the way the book seamlessly intertwines a present-day narrative with historical, biographical stories (as April identified it so perfectly, "time-traveling text"). One minute we're in Greece; the next, the author mentions an Aeron chair. Awesome. I think in the hands of less skilful writers this would fail easily, but, as Amy says, Eugenides executed it flawlessly.

My only complaint is that it's too massive; it almost feels like he had all this great material and then didn't really make choices about what to include, so it's just all there. I really dig all of that detail as I'm reading it, but together it's slightly overwhelming. Or possibly I'm just overwhelmed holding that massive volume in my hands.

Andy | February 25, 2004 08:01 PM

I just came across this interview with Jeffrey Eugenides, and he reveals a lot about his writing of Middlesex. A highlight:

Middlesex has lots of different storylines in it, so when I had done all I could with one I could refresh myself with another. ... I wanted the book to exist on different levels. On one, it's an immigrant or family saga. On another, the book mirrors the progression of Western literature, something in the way the "Oxen of the Sun" chapter in Ulysses does.

Andy | February 25, 2004 09:15 PM

i agree with april. i don't see any "reorganization." and the interpretation probably isn't literal.

i do like andy's interpretation, though.
by the way, welcome andy!
i also agree with andy in that it's soo much stuff in one book to make anything of it.
that's why so far, i've only come up with rebirth.
it is overwhelming. it sort of fell like a soap opera in the sense that it just kept going and going and going, yet something kept me interested.

and hey, andy, thanks a lot for that info on that interview.
i've been searching for some comment of his on Middlesex, anything!
but i wasn't able to find anything.
thanks a lot!

ana | February 25, 2004 10:45 PM

Not a problem. Thank you for selecting this novel.

Andy | February 25, 2004 10:49 PM

According to The Guardian, Chapter 11 is named as such because he files for it at the end of the book.

Of course, I haven't gotten that far, but, um, yeah.

marydell | February 26, 2004 10:39 PM

Oh, and I'd also like to mention that Andy, Sarah, and I used to work together and have a special connection through Aeron chairs. Our former employer was a dotbomb and every office and cubicle was outfitted with an Aeron chair (no need to wonder where all the VC money went).

When I got laid off, I negotiated to have my chair be part of my severance package. I had no problem with the layoff, but there was no way I was signing anything without the chair. On my penultimate day, I wheeled it out to my car and a guy offered me money for it in the parking lot. I declined and moved it back East a month later. I'm sitting in it right now.

Andy quit of his own accord, but regrets to this day not taking one with him.

When Sarah was laid off, she made an unsuccessful bid for a chair. I think she secretly harbors jealousy of mine.

This side story doesn't have much to do with Middlesex, but it does explain why Andy mentioned Aeron in his above comment. On p. 37, when Eugenies writes, "As I sit here in my Aeron chair, thinking E.O. Wilson thoughts," my first reaction was, "oooooh."

marydell | February 26, 2004 11:01 PM

OH! (ch.11)

that makes sense...i don't know why i didn't make that connection, even after i found out what ch.11 is commonly known as...

hey, that's a cool story, you guys and your special connection with the aeron chair. ;)

ana | February 26, 2004 11:07 PM

I'm late for the discussion. I found the book blog just last week, and just laid my hands on a copy of the novel on Tuesday. I have just skimmed through the posts, I didn't want to do so before I finished because I didn't want to read anything that might ruin it.

If the question hasn't be answered, I think Chp 11 is called so because he ruins his father's company. When Cal talks about his father leaving "just in time" we learn that Chp 11 destroyed the family business, forcing Tess to sell Middlesex and move to FL with Desdemona and Zoe. Personally, I thought the book could have done without this character in its entirety, other than to give Milt and Tess a reason to "go for a girl"; he was a really flat character. When the book first started, I thought he was a dog that Desdemona was sending up the stairs to fetch something. At some point, he is described as being on all 4's.

At first, I didn't like the fact that Desdemona was completely left out of the last part of the book. I kept flipping back to see if I had missed her funeral or something. I can somewhat understand in that as a 14 year old girl, Callie wouldn't have been paying much attention to his Grandmother, and his interest in her only spiked when he found out Des and Lefty were brother and sister.

I thought it was tragic that her crocus went unnoticed until a trip to an emergency room. Dr Phil just happens to miss it because the nurse touches his arm when he goes to check. Callie fakes receiving her period so Tess cancels the GYN appointment. Dr Phil misses it in every physical.

I also didn't like the way that Cal had complete recollection of his birth. As a narrator, he was a little to "all knowing". It was beneficial to the telling of the story, but almost too convenient, and a little unbelievable, especially when he describes his omnipotence as an egg.

I hated Zizmo. Even with him being the head of the Muslim Faith in Detroit bothered me immensely. I didn't think that it added anything to the story. It was too shocking of a revelation and I don't see anything it accomplished. It did settle the fact that Zizmo wasn't dead and that somehow he knew his wife liked other women and that Lefty and Desdemona were incestuous. But I didn't see the point.

I flipped a lot in this book. I would loathe the telling of Callie's story, only to then be thrown into the past, wishing for Callie's story again. Each time the transfer happened, it would be at a time I was completely engrossed in that part of the story. I loved this as it wasn't something I had experienced in a story before.

My favorite part of the book was the language. I found myself re-reading certain sections just to experience the language again. On page 18 when he describes being born he said "Someone had switched on my eyes". While I didn't like his sitting as an egg with his brother inside his mother, and being lonely after he left, and while I didn't really enjoy the entire birth process through the first person, I loved this sentence. I was disappointed however when he used it again later in the book.

I thought the entire experience in CA was a little too "circus freakish". It was too expected. Like what else is an intersexual going to do besides work as a side show act in a sex shop? I would have been more impressed if he hadn't slipped into this stereo-typical setting. He says that he had been groomed for it while being examined by Dr Luce and the Dr's, people looking at him. I found the submissiveness that Callie allowed herself to be looked at with apparently no feeling a little unbelievable. She went from being a girl who changed without being naked, to a girl who climbed into the stir-ups without any emotions?

Having vented all my complaints, I will say that I LOVED this book. I finished it not more than 2 hours ago, so I'm replaying everything in my mind, remembering things that just didn't work for me. I do the same things when I go to the movies. I'm a constant skeptic. But I couldn't put the book down, and as I have said before, the language is fantastic. The exposition in the beginning is a little long at first, but really is essential to the story. I didn't like being addressed as a reader, I never do, and I don't think that it quite worked in the cases he did employ that style.

manda | March 6, 2004 11:19 PM

I agree with a lot of things Manda wrote. I, too, thought Chapter 11 was a flat character. I didn't really like Zizmo's character either but I thought that was to be expected; I don't think he wasn’t written to be a character you want to sympathize with.

Unlike Manda, I liked the way Desdemona was missing from the last portion of the book, only to reappear right at the end. To be honest, I completely forgot about her because I was too preoccupied with Callie/Cal's crisis. For me, hearing from Desdemona again was like getting a nice phone call from a friend you haven’t heard from in a while. It’s nice.

I’m glad to hear someone else loved this book. I don’t think any of us had a bad time reading it. (I must say I’m most impressed Manda started reading the book on Tuesday and finished on a Saturday! I think it took me a couple weeks to work my way through it.)

amy | March 8, 2004 02:52 PM

well i agree with you bth, manda and amy, about chapter 11.
there was a lot missing from him. and i wanted there to be more to him for me to like him.
but oh well

i hated zizmo too...for some reason, in the beginning, i thought that he and desdemona would've made a good pair...because he seemed very traditional and orthodox...desdemona was that too...then after finding how what he was really up to, i disliked him even more...

anyway,
about desdemona being left out at the end of the book...or towards the end...i really didn't like it either. i kept wondering too if i had missed her funeral, hehehe.
i kept asking myself, how is it that she (callie) pays no attention to her grandmother? but it's understandable, going through what callie was going through, or any other pre-occupied teenager for that matter.

it's funny, manda, how you hated that the story wasn't all about callie, that it went from callie's story to the past.
i felt the opposite. ;)

also agree on the part about cal working at the freak show.
it was expected, and it was also my least favorite part of the book...i just wanted to get past it.

and wow, you read this in a short period of time!

i'm glad you loved the book, you too amy.
i loved it too.
hope i don't sound too "mushy."

ana | March 8, 2004 03:27 PM

[group hug]

amy | March 9, 2004 10:55 AM