Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
This was a much anticipated book from Jeffrey Eugenides after his long hiatus since he published the Pulitzer Prize winning Middlesex in 2002. Even before it was released to the general public, it had garnered a whole bunch of accolades and bookstores and large retailers like Costco were hawking this as a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Not to be left behind in all this hype and having really liked Middlesex, I put myself on the wait-list for this book at my local library. The local Santa Clara library, was also not impervious to the hype and had ordered 61 copies of this book, so it was not long after it was released that I got my hands on a copy.
The premise is a love-story of sorts with many angles. It is set in Brown University in the 80s and since Jeffrey went to Brown as well, I am sure it is pretty accurate on the details. The main character is Madeline Hanna and the men in her life - the two main ones are Leonard Bankhead and Mitchell Grammaticus. Jeffrey has not lost his touch to spin a good yarn and the book meanders along with lots of literary quotes and explanations thrown in for good measure. I am not sure whether the objective was to appeal to a more literary audience or are they just fillers so they heighten the suspense and pleasure ? To me, the quotes and literary discourse added no-value whatsoever, and might have liked the book more without them. In any case, it was a rather ho-hum book and one that I would not recommend unless, you ran out of all other options.
This was a much anticipated book from Jeffrey Eugenides after his long hiatus since he published the Pulitzer Prize winning Middlesex in 2002. Even before it was released to the general public, it had garnered a whole bunch of accolades and bookstores and large retailers like Costco were hawking this as a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Not to be left behind in all this hype and having really liked Middlesex, I put myself on the wait-list for this book at my local library. The local Santa Clara library, was also not impervious to the hype and had ordered 61 copies of this book, so it was not long after it was released that I got my hands on a copy.The premise is a love-story of sorts with many angles. It is set in Brown University in the 80s and since Jeffrey went to Brown as well, I am sure it is pretty accurate on the details. The main character is Madeline Hanna and the men in her life - the two main ones are Leonard Bankhead and Mitchell Grammaticus. Jeffrey has not lost his touch to spin a good yarn and the book meanders along with lots of literary quotes and explanations thrown in for good measure. I am not sure whether the objective was to appeal to a more literary audience or are they just fillers so they heighten the suspense and pleasure ? To me, the quotes and literary discourse added no-value whatsoever, and might have liked the book more without them. In any case, it was a rather ho-hum book and one that I would not recommend unless, you ran out of all other options.
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