Eugenides writes a beautiful saga of 3 generations of Greeks in America. The narrator Cal weaves us through the story of his grandparents' journey to America from Turkey, his parents' courtship and his unique coming of age as a boy who grew up a girl. Yes, Cal, or Callie as she was then, is a hermaphrodite. In order to understand his legacy and his chromosomal makeup, he takes us through his family history with humour and insight. One of the most well-written books I've read in a long time.

This beautifully written book is more than a story of a hermaphrodite. It is a rich family history interwoven with the history of Greek immigrants, as well as a history of life in the Detroit area from the early auto industry through the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. I liked all the characters from the grandparents Desdemona and Lefty through the narrator, Cal/Callie.

wonderfully written, poignant prose (i'm going with the alliteration today).

Absolutely adored this book. Eugenides has a staggering gift for prose. The scene in the girls' locker room with the descriptions of exoctic salt water fish blew my mind. I loved the history, the descriptions, the story, the characters...It was one of those books that I didn't want to finish and was sad to put down. Rich, wonderfully told.

A strange, strange little book. Seemed very much like Lord of the Flies- what children will do when they create their own rules and their own society. I picked it out of Justin's old TO collection since McEwan always gets such good reviews.
The imagery is really good- subtle effects to create a very disturbing ambiance around the story. The actions of the characters, especially those of the narrator, are also quite disturbing.
How does a family become so isolated?
I didn't really enjoy reading this book, but I think it was really good since I really reacted to it. Left me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

This is the first Ian McEwan book that I didn't really care for. The subject matter sickened me a bit and I couldn't see any redeeming quality in the end.

The mother dies, three children bury her under concrete in the basement and continue on as though she were not dead. The brother/sister incest had no correlation at all to anything else in the story -- the whole thing makes me wonder if and why Mr. McEwan really wrote this book!!!

I'm not sure how much of this book is historically accurate and how much of it is made up/rumor, but it almost doesn't matter for the story, which is really the development of an evil character. It could have been more interesting, but in the end it was too full of graphic sex and feces to feel like more than a teenager's book.

Oedipus is called to find who killed the former king. The oracle tells him that his fate is to kill his father and marry his mother. The king's fate was to be killed by his son. Oedipus recently killed a man of the king's description. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on, but it takes Oedipus a good while. When he realizes that he's had children with his mother and killed his father, he gouges his eyes out so he won't have to look upon his children, or upon his father when he dies. This is where the term "Oedipus complex" originated.

Okay this story made me laugh because of how twisted it is. I loved it. This is definatly a story that you will remember no matter what.

Allison is a gifted Southern writer.

Incredibly beautiful and sad... very emotional... hard to read but a good one none the less. The relationships (good and bad) created here are very real, and the symbolism of some of them is really creative. I just loved it.

Like other Irving books I've read, this one was both funny and sad as well as quirky at times. The story kept me engaged as I wanted to find out what happens next to Franny, John, Frank, Lilly, Egg, etc.