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And the gender-bending APRIL Book of the Month is....MIDDLESEX by Jeffrey Eugenides

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TillyBookClub · 30/03/2009 13:40

MIDDLESEX has won our April poll (in a dead heat with SACRED COUNTRY, it narrowly scraped through by getting heads in a coin toss)

We'll be chatting about MIDDLESEX on Tuesday 28 April from 8pm to 10pm. Hope you can join us!

Don't forget you can order your copy here

And, for anyone who missed out on the vote here were April's book choices and this is how Book Club works.

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MNHQ

carriemumsnet · 28/04/2009 20:35

I just finished it tonight and have really enjoyed it, though am not completely sure why - perhaps just a sense of achievement in finishing something so long.

It was interesting that it kept your attention and you wanted to know what happened even though, because of the structure you already knew Cal was living as a man in Berlin.It did feel like an old greek epic and I quite enjoyed that generational saga.

I thought the scenes with The Object were well observed ad quite gripping as was the Dr Luce stuff

I thought it got a bit far fetched at the end with the Father Mike plot.

I spent a lot of time brooding on how I would cope, as a parent, how you would cope with something like this happening to my child, but I'm not sure that was what the author really wanted us to do - but I do find I view everything thro parent-coloured specs these days!

I also thought hermaphroditism aside, Cal would have been a lot more tortured by the fact that her/his running away basically caused his/her father's death.

Kids calling - be back soon.

MNHQ

carriemumsnet · 28/04/2009 20:39

...oh and agree with the ignorance about Smyrna and the horrific images haunting you afterwards.

Was surprised how accepting I was about the brother marrying sister - I thought that relationship, particularly the early bit was written with real tenderness

MNHQ

carriemumsnet · 28/04/2009 20:50

I think one of the things that kept me reading (and it links to the c5 voyeurism thing) is wanting to know if he'd decided to properly become a he - ie have surgery etc. Is that very news of the world of me?

I think it's probably indicative of one of the things the book was about - society demanding that you are one gender or another - that I wanted him "tidied" up, both a mental and physical decision made, so that he could have a more "normal" life. I really wanted it to work with Julie but - again projecting like I did with parents - couldn't imagine how I'd react if a bloke I was dating told me something like that!

MNHQ

carriemumsnet · 28/04/2009 21:05

I think everyone would be appalled at thought of their kids getting married to each- tho on some level you might feel you'd done a good job if they loved each other rather than wanting to fight all the time

In the book it felt like a different world, where this sort of thing was relatively common - choice was limited and life was short and brutal. The way they worked on forgetting that they were brother and sister was really well observed - I think we've all done that, recreated a truth and then told ourselves it's true enough times to start believing it.

If the hermaphroditism had come as a shock revelation - it might have made me regret my acceptance of the brother sister relationship, but as it was there from the start and the narrator seemed Ok with it, I think it allowed you to accept the incest.

Sorry am rambling....

MNHQ

carriemumsnet · 28/04/2009 21:07

btw my dd did want to marry ds when they were 6 and 3. I said if they still wanted to at 18 that was fine by me... funnily enough now they're 7 and 10 they're not so keen. The 3 year old dd does still want to marry her dad though

MNHQ

carriemumsnet · 28/04/2009 21:21

Anyone else want to know how someone who dropped out of school at 14 ended up in the job he was in? I would have been happy to read another 100 pages (having come this far) to bring cal's story up to date, as it were.

MNHQ

carriemumsnet · 28/04/2009 21:23

Sorry haven't read Virgin Suicides, but it was quite a successful film directed by Sofia Coppola - haven't seen it tho - try not to do dead children...

MNHQ

carriemumsnet · 28/04/2009 21:50

I can just about manage the Mumsnet book of the month - other than that don't really have a to-read list! But really enjoying the book club and someone else choosing a book that I otherwise wouldn't read - and have so far enjoyed them all so well done Tilly and thanks all for voting and taking part.

Dh home and dinner ready so will sign off - but thanks again for tonight and see you next month

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