Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Middlesex: I didn't know much about this book - assumed it was about the region in England. (It's not.)  My husband recommended it, as did another friend of ours who has read it at least three times. And I'm slowly working my way through it.  It's not the material that's causing the slow pace - it's the attention span of the reader who has too much on her plate to stick with any one book for long.

This book won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. And I can see why. It's the story of Calliope Helen Stephanides and three generations of her Greek-American family.  The story starts all the way back in the hills of Greece, where her grandparents escape the chaos during the burning of Smyrna to start a new life in America. Through twists and turns in genetic fate, Calliope ends up being born with an mutation on her 5th chromosome ( 5-alpha-reductase deficiency) which dramatically impacts her life.

I tend to read in spurts - this one keeps me captivated for hours on end. But then real life intrudes and the cats must be fed. I'm hoping to finish it in the next month.