Middlesex By Jeffery Eugenides-A Review

So summer has hit and that has allowed me to do much more reading.  I finally was able to pick up and read a book that has been on my to be read list for ages now.  Middlesex.  I have wanted to read this ever since Oprah picked it as her book club books years ago.  Also, one of things that I teach in Psychology at my school is about Gender, Gender Identity, and all the fascinating parts of transgender issue etc.  I can honestly say that this book was nothing like what I expected.  Instead of being about the life of a transgender person it was more about this their unique family history as well as their childhood memories before they knew that they were transgendered.  There was only maybe three chapters of the entire book that were dedicated to what his/her life was like as a transgender person (she/he found out in later adolescence).  So in my opinion the book was a let down in that capacity in that I was expecting to read more about the life of a person living a transgendered life etc.  Yet, the book did tell the fascinating family tale of this child's family.  In terms of writing, story telling, and characters this book was really good, in terms of what I was expecting not so much.  Then again perhaps that is the point of the book, that a person's life is not so much how they live their life as a transgender person but that first they are a person with a history just like everyone else.  I gave the book three and half stars (Three for what I thought its as about, four for great characters and good story).