Middlesex and Sleeping in the Theater

Hey everyone! I hope your weekends are starting off well! Mine had a great start! I went out to lunch with my friend Bailey! We went to a sushi restaurant in KC and it was delicious! Of course I was a total freak and brought a bottle of Coconut Aminos, which is basically a soy-sauce replacement that’s soy and gluten free! But sushi without soy sauce is just not the same. I didn’t however, make as much as a mess as I did when I had sushi with Chelsey! Haha I do what I can.

Later that afternoon I went to see a movie with my friend, Helen.

We went to see the Five Year Engagement, but I was more impressed with the theater than the movie. We went the the AMC Ward Parkway theater, which I actually wasn’t allowed to go to at a certain point because that mall turned into a pretty dangerous place! However, they’ve completely re-done the theater and I was ridiculously impressed! They added a bar at the entrance and by the snack stand they had those coke machines where you can mix your own soda! We didn’t test it out, but I definitely will next time I go!

The best part was the seats. They took out every other row and put in lounger chairs. Like, legit lounger chairs. You pushed a button and it moved back so that you could be leaning all the way back with your feet up! It was really cool!

So cool, in fact, that you could totally just curl up and take a nap if you didn’t like the movie…

Haha don’t worry. I didn’t nap. The movie was pretty good, it had a lot of funny parts and a great overall message. However, I did feel like it got a little long during certain parts. There were definitely areas that dragged on that they could have cut shorter. But other than that I enjoyed the movie and my time with Helen!

So now on to the book review! Honestly, I don’t feel qualified to write this review! I’m not a book critic and this is a book that deserves someone who knows what they are talking about. But I’ll do my best! Honestly I wish I could have read this in an English class to get a little more out of it!

Middlesex was written by Jeffrey Eugenides and tells the story of Calliope Stephanides and how she (or he…) came to be, following her family history from her grandparents in Greece to her teenage years and discovery (or confirmation) that she is a hermaphrodite and actually has XY, or male, chromosomes.

My favorite part about this book was how the author developed the family history, as well as switched back and forth between Calliope’s current life and the story of her family’s past. The book goes from her grandparents living in Greece, then immigrating to Detroit. It talks about their trials and tribulations, their children, and then turns to their children’s lives, who then have Calliope and her brother. As the author moves from one generation to the next, each is still present, but no longer the main character of the story. The original characters, Calliope’s grandparents, are actually still in the book to the very end. I felt like so much time had passed that they wouldn’t be alive anymore, there was such a disparity between their home in a tiny village in Greece to the family’s home in the suburbs of Detroit, but it made me realize how much can really change just during one lifetime.

I also like that, although mentioned often by the narrator, Calliope, the main focus of the story was not her hermaphroditism, but her family and how people are formed by their families and their life experiences. That in the end, family is what really makes you who you are. At least, that’s one thing that I got from the novel!

I did find the book slow to start, but once I got further and further into it I became engulfed and it was much easier to read. I definitely recommend the book, and would say that if you have a hard time starting it, just keep with it! I am really glad I did and enjoyed the story a lot more than I expected to.

Does anyone else secretly wish they could sit in on English classes?

Ever been to a theater with seats that lounge like mine did?!