In suburban Detroit, a young person has been raised as a girl as far as puberty, when gradually she (as she identifies at the time) and her family begin to realise that that might not be what she is at all. As Calliope (“Cal”) begins to develop more masculine characteristics, she also begins to learn that she will have to create her own place in society as neither male nor female.
…is what I thought I’d be getting with this book. Continue reading Middlesex
The autobiography of a fictional character, this novel charts the significant periods in the life of one Daisy Goodwill, born in 1905 in rural Manitoba. The novel dedicates one chapter apiece to birth, childhood, marriage, motherhood, etc, right up to (and including) death, which you have to admit is an unorthodox choice for a novel purportedly narrated by the protagonist (though often not in the first person).
The pressure was on for our Donna. After her unputdownable debut, The Secret History, she sort of dropped off the radar, producing only one other (very disappointing) novel since 1992. This one was her comeback tour, and if your memory doesn’t stretch back to mid-last year, it was so hyped that it was almost impossible to imagine it living up to expectations. Continue reading The Goldfinch
Another publisher churns out another World War 2 novel. Here, we follow the fates of two children, an orphaned German boy and a blind French girl, through the build-up to war and into its consequences.