I have now read three novels by Jeffrey Eugenides and this, his newest book, takes second place in my personal rating system. The enigmatic title derives from the fact that Madeline, the main female character, is an English major writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot. Books of this genre, she notes, were all about unmarried women and their search for a suitable husband. With marriage the story is over because no one ever, ever gets divorced.
Fast forward from this fictional-idyllic time to life on a modern college campus. Madeline is part of a love triangle and the lives of her two men, Leonard and Mitchell, are dealt with in the same detail as Madeline's. One loves her; one she loves and eventually marries; but in the end -- well, I won't give away the ending.
When I put this book in second place, I am comparing it to Middlesex, Eugenides' fascinating story of a hermaphrodite. His other book, The Virgin Suicides, I found a disappointment .. still it managed to get made into a movie, which I have not seen -- yet. I probably someday, will out of curiousity.
Fast forward from this fictional-idyllic time to life on a modern college campus. Madeline is part of a love triangle and the lives of her two men, Leonard and Mitchell, are dealt with in the same detail as Madeline's. One loves her; one she loves and eventually marries; but in the end -- well, I won't give away the ending.
When I put this book in second place, I am comparing it to Middlesex, Eugenides' fascinating story of a hermaphrodite. His other book, The Virgin Suicides, I found a disappointment .. still it managed to get made into a movie, which I have not seen -- yet. I probably someday, will out of curiousity.
