When I Was Puerto Rican, Middlesex, The Virgin Suicides

When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmerelda Santiago

I'm a sucker for a good memoir and Santiago delivers. While her story is not as crushingly depressing as Frank McCourt it certainly has its own dimension of strife. Raised in Puerto Rico as the oldest of a clan. The father is sporadically present and the mother struggles. The best part of Santiago's writing comes out in her memories of her point of view as a young girl. She remembers the way she perceived people and circumstances with innocence. At 13 her mother moves her to Brooklyn where she has to relearn life. That is the jumping off point for her next book Almost a Woman.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

I've been meaning to read this for a looooong time. I finally got right down to it. What an amazing story. A family's secret history adds up to a modern child who, at the age of puberty, finds out he is a hermaphrodite. More than half of the book is all leading up to this discovery and the family epic plays out beautifully. Eugenides' style writing is wonderful. For such a long book, I was never bored.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

I've been meaning to read this one for even longer. I saw the movie in high school (a great film), and so have been wanting to see where the story came from. Again, Eugenides is a masterful story teller. The book is mostly descriptive. For myself I believe the sign of a great book is when you are surprised at how far along you are in the book because it has just flown by. Eugenides' books are like that. You are so engrossed in the story that you hardly even have time to think about the fact that you're reading a book. I think I found a new favorite author.