But damnit, after this, I should.
The Facts
Length: 406 pages.
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Canada.
This is Eugenides' third novel.
Quick Summary
Madeline Hanna, Leonard Bankhead, and Mitchell Grammaticus, are all recent graduates of Brown University in the 1980s. Mitchell loves Madeline, who loves Leonard. And Leonard has got a whole lot of issues. This novel is about young adulthood, mental illness, and just a little dose of love.
This novel is told in third person, but the focus rotates between the three main characters.
The Good
The beginning of this novel is one of the most insightful and truthful beginnings I've had the pleasure to experience. Madeline's experience with undergraduation and her flashbacks to her degree (is that what you call it?) coincided, to almost embarrassing levels, with my own experiences. I got Madeline almost instantly because, derr, as a fellow English graduate I was able to pick up on a lot of Eugenides' references (but not the philosophical ones: just the ones about Austen and Eliot). A lot of them I missed, and perhaps it's just my egotism speaking, but the ones I did miss didn't seem to halt the flow at all.
The other characters - Mitchell and Leonard - were a little bit harder for me to identify with - at first. But it's not long before Eugenides reveals traits present in the two which I see in my own mirror. The traits aren't particularly noble, or dignified, and it speaks to Eugenides' perception at noting common - if not universal - human fallacies to imbue them in each one of his drastically different characters.
The Bad
While I like this novel, the ending leaves a little bit to be desired. Mitchell has an intense moment of self-realization, but its outcome isn't particularly climactic or really important. It's placement at the very end of the novel shines too little a light on the proceeding disintegration of the relationship between Leonard and Madeline, but even this is somewhat underwhelming in its finality. It's hard to get excited over Leonard, because he falls into his depression so sluggishly, but I felt like the characters could've done more. I wasn't very happy at the ending - half because the novel flowed so well, and I don't like having it stopped, and half because the ending left much to be desired.
Final Thoughts
I loved this book. But the book needs a stronger ending to balance its gripping beginning and flowing middle. Fellow liberal arts undergrads, travelers, and anyone whose been unsure of how to deal with adulthood might want to give this book a go.
Arbitrary Score: 4.5 out of 5.
Next book: The Baskerville Legacy: A Confession, by John O'Connell (2011)
