I loved the extensiveness of this book. The range of settings, from Greece/Turkey to Detroit to San Francisco, and - above all - the omniscient first-person narrator really made the book for me. I found myself thinking of [b:The Tin Drum|35743|The Tin Drum|Günter Grass|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327945103s/35743.jpg|922581] when he was describing his birth; I haven't read it in about 20 years, but I need to dig it up and re-read a bit of it to see if there are more than surface similarities in the narration.

One of the other reviews talks about Cal's hermaphrodism being a sensationalist device to draw publicity. I don't quite agree. I think it's part of what makes the narrator's omniscience more believable. In some ways, it represents any quality or aspect that a parent doesn't want to see in his or her child (sexual preference, divorce, choice of majors, haircut); it's something that a parent can deny, come to terms with, accept.

I didn't give it five stars because there are some parts of the book that feel like they're not quite finished. (Cal's relationship with Julie, for instance.)

Read for January 2008 book group.