Middlesex

published	2003 by Picador USA
first published	2002
binding	Paperback
isbn	0312422156 (isbn13: 9780312422158)
pages	529
literary awards	Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2003); 2004 IMPAC Dublin Award Nominee; 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
description	"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emerge...more [close] "I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." And so begins Middlesex, the mesmerizing saga of a near-mythic Greek American family and the "roller-coaster ride of a single gene through time." The odd but utterly believable story of Cal Stephanides, and how this 41-year-old hermaphrodite was raised as Calliope, is at the tender heart of this long-awaited second novel from Jeffrey Eugenides, whose elegant and haunting 1993 debut, The Virgin Suicides, remains one of the finest first novels of recent memory. Eugenides weaves together a kaleidoscopic narrative spanning 80 years of a stained family history, from a fateful incestuous union in a small town in early 1920s Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit; from the early days of Ford Motors to the heated 1967 race riots; from the tony suburbs of Grosse Pointe and a confusing, aching adolescent love story to modern-day Berlin. Eugenides's command of the narrative is astonishing. He balances Cal/Callie's shifting voices convincingly, spinning this strange and often unsettling story with intelligence, insight, and generous amounts of humor: <blockquote>Emotions, in my experience aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness," "joy," or "regret." … I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic traincar constructions like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy." ... I'd like to have a word for "the sadness inspired by failing restaurants" as well as for "the excitement of getting a room with a minibar." I've never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I've entered my story, I need them more than ever.</blockquote> When you get to the end of this splendorous book, when you suddenly realize that after hundreds of pages you have only a few more left to turn over, you'll experience a quick pang of regret knowing that your time with Cal is coming to a close, and you may even resist finishing it--putting it aside for an hour or two, or maybe overnight--just so that this wondrous, magical novel might never end. --Brad Thomas Parsons
date added	10-13-06 edit book

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Middlesex - why can't I enjoy this book?	36	1 day ago, 07:42AM
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Trina rated it:

07/29/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in July, 2003

I got off the bus from Bumbershoot around 1 AM, exhausted. Convinced that even the cars speeding past my window couldn’t keep me from this night’s rest, I opened the door to a stench of exceptional vileness. Not a dead stench, or a spoiled food stench. This was the stench of sewage. From a spot in the center of the living room I surveyed the apartment and discovered the source: the commode and the area around it were covered in yuck. I dialed up the landlord. The exchange went somethin...more

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Andrew rated it:

12/11/07

This would have been better as an NPR story or an episode of "This American Life" than a novel. Or maybe if someone other than Eugenides had written it. An interesting idea, and a few engrossing sex scenes (I like the "crocus" and the peep-tank, and the whole long flirtation with The Object drew me in completely), and a nice two pages toward the end when Julie accepts Cal for what he is. But the prose was awful: frequent maneuvers like "And me? That's simple. I was ...more This would have been better as an NPR story or an episode of "This American Life" than a novel. Or maybe if someone other than Eugenides had written it. An interesting idea, and a few engrossing sex scenes (I like the "crocus" and the peep-tank, and the whole long flirtation with The Object drew me in completely), and a nice two pages toward the end when Julie accepts Cal for what he is. But the prose was awful: frequent maneuvers like "And me? That's simple. I was . . . " are really unacceptable. And "Sing, Muse, of Greek ladies and their battle against unsightly hair!" is about as funny as poop.

Except for the incest, the long family-history plot was like a mashup of immigrant dramas from cable TV: Greek family barely escapes home country to make it to the United States, where they wander through 20th century history in a dull procession of unmotivated Gumpy forays into Wikipedia that have no effect whatsoever on their character development. (Now we'll shove these characters through Prohibition! mass production! the Detroit race riots! The partition of Cyprus! San Francisco hippies! the tragedy of Michael Dukakis's helmet moment! and . . . the founding of the Nation of Islam!)

The incest part of the story was good in the beginning -- the early love scenes between the grandparents are wonderful -- and then impressively tedious (Desdemona feels guilt! and then . . . she feels guilt again!). The metaphors are embarassingly bad: The hermaphrodite lives on a street named Middlesex, and eventually finds reconciliation of the two sides of herself in Berlin after reunification. Why not have Desdemona live on "I Feel Guilty For Fucking My Brother Boulevard"?

Cal remains completely undefined as a character, except in terms of her understandably tough time figuring out her own sexuality; I couldn't come up with more than one adjective to define her, and "confused" isn't much of a character. Everyone else in the book fails to exist at all. Jimmy Zizmo turns out to be the founder of the Nation of Islam? Eugenides says self-importantly that "you've probably guessed" that -- no! Not only did I not guess it, it doesn't make any sense, logical or emotional, and it's completely uninteresting. Why not have him turn out to be Richard Nixon?. Uncle Mike turns out to be a psychopath who extorts his own family? Why? Who cares?

Cal's lack of voice or character is the worst thing: if you write a book about someone who lives in a world that's somehow dramatically different than your reader's -- a world where gender is fluid, undefined -- you should show us that world. Cal has no voice, no face, no identity. What voice there is is completely inconsistent with her behavior -- the current Cal is reticent, shy, depressed, lonely, and retiring; our narrator is open, boisterous, discursive, ironic, omniscient for no particular reason, and irritatingly jokey.

And the book no more has ideas about sexuality than it does about Cal's character. As one reviewer said, the most disappointing thing about the book is it ends up reinforcing stereotyped, dumb ideas about gender (like "Breasts have the same effect on me as on anyone with my testosterone level" -- as if there were no gays). Callie's pursuit of The Object doesn't make her question categories, it just convinces her she's a boy. There is no middle sex here; there's no middle ground; it's more gawking than Tiresias-like insight. ...less

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Pete added it

07/14/07

Read in July, 2007

Don't judge a book by its cover.

I'd seen this book on the shelves of a number of friends and in the arms of a number of travelers, so I decided to pick it up. The title, "Middlesex", suggested English countryside to me. On the cover was what looked like a steamship, and a quote on the back began "Part Tristram Shanty, part-Ishmael..." So I came to the foolish conclusion that this was some 19th century English seafaring novel. (Typical.)

I couldn't have been more wro...more Don't judge a book by its cover.

I'd seen this book on the shelves of a number of friends and in the arms of a number of travelers, so I decided to pick it up. The title, "Middlesex", suggested English countryside to me. On the cover was what looked like a steamship, and a quote on the back began "Part Tristram Shanty, part-Ishmael..." So I came to the foolish conclusion that this was some 19th century English seafaring novel. (Typical.)

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Middlesex is the story of a hermaphrodite who grew up as Calliope but discovered in her adolescence that she is actually more Cal than Calliope. More specifically, Middlesex (the title takes on a new meaning now) is the story of three generations of a Greek family and the incestuous genetic and social history that enables the existence of Cal, who narrates the story.

The novel is epic. It spans nearly a century and traces the Stephanides family from battle-torn Greece and Turkey in the 1920s, across an Atlantic voyage, from the street corners of Detroit, through World War II, and out to the suburban haven of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. The novel incorporates details upon details from all different spheres of life, dropping name brands from different time periods and regions and incorporating specialized jargon from a wide range of fields--Jeffrey Eugenides must have done an immense, immense amount of research during the writing process.

And the scope is as broad as the focus is often narrow. Over the course of 20th century, the Stephanides family responds to and participates in political, social, and cultural movements, and through them, we feel not only the sweep of a small Greek enclave, but also the sweep of a nation's growth as it engages Prohibition, World War II, the idealism of the 50s, the revolutions of the 60s and 70s, and more. The story is as much about the conflicts within a country as it is about a family trying to face its secrets, past and present.

Through it all, Cal, as a narrator, is clever and endearing. A story about a hermaphrodite sounds freakish at first, and there are moments in the novel when Cal faces the visceral or fearful reactions that might instinctively rise in anyone. But, from page one, Eugenides clears the air, setting us on a fresh foundation, and we discover a character who faces familiar childhood and adolescent trials and tribulations--we discover the humanity of a character one might otherwise find defined as a monster.

Do I recommend it? Yes. It's a good tale for the modern age.
Would I teach it? Not likely. At 527 pages, it's just too long.
Lasting impression? Epic. I'll remember it for the incredible depth and breadth of knowledge it demonstrates. This novel impresses upon me the amount of research that an author must do to prepare for a serious work.
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Ferina rated it:

04/29/08

bookshelves: fiction

Read in July, 2007

Calliope Stephanides, menjalani kehidupannya selama 14 tahun sebagai seorang perempuan. Ia tidka menyadari ada keanehan dalam dirinya, sampai ketika ia beranjak dewasa, ia menyadari dirinya berbeda dengan teman-teman perempuan lainnya. Di usia dua belas tahun, ia belum mendapatkan menstruasi, berdada rata dan bertubuh lebih kurus dan jangkung. Di atas bibirnya, mulai ditumbuhi rambut tipis. Dan, ia lebih cenderung menyukai teman perempuan dibanding laki-laki. Keluarganya, terutama ibunya, Tessie...more Calliope Stephanides, menjalani kehidupannya selama 14 tahun sebagai seorang perempuan. Ia tidka menyadari ada keanehan dalam dirinya, sampai ketika ia beranjak dewasa, ia menyadari dirinya berbeda dengan teman-teman perempuan lainnya. Di usia dua belas tahun, ia belum mendapatkan menstruasi, berdada rata dan bertubuh lebih kurus dan jangkung. Di atas bibirnya, mulai ditumbuhi rambut tipis. Dan, ia lebih cenderung menyukai teman perempuan dibanding laki-laki. Keluarganya, terutama ibunya, Tessie Stephanides, juga mulai khawatir mengapa Calliope belum juga datang bulan.

Suatu hari, ia mengalami sebuah kecelakaan, dan dokter yang memeriksa menemukan adanya sebuah keanehan. Calliope pun dibawa ke dokter lain di New York untuk pemeriksaan lebih lanjut. Terungkaplah sebuah fakta bahwa Calliope adalah seorang Hermaphrodite alias berkelamin ganda. Saran Dr. Luce agar Calliope melakukan operasi ternyata ditolak.

Mulailah babak baru dalam kehidupan Calliope sebagai Cal Stephanides.

Buku ini lebih mirip sebuah memoar, sebuah kisah kehidupan seorang Cal Stephanides. Cal menuturkan sejarah keluarganya, awal mula terjainya kelainan genetis yang memungkinkan terjadinya sosok seorang Cal Stephanides.

Sejarah dimulai di sebuah wilayah di Yunani. Desdemona Stephanides tinggal bersama adiknya, Lefty Stephanides. Desdemona benar-benar mengabdikan hidupnya untuk merawat adiknya, sesuai janjinya pada ibunya. Bahkan berulang kali Desdemona mencarikan jodoh untuk adiknya, tapi Lefty ternyata tidak tertarik pada mereka.

Ternyata, tinggal hanya berdua, tidur bersebelahan, menimbulkan keanehan pada diri mereka. Rasa sayang, rasa tertarik bukan lagi semata karena mereka saudara kandung, tapi lebih dari itu. Rasa sayang yang timbul lebih arah rasa terhadap seorang wanita dan laki-laki.

Menjelang pelarian mereka dari Yunani ke Amerika akibat penyerbuan Turki, Lefty melamar Desdemona. Desdemona merima lamaran adiknya. Di kapal yang membawa mereka ke Amerika, Desdemona dan Lefty memainkan scenario sebagai pasangan yang baru saling mengenal dan jatuh cinta dalam di dalam pelayaran itu. Mereka pun menikah di kapal itu.

Di Amerika, mereka tinggal di rumah sepupu mereka, Sourmelina. Tidak ada yang tahu bahwa mereka adalah kakak beradik, kecuali Sourmelina.

Ketika hamil, Desdemona sempat diliputi kekhawatiran akan melahirkan anak-anak yang tidak normal. Tapi, ternyata hal itu tidak terbukti. Milton dan Zoe lahir dengan sehat dan normal. Tapi, kekhawatiran itu timbul lagi, ketika Milton tertarik ada Tessie, anak Sourmelina. Meskipun, Desdemona sudah menjodohkan Tessie dengan Mike, seorang calon pastur, Milton dan Tessie pun akhirnya menikah. Mike pun akhirnya menikah dengan Zoe.

Dari Milton dan Tessie, lahirnya Calliope Stephanides. Menurut ramalan sendok Desdemona, jenis kelamin si jabang bayi adalah laki-laki. Tapi Milton dan Tessie tidak mau percaya begitu saja, karena mereka berdua mendambakan anak perempuan setelah anak laki-laki pertama mereka, Chapter Eleven. Tapi, oleh Dr. Phil, dokter yang menangani persalinan, ditegaskan bahwa bayi itu berjenis kelamin perempuan. Berakhirlah masa kejayaan ramalan sendok Desdemona.

Calliope pun menjalani kehidupan sebagai seorang perempuan. Keanehan di awal masa remaja dianggap sebagai tanda bahwa pertumbuhan Calliope lebih lambat dari teman-temannya.

Dalam novel yang dibagi dalam empat bagian besar ini, Eugenides menjadikan Cal sebagai penutur. Bagian yang unik adalah waktu Cal cerita tentang ‘antrian’ di alam ‘sana’ sebelum akhirnya pemenangnya adalah Chapter Eleven. Bukan hanya itu, Eugenides juga dengan teliti dan sabar menguraikan sejarah selama rentang waktu 50 tahun. Benar-benar sebuah cerita yang menguraikan perjalanan keluarga selama 3 generasi.
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Martine rated it:

02/26/08

bookshelves: family-drama, gay-lesbian-different, modern-fiction, north-american, psychological-drama

Read in February, 2008

I'm torn on this book. On the one hand, I loved the story, which is, as another reviewer put it, 'the greatest, most incestuous Greek epic since the Iliad'. On the other hand, I had serious problems with some of the writing. I haven't seen my quibbles mentioned anywhere else, so I guess I'm alone on them. Or am I?

In a nutshell, Middlesex is the story of Cal, a Greek American who was born a hermaphrodite and raised as a girl before finally realising he was boy as a teenager. In ...more I'm torn on this book. On the one hand, I loved the story, which is, as another reviewer put it, 'the greatest, most incestuous Greek epic since the Iliad'. On the other hand, I had serious problems with some of the writing. I haven't seen my quibbles mentioned anywhere else, so I guess I'm alone on them. Or am I?

In a nutshell, Middlesex is the story of Cal, a Greek American who was born a hermaphrodite and raised as a girl before finally realising he was boy as a teenager. In about five hundred occasionally brilliant pages, Cal traces back his family history (which is rife with inbreeding) to see how he came to be the sort of almost-male he is. In so doing, he not only paints a loving picture of the memorable and colourful Stephanides clan, whose men have rather special ways of wooing women, but of a changing world, all the way from the Greek part of early-twentieth-century Turkey through mid-twentieth-century Detroit to post-Wall Berlin. What with its focus on different conflicts in different eras, the book is quite epic in scope. Yet it is also quite personal, with the social and racial conflicts played out in the world at large reflecting the much more private conflict that is going on within Cal. Both the epic and the intimate aspects of the novel are funny, poignant and tragic, and for that Jeffrey Eugenides deserves applause. Lots of it.

But. But. But.

I have to admit to finding Eugenides an awfully inconsistent writer. While he undeniably has a flair for story-telling, he also has a mad tendency to change tenses and perspectives, to the point where it actually quite took me out of the story. I dislike stories which switch back and forth between past tense and present tense within a matter of paragraphs at the best of times; if these stories also come equipped with narrators who constantly switch points of view, I get annoyed. And this is exactly what happens in Middlesex. Not only is Cal an omniscient first-person narrator who shares with the reader details from older relatives' lives which he has no way of knowing, but he also has a maddening tendency to randomly refer to himself in the third person, which results in sudden bursts of 'Calliope this' and 'Calliope that' in what is essentially a first-person narrative. To a certain extent, I can see why Cal would do this, looking back from a distance at a person he used to be but no longer is, but still, I found it annoying, so much so that I occasionally found myself wanting to scream at the narrator to drop all that third-person shit and stick with the first person, for God's sake. I don't like feeling like shouting at narrators, so that's where one star went. The other one I deducted for the weak ending, which felt rather rushed to me after the perfectly lavish set-up. Is it me, or would Middlesex have been a better book with slightly more information on what happened to Cal between the ages of 17 and 41? With an actual, you know, ending and all that?

I'll stop complaining here to end on a positive note. Despite my quibbles, I enjoyed most of Middlesex -- especially the first half, which is superb. I quite like Eugenides' brand of modern mythology, so I think I'll give The Virgin Suicides a shot, too. I rather liked the film, so I'm actually quite surprised I haven't read the book yet...
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Virna rated it:

11/25/07

recommends it for: Oprah fans, Avid readers

Jeffrey Eugenides uses Calliope as his Muse – according to the Greek mythology, she’s the Muse of epic poetry –, as a narrator of his story. He must be a fan of the Greek myths as the novel’s full of allusion to Homer and the Illiad. The narrator eloquently unfold the story behind Calliope’s transformation, like the Chinese Princess Si Ling-Chi, as Eugenides puts it: upon discovering the unraveling of a silkworm cocoon that fell into her teacup, handing its loose end to her maidservant...more Jeffrey Eugenides uses Calliope as his Muse – according to the Greek mythology, she’s the Muse of epic poetry –, as a narrator of his story. He must be a fan of the Greek myths as the novel’s full of allusion to Homer and the Illiad. The narrator eloquently unfold the story behind Calliope’s transformation, like the Chinese Princess Si Ling-Chi, as Eugenides puts it: upon discovering the unraveling of a silkworm cocoon that fell into her teacup, handing its loose end to her maidservant, who in turn took the loose end through the Forbidden City, and into the countryside a half mile away before the cocoon ran out. Eugenides breaks his novel into four parts, and retraces the journey of Cal’s grandparents from Asia Minor to America.

The first part belongs to Desdemona and Lefty, retelling their love story. The second begins with their new life in Detroit, when Lefty was unfairly forced to give up his job in the Ford Motor Co. and went to work for his cousin’s husband, Jimmy Zizmo, to help him smuggle liquors from Canada into the country. Calliope enters the story in the third part, being born to Milton and Tessie. On the day of her birth, her grandfather Lefty had a stroke, and incident that brought Desdemona both sadness and relief, as Eugenides writes ‘Emotions, in my experience, aren’t covered by single words. I don’t believe in “sadness,” “joy,” or “regret.” Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling.’ The narrator grew up against the backdrop of the 1967 riot that set her father’s first business, the Zebra Room, into blaze, but ironically brought them up from the ruins as the three insurances that he’s been holding finally paid him up enough money to let him start another business and bought a new house in Middlesex, away from what was left of Detroit. In Middlesex, a house without normal doors and lots of windows, the narrator finally begins to learn about herself, and the opposite sex. In that very house she realized that she’s standing between two opposite poles, male and female, the middle of both sexes, and she’s neither. Milton and Tessie eventually discovered Calliope’s condition of being a hermaphrodite in the final part. The narrator enters his own story intermittently, as Cal or Calliope brought the readers in and out of his present-day time, the present being the time he is forty-one and mulling over his recent meeting with a Japanese-American lady in Berlin, the love of his life after the Obscure Object. Eugenides expertly describes Desdemona's love story as she is also the main character who always appears in almost every chapter, as she holds the key of Cal’s physical condition.

As readers go back to the first chapter, some of the story’s key elements that are mentioned in the beginning can be finally put together into a beautiful story of one’s life journey. It’s no surprise that the writer spent 9 years to finish the novel, and eventually won the Pulitzer Prize for his work in 2002. One of Eugenides’ strength comes from his Greek roots – he freely uses the Greek mythology as a tool to weave his story. He doesn’t leave a room for the slightest gap, every chapter is full to the brim with physical and emotional details about his characters, the story settings and many relevant information. Finally, he never allows his readers to take pity of Cal’s condition, rather he takes them to identify with his characters, because in the end, we are humans after all, regardless of our physical conditions.
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Trevor rated it:

07/06/07

Read in July, 2007

"When I told my life story to Dr. Luce, the place where he invariably got interested was when I came to Clementine Stark. Luce didn't care about criminally smitten grandparents or silkworm boxes or serenading clarinets. To a certain extent, I understand. I even agree."
I agree too. This quote comes from page 263 and is really where the story picks up and gets into the subject the book promises--Cal's life as a hermaphrodite. Honestly, while the first 263 pages were interesti...more "When I told my life story to Dr. Luce, the place where he invariably got interested was when I came to Clementine Stark. Luce didn't care about criminally smitten grandparents or silkworm boxes or serenading clarinets. To a certain extent, I understand. I even agree."
I agree too. This quote comes from page 263 and is really where the story picks up and gets into the subject the book promises--Cal's life as a hermaphrodite. Honestly, while the first 263 pages were interesting and had some important developing points, it could have been distilled a great deal. Eugenides is a great, fluid writer--very witty. But dang, he's wordy. I guess after reading several books by Cormac McCarthy I'm bound to get distracted by verbosity. I'm not saying I don't like long--my favorite book is The Brothers Karamazov--I just don't like all the superfluous words.
Still, the book is compelling so far. I'm not as driven to read it as I think I should be, but I don't find myself putting it down after every paragraph to check my email either.

UPDATE: I have finished the book. In the end, I felt like it didn't deliver. I see a lot of connections Eugendides is making about identity, but they didn't seem developed. In fact, there were many symbols throughout the book that were very clever but ultimately seemed to be only that--a device used to show cleverness and not to really further the plot. Another problem I had with the book was the fact that Eugenides tells too much about his characters and yet I still feel like it is underdeveloped. For example, he has great characters in mind and some great episodes to show how they feel, but then he simply runs through the story and then tells you how the character felt--I wanted to feel how the characters felt.
I enjoyed two things about the book. First, the Forrest Gump-like trek through American history. There are really some fascinating episodes in this book. And Eugenides does an excellent job ellaborating on them. Sometimes I felt like he should have written an essay on American history rather than this novel. The second thing I enjoyed was Eugenides sly, clever writing. I know that above I said that some things seemed to be there just to showcase the author's wit, but some of those things were really clever and enjoyable. The writing kind of reminded me of Jim Carrey's acting: at moments it was brilliant, hysterical, and spot on; but at other moments it was just too much, needed to be toned down, better controlled.
As I said, this book didn't deliver for me. I liked it because of its promise. The idea is fascinating. However, as talented as Mr. Eugenides is, a little more control would be nice....less

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Tracey rated it:

09/05/07

Read in August, 2005

recommends it for: anyone looking for a multi-generational family story and who finds the nonstandard intriguing,

I'd had this book on my To Read list for a while - original recommendation from mortal_belleza. I bought a trade PB copy either at the library book sale or the local used book store some time ago. After finishing As Nature Made Him : The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl by John Colapinto, this book seemed a natural followup.

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit ...more

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Taylor rated it:

05/28/07

bookshelves: borrow-ed-or-ing, buy, desert-island-picks, favorites, fiction, recommended

Read in May, 2007

recommends it for: everyone with an open mind, and even some of those with closed ones.

Mr. Eugenides can do everything, or at least I am convinced of such after reading Middlesex.

I passed on this book for a long time. I kept picking it up in bookstores and putting it down. I've seen quotes from it everywhere, all of which were beautiful, and kept hearing wonderful things about it from friends. To be perfectly honest, what kept me from picking it up in the subject: a hermaphrodite. I think of myself as someone with an open mind, but the thing is that I just wasn't sure i...more Mr. Eugenides can do everything, or at least I am convinced of such after reading Middlesex.

I passed on this book for a long time. I kept picking it up in bookstores and putting it down. I've seen quotes from it everywhere, all of which were beautiful, and kept hearing wonderful things about it from friends. To be perfectly honest, what kept me from picking it up in the subject: a hermaphrodite. I think of myself as someone with an open mind, but the thing is that I just wasn't sure if I'd be able to relate to much in this story. I made a very foolish assumption, and I'm quite embarassed about it.

Middlesex is a slow burner (my new favorite term). It begins with the story of Cal/Calliope's grandparents, which seems unnecessary in the beginning, but which makes more sense with each passing page. The story then passes on to the parents, then Cal.

A couple pages in, Eugenides describes a rather gruesome scene, and this was my signal that this is a no-holds-barred kind of author. He goes there. (This isn't to say that the book is filled with gruesome moments, just that he's not afraid to use them when he must.)

To address the smoking gun, so to speak, yes, the main character is a Hermaphrodite. Though the reader knows it throughout the book, the main character doesn't know until they're older. It seems incredulous, but Eugenides makes it work, and makes this believable. He was smart to do things this way, because I was on the edge of my seat waiting for Calliope to discover the truth. And, most likely, he keeps a lot more not-so-open minded readers this way.

There's a very frank beauty about this book - he doesn't gloss over anything, but despite the many struggles of the three generations, he doesn't feel it necessary to make his reality very bleak, either. Even when the book is at its darkest, most depressing, you're filled with sadness, but also with hope.

The other great thing about Middlesex, aside from its incredible cast of characters is how well it captures society in history - first in Detroit in the '20s (a more bleak picture than '20s of The Great Gatsby), then the '60s. The '20s are focused on the invention of the automobile - the people putting them together as opposed to the people driving them, and the impact that being part of an assembly line and big business had on people, and of course, prohibition. With the '60s, Eugenides tackles race so marvelously - the chapter about the Detroit riots is probably the best in the book, for all of the anxiety and imagery that he evokes. This book is really just as much about middle class America and family ties as it is about sexuality.

Don't make the mistake that I made by continually passing on this book - read it!...less

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Craig rated it:

03/14/08

Read in March, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I'm torn on this one. Yes, I really liked it, but.......

First of all, I love The Virgin Suicides. I love it so much that I have read it at least four times. It is in my top 3 novels of all time.

So when Middlesex first came out, I wasn't that interested. Not because it was about a hermaphrodite. Just because the Greek setting and length threw me off at first. It seemed like such a huge departure for him, I wasn't ready for it. (Plus, I still contend to this day that the original ...more

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Jennifer rated it:

01/03/08

Read in October, 2007

Middlesex is the story of the Greek Stephanides family. Narrated by Calliope (later Cal due to a genetic hermaphroditic condition), the story is a discovery of the reasons why Calliope becomes Cal, but is also the story of one family's journey. The narrative is omniscient and starts with Cal's grandparents, Desdemona and Lefty, who live in Turkey and are also brother and sister. Greek-Turkish wars force them to leave and negate reasons for not marrying each other. They emigrate to America and ma...more Middlesex is the story of the Greek Stephanides family. Narrated by Calliope (later Cal due to a genetic hermaphroditic condition), the story is a discovery of the reasons why Calliope becomes Cal, but is also the story of one family's journey. The narrative is omniscient and starts with Cal's grandparents, Desdemona and Lefty, who live in Turkey and are also brother and sister. Greek-Turkish wars force them to leave and negate reasons for not marrying each other. They emigrate to America and make their way to Detroit, where they meet up with a cousin. Desdemona and Lefty eventually have children and work on becoming settled in the New World. One of their children, Milton, marries another cousin, Tessie. The product of this union, with their recessive genetic flaws, is Calliope. At birth, Calliope appears to be a girl and is raised as one. After the family narrative more or less concludes, the focus shifts to Calliope, her childhood, and her teenage years, when her self-discovery takes place and we come full circle back to Desdemona and Lefty's incestuous coupling.

This book is wonderful and rich and I had a lot of trouble putting it down. I loved Cal's voice and the approach to the narrative, omniscient and sometimes speaking to the reader. Jeffrey Eugenides gives a complete picture of each character, even minor characters, so that the reader understands their motivations, flaws, emotions. Although the reader knows from very early on that Calliope becomes Cal (in other words, the end result), the journey is the real jewel here. I read voraciously just to find out what path we would take to get to the conclusion. One also gets a strong sense of place in this book, as the places the characters inhabit are almost characters themselves. From Desdemona's cocoonery in Turkey to the Stephanides home, Middlesex, in Detroit to the city of Detroit itself, you can almost smell, taste, and hear the settings. Eugenides also weaves a multitude of historical events into the story, including the Greek-Turkish wars, Prohibition, World War II, and the Detroit Riots. From characters to time to place, this is an extremely tightly wrought, fascinating book.

My only problem with the book was very small. Cal's brother is called Chapter Eleven throughout the book and the reason for the strange nickname is never explained. Cal explains why he calls a female friend with whom he is in love "the Obscure Object," but never explains why he calls his brother Chapter Eleven. I thought it may have to do with running his father's business, but that wasn't it, and the character didn't seem significantly bankrupt in any way to me, if it was a metaphor. I hope I didn't miss something; I found that to be the only flaw in this beautiful, riveting story. ...less

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Kelly rated it:

09/14/07

Read in September, 2007

Would have given this book two more stars except for one resounding disappointment I can't get past. I thought that one of the most important aspects of the book was entirely skipped over by the author without any explanation.

*Spoiler Alert* It's probably not a spoiler, but what I have to say may alleviate some of the intrigue - you have been warned.

I really, really, really wanted to know why Calliope 'chose' to live life as Cal once she learned that she was a biological male. It wa...more Would have given this book two more stars except for one resounding disappointment I can't get past. I thought that one of the most important aspects of the book was entirely skipped over by the author without any explanation.

*Spoiler Alert* It's probably not a spoiler, but what I have to say may alleviate some of the intrigue - you have been warned.

I really, really, really wanted to know why Calliope 'chose' to live life as Cal once she learned that she was a biological male. It was, arguably, the most important and perhaps only choice she->he had in the entire book, and the author just skips that part. This transitionless transition to living as a male stands in stark comparison to the rest of the book which does a competent job of developing each of the main characters throughout their lives...and for every other seemingly inexplicable action the reader understands the characters enough to know WHY they acted in a certain way.

The Calliope->Cal change is so abrupt in the book, and lacks any of the personal insight that the rest of the book teems with...it's almost like the author got tired of writing by the time the transition comes about (quite late in the book), and he just wanted to be done with it. Perhaps the author didn't expand on the "choice" to live as Cal because his point is supposed to be that it really wasn't a choice. But I would even have liked to know why Calliope didn't think living as Cal was a choice and was instead a biological or personal inevitability...but no aspect of her choice/lack of choice was addressed.

Inappropriate foreshortening aside, I do think that the writing is often quite eloquent. I certainly would have appreciated fewer of the cliche metaphors for change/new beginnings/etc. The author does take the obvious to new heights, however, when he would state for the reader too obtuse to understand that the egg being described actually represents an immigrant beginning life in her new land by ending the paragraph with something like, "...you see she was that egg." ...less

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Ed rated it:

03/11/08

bookshelves: fiction

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Ed by: Janie Ondracek
recommends it for: Lindsay Moore

I had no exposure to this books contents or notoriety when I picked it up. As I read the praise-blurbs in the front (a habit I need to kick) I started getting an idea of what I was in for...and I assumed that if anything, this novel was gonna try really, really hard. And it did. But my ultimate feeling about this is that it was sincere and earnest, not posing.

It contained a bit more violence than I am ordinarily comfortable with, but where I object to this kind of unprepared brutality in ...more I had no exposure to this books contents or notoriety when I picked it up. As I read the praise-blurbs in the front (a habit I need to kick) I started getting an idea of what I was in for...and I assumed that if anything, this novel was gonna try really, really hard. And it did. But my ultimate feeling about this is that it was sincere and earnest, not posing.

It contained a bit more violence than I am ordinarily comfortable with, but where I object to this kind of unprepared brutality in film I find it more difficult to accuse authors of sensationalism or cheapness. I accept Eugenides' use of violent scenes as necessary and historically accurate.

It is foolish to dwell on this topic because it is far from the point of the book, though there is a sexual assault in the closing chapters that clearly indicates one of the themes that Eugenides is hoping readers of this book will grapple with.

My impression is that 'Middlesex' has been ambivalently reviewed because it winds up seeming rather cold in its analysis of the topic at hand--i.e. hermaphroditism in modern (and not so modern) social contexts, as dealt with by a young person ignorant of sex and its significance. I found the writing not to be cold at all. The narration is certainly direct, and (to use a common book-review word) unflinching. But there is a warmth and passion here that gets overlooked when we as readers allow medical and scientific vocabulary to circumvent the emotional centers of our imagination. Unfortunately, in a topic as rarely discussed as this, there is simply no other vocabulary available. Eugenides, in my view, has actually succeeded in writing very humanely about this difficult topic, mixing in moments of childish delight and silliness as well as the (expected) dread of ostracism, and this book warrants deep and joyous attention. The story itself should be compelling enough anyway.

On the downside, I found Eugenides' characterization of the Greek family (and of Detroit and San Francisco) a bit simplistic and bordering on phony. There are lines between sober prose, comic exaggeration, and magical realism, and it seemed like he couldn't decide between the last two so wound up in the luke-warm, unconvincing no-man's land in between. I imagine it has been argued that Eugenides tried to prop the entire book up on his daring subject matter, and I would have a hard time arguing against that. But, bottom line, the subject matter IS daring, and handled ably, and the story (and likable, non-whiny central character) kept me reading....less

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Michelle rated it:

12/30/07

Read in December, 2007

Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex" is a "story of a single gene through time" (pg4). The story is a autobiography of the recessive mutation of Caliope Helen Stephanides's fifth chromosome. This loose chromosome reveals itself in Cal/Caliope who is born a girl and, at puberty, matures into a man. But, the story is much more than a sexy look into the strange life of a hermaphradite. It spins the story of a melting pot of science and a family tree (in this case, a mulberry one). In ...more Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex" is a "story of a single gene through time" (pg4). The story is a autobiography of the recessive mutation of Caliope Helen Stephanides's fifth chromosome. This loose chromosome reveals itself in Cal/Caliope who is born a girl and, at puberty, matures into a man. But, the story is much more than a sexy look into the strange life of a hermaphradite. It spins the story of a melting pot of science and a family tree (in this case, a mulberry one). In the end, the family story, the one predicted by yia yia's spoon, is the important story and explanation behind the main character, with science taking a very distant back seat.

The root of the story begins with Lefty and Desdemona, Cal's grandparents, in Smyrna. Very little insight into Cal/Caliope is provided throughout book one and two of the novel. Both characters are given depth, but Desdemona carries just as much, if not more, character weight than anyone else in the novel. With their migration into the US and into their new family roles, we learn about Milton and Tessie, Cal's parents. In this case, Milton is, by far, the more developed character, as the loose gene is carried with him. In book three, the young Caliope is nurtured in the cacoon of her family home on Middlesex (rd/ln/drive) and the mature Cal is born in book four. I believe the silkworm is a sybmol of that loose fifth chromosome, plucked out of the mulberry tree in Smyrna and transplanted in Detroit.

Sound and smell are powerful sources of imagery and symbolism in the novel. The sound of Lefty singing American songs stir's Desdemona's fear of being alone and eventually succombing to incest; Milton's horn serenade to Tessie awakens her sexual desire and is symbolic of their courtship. The smell of the silkworm hut in Smyrna; the hashish in the grandparents' room; the smell of the New York hotel room; all of these pungent, old world smells take the reader back to Smyrna, where it all began.

I love that the author wrote himself in the novel, quoting Waste Land (pg50) and that he named Cal's brother, Chapter 11, the meaning which is revealed late in the novel; Jimmy Zizmo is the most interesting secondary character and probably has more symbolic meaning than I fully realize now.

Ulimately, the novel is a blend of genders, cultures and nations. When you get to the end of it, you really aren't that interested anymore in the hermaphrodite.

A very good read. ...less

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Sammy rated it:

03/26/08

bookshelves: the-good

Read in November, 2007

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

What an unbelievably bizzare book. Yet... it was awesomely bizzare and I loved it!

Middlesex, for me, read like a car wreck (mind you, a car wreck I sped through) because I couldn't look away. There are so many odd twists, turns and curiosities you feel that if you blink you'll miss something. The very first sentence in the book sucks you in and doesn't let you go until the end, all the while setting the tone for the whole novel...

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974....more What an unbelievably bizzare book. Yet... it was awesomely bizzare and I loved it!

Middlesex, for me, read like a car wreck (mind you, a car wreck I sped through) because I couldn't look away. There are so many odd twists, turns and curiosities you feel that if you blink you'll miss something. The very first sentence in the book sucks you in and doesn't let you go until the end, all the while setting the tone for the whole novel...

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974."

That line alone should have told me what I was in store for but I still found myself practically gasping aloud, rereading sentences to make sure I "heard" right, and looking around as if to ask if anyone else had just "saw" what I saw. I didn't expect this from a book I debated about reading for a while. I'm sure you're doing the same thing. If you have the book in hand right now and are wondering if you should read it, do yourself a favor and open it up. I'll give you a couple chapters, if you're either not hooked or seriously too disturbed to keep going, then put it down. I'm going to guess I won't see you for a little while.

Of course there are the occasional dry parts. Accounting the whole lifetime of a person (fictional or otherwise) can be a tedious process and it can be hard to figure out what to put in and what to leave out. In Cal/Callie's case, practically every moment that happens to her, her parents and her grandparents set into motion what basically makes Callie into Cal, so who is Eugenides to judge what stays in and what goes? Those dry parts are few and far between though, so no worries.

The narration also flows smoothly from an adult Cal/Callie to the younger version without hiccups or the odd imbalance that can sometimes occur when trying to make the same character a different character. Eugenides does it with grace so that you can continue to drive that car through the wreck without any speedbumps or odd debris.

I'm not going to say too much more about the book because so much happens I may accidently give something away. My final note is that this book was so realistic at times I had to wonder if this wasn't an autiobiography of some true person actually walking around out there. That is probably the best thing about this book. Real, raw, powerful. Quit the debating, read the book....less

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Kassandra rated it:

04/28/08

Read in April, 2008

recommended to Kassandra by: Big K sale rack recommendations
recommends it for: Anyone who ever played doctor with a relative growing up

I'd been seeing this book in the stores for a while now. It's always one of the highlighted books, I guess because it won a Pulitzer. So I finally picked it up at the K-mart in Tehachapi, California, because, really, where else would you expect to find an award winning novel about a Greek hermaphrodite on sale?

Actually, I didn't know it was about a hermaphrodite until I started reading it. I originally thought it was about three generations of Greek immigrant women who come over on a steam ...more