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Paperback 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 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:
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.
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
Average Customer Rating:
Life, death, and the in betweens
From the very start of MIDDLESEX you yearn to read the ending - What will happen when Cal (the now 40ish male narrator of our tale)discovers her true gender at age 14? Born Calliope Stephanides in a neighborhood of Detroit in 1960, her apparent female gender decieved her doctor and parents at every turn, as is often the case for children born with androgen insensitivity - a genetic gender disorder that produces little 'girls' who become boys in puberty. The story is compelling and reads smoothly through her family history, which is riddled with spectacular greek charchters. Her grandmother, for instance, who couldn't predict Calliope's gender using her conventional and foolproof spoon dangling method, during the pregnancy. Grandma Fled the Greek city of Smyrna, as under the rape of the Turks in 1922 all others died, and the city burned. She escaped with her only brother as her companion, soon allowing him to be less her brother, and even more her companion. The family saga is thus begun. I was reminded of the same great writing as in the book BIRTH OF VENUS which I also enjoyed.
A Very Memorable Read
I loved this book! I read it about a month ago and am still thinking about it. It was the kind of book that you develop a relationship with. I couldn't put it down, but I didn't want it to end either.
If you like novels about history, (world and family), sexuality, greek americans, or growing up in the seventies, you'll love this book. The characters are memorable and alive. It was so much more than a "book about a hermaphrodite". Read this when you're in the mood for a smart, all emcompassing story you won't want to end.
Writing style with few peers!
The real value of novels is their ability to pull the reader into experiences and environments that would not be possible in everyday life. Through carefully chosen words the reader is able to feel and experience new places, old history, new people, and in some cases quite extraordinary personal perspectives on life and the human condition. Jeffery Eugenides is one comtemporary author whose writing style is able to do that. Middlesex is one of the very best books that I have had the pleasure to spend time with in a very long time. The characters and storyline became part of my day that I truly looked forward to. I purposely tried to extend the length of time to read this book (Typically I try to finish at least one per week), because I was genuinely a part of this story and wanted it to last as long as I could make it. I only wish the book was longer, and the story continued. If there was a dissappointing aspect of this novel, it was the ending. It seemed to be that pressures of a deadline caused Eugenides to tie everything together too abruptly only to finish the story.
If a reader wants to experience the lives of early Greek immigrants and understand their plight, Jeffrey Eugenides is the author with the writing talents to do that. The unusual nature of Callie's physical condition, while a part of the storyline, becomes only one aspect of this wonderful adventure into the past. I am anxious to pursue anything else this author comes up with.
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Life, death, and the in betweens 
