Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Middlesex: A Novel
Book Review: "Middlesex"
Summary: 5 Stars
"Middlesex" is simply the best literary fiction that we have ever read.
It is the epic story of several generations of a family in which the central figure is a hermaphrodite. But it is so much more than that. The character descriptions and background stayed with us long after we had closed the book.
"Middlesex" took eight years to write, and we believe that it was worth every moment of it. The writing is excellent, and it is astonishing that so esoteric a subject can grip and enthrall the reader as it does. The pleasure of reading it made it both hard for us to put it down, and sad to come to the end.
If there is a lesson that should be learned from the story, it is that we are wrong to place so much emphasis on sexual differences; particularly as these don't matter to those who love us and whom we love.
It's a great read, and left us with a good feeling.
Book Review: "Middlesex" has entered the portals of Enduring Literature
Summary: 5 Stars
The proclivity of American critics towards big books, in particular big books about big sprawling families and intergenerational conflicts within these blood bound superstructures is never more evident than in their choices for the most prestigious annual book awards. Last year, they picked Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections". This year, they chose "Middlesex", Jeffrey Eugenides' sophomore effort and follow-up to "The Virgin Suicides". A magnificent opus truly deserving of the huge and unanimous praise heaped upon it, Eugenides' genius lies in taking a quaint and offbeat topic - hermaphroditism - and transforming it into a shimmering beautiful and incandescent metaphor for change (writ large) that must inevitably have destabilised the status quo of intergenerational relationships within immigrant families that have settled in America for decades. The Stephanides are a Greek family hailing from a little village in Asia Minor. Driven out of their homes by the terrible racial violence that broke out between the Greeks and the Turks, Lefty and Desdemona fled - incognito - to America to join their cousin. Reinventing a past to hide a terrible secret taboo that will weigh upon Desdemona for the rest of her life, they started a family and business ventures that would leave some of their highest and lowest points in their early immigrant lives.
Lefty and Desdemona got off without a scratch when they had Milton. But nobody suspected or was prepared to believe anything was wrong when puberty seemed to elude their granddaughter Calliope. While Calliope struggled valiantly with the pain of lacking a clear sexual identity, her family turned a blind eye, so when the chips were down and there was nowhere to run, Calliope did the only thing possible.
"Middlesex" is simply a great, great novel. Better than "The Corrections", which I also enjoyed and admired. There are few modern novelists who write with the generosity, lucidity and honesty of Eugenides. His prose is never bombastic or cute or coy even when dealing with an unusual subject. Calliope/Cal are so palpably real and human we never stop believing or caring for them.
If there's one American novel you have time for in 2003, let it be "Middlesex". It is an important novel and will surely enter the portals of Enduring American Literature.
Book Review: "Our original nature was not as it is now ... "
Summary: 5 Stars
Plato's "Symposium" recounts the story of how all people were hermaphrodites at one time in history. People had been whole, with four arms, four legs, two heads, and two sets of genitals. They were also very powerful, and this displeased the Gods, and so Zeus decided to split them in two. Each half was then forced to seek out its other half, to complete itself again.
Herein lies the irony of "Middlesex". Cal (Calliope) Stephanides, the main character and narrator, is born a hermaphrodite, and yet feels like she lacks a proper identity and is incomplete.
Through his (her) narration, Cal recounts the story of his grandparents coming to America, her parents courtship, and his "unnatural" conception. The story spans the greater part of a century, and recounts tales of the burning of Smyrna, bootlegging and rum-running, the second world war, and the race riots in Detroit in the late 60's, just to mention a few. It is through this storytelling that Cal seeks his identity.
"Middlesex" is a compelling read. Admittedly, I enjoyed the first half a bit more than the second, but overall it's still an amazing book. Highly recommended.
Book Review: "I was born twice..."
Summary: 5 Stars
I think the beginning lines of this story sums up what it's about nicely, so that's what I will use:"I was born twice: first as a baby girl on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." -- Calliope/Cal Stephanides
This was such a great book. The first chapter was sort of off-putting for me. In the begining the prose shifted between straight-forward and flowery, epic descriptions. Even the narrator, Cal, said his writing was Homeric and that it was genetic. But as Cal explain his history starting with his grandparents trials in the old country and their eventual movement to America in the 20's, you become more and more involved with his story.
We follow his grandparents (who were related) and his parents (who were also related) through their lives, watching what led up to what and who Cal was. We watch what shaped his relatives -- values from the old country, values from the new, war, racial tension, etc. So, the reader gets so much more than just a story about a hermaphrodite. You get to feel like you're a friend of the family. We're also treated to breaks where Cal talks about his budding relationship with a woman named Julie. By his own admission, Cal "loves 'em and leaves 'em".
I don't even know what to say about this book really. It's fascinating. As one of my friends says about the book, "I don't know if I like this, but it is enthralling. I couldn't stop reading it." This was my first time reading anything by Eugenides. I watched Virgin Suicides, and I have that book, as well, but I think the material presented in this book is what made me pick this book up before The Virgin Suicides.
Book Review: (four and one half stars) 4 stars for story, 5 stars for writing
Summary: 4 Stars
The mega-talented Jeffrey Eugenides as served up a very unique book indeed with "Middlesex," a story of both three generations of Greek Americans, and of Calliope, a hermaphrodite. More specifically with regard to the latter story, Calliope, through the fault of her too closely related grand-parents, and a nasty recessive gene, is genetically a male, but has the outer genitalia of a female. The male organs are internalized, but there's a crucial hormone missing which, among other things, renders Calliope sterile. For awhile, she's a perfectly happy and well-adjusted little girl, but eventually realizes how different she is (although the author seems to suggest that we're all "different" in our own way).
In any event, Eugenides weaves a fairly complex tale with numerous characters, and references to Greek mythology. No author I've read in a while is so adept at verbal gymnastics as is Eugenides. He lets you feel the plight of his characters as well as any modern novelist I've encountered. For me, there was a middle section of "Middlesex" that could have been tightened up, but I can certainly understand all the five star reviews. Some of the plodding along was definitely intentional, in that Eugenides understands that his reader wants to get to the part where the girl finally realizes she's really a boy. I'm definitely a fan of this author, and will soon read "The Virgin Suicides," and probably everything he writes in the future.
"Middlesex" also reminded me of the true story of the boy who was raised a girl after a botched circumcision. The doctor who told the parents to do this, believed (like the doctor in this book) that the genetic make-up of the child was secondary to how the child was raised. That particular circumstance ended tragically. While Eugenides nevers makes mention of it, I wonder how much he had it on his mind while writing this novel.