Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Middlesex: A Novel
Book Review: A Masterpiece of modern ficition
Summary: 5 Stars
Lets just say that first off I didnt even buy this book or even intend to read it. It was my fiancee's project. Upon her finishing it and my viewing of "The Virgin Suicides", i decided to give it a whirl. First off, it IS MASTERFUL PIECE OF WRITING! and from what i've heard the book was 9 years in the making...and it shows. Not only does it create completely believable characters with which the story unfolds it gives you a vivid picture of the people, emotions and struggles of early 20'th century Greece or Turkey or wherever Calliope is from.
And then when the story moves into the Stephanides life in prohibition-era Detroit all the way thru the seventies, it Mr. Eugenides gives an amazing account of what it was like to be a girl, albeit not completely female, in the post Vietnam era and adolescence in general.
ABSOLUTELY A PHENOMENOL READ, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Book Review: A New Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Middlesex is the type of novel you can't really summarize. It centers on a hermaphrodite, Calliope, and her/his journey through sexual expectations. Growing up as a girl, Calliope developes masculine characteristics during puberty. The language in the novel is beautiful, and the story truly sucks you in. Although the topic is certainly one of interest (especially since like most people, I rarely think about sex and gender in terms other than male and female), it's really the weaving of the tale that most compelled me. We get flashbacks to the narrator's relatives incestuous lives in Greece, scenes from the present about his relationship with a new flame who doesn't know about...C's nether parts, and portraits of Calliope's childhood and adolescence. All parts are descibed beautifully, detailing settings so clear I can still picture the house in Detroit where Calliope grew up. The plot is enchanting, and I had a hard time putting this book down. It's difficult to find a book that is not only literary, but also read-until-you're-done tasy; Eugenides accomplishes both in a masterful way. This book more than deserves its Pulitzer!Book Review: A Real Work of Art and Entertaining Too
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the most wonderful novels I have read in the past few years. What captivated most was the rich and intimate description of the European immigrant experience to the U.S. during the 20th Century. I know- you might think (as did I)that you have already heard or read so many immigrant stories, that how could another one possibly be that interesting. But this is really great. Many chapters are so gripping you simply cannot put the book down.Here in particular I am thinking of the grandparents' escape from Smyrna during the invasion by the Turks- also the equally gripping chapters on the race riots in Detroit in the 1960's.The author made these events such interesting metaphors for each other- yet they are so historically accurate by themselves. Other sections are so beautifully written, you find you have the need to read them out loud to whoever will listen. You need not worry that you don't have the time for this book- it's the type of book that forces you to make the time whether you can really spare it or not!Book Review: A Resounding Novel
Summary: 5 Stars
When I first heard about Middlesex on NPR, I was intrigued. Yet, like many intriguing things, it soon became buried beneath the daily worries of making lunches, writing thank-you cards, and research papers. It was only last month that, with the help of my English teacher's open reading assignment, I remembered Middlesex. Thank God I did!Middlesex is, simply, a beautiful book. The story itself is fascinating: a girl who discovers as a teenager that she is a hermaphrodite and chooses to become a man. The detail is extraordinary - silkworms appear throughout the novel as a leading and touching symbol. The background is amazing: in fact, much of the first half of the book concerns Cal/Callie's parents and grandparents. As Cal himself says, "I'm the final clause in a periodic sentence, and that sentence begins a long time ago, in another language, and you have to read it from the beginning to get to the end, which is my arrival." It is only in the second half that Cal him/herself comes into a major role. Yet, throughout the book, Cal is definitely the narrator, from his grandparents' flight from Turkey to his own dates with Julie in modern post-September 11 Berlin.
Yet, what makes Middlesex unique is Jeffrey Eugenides' writing. He treats a complicated subject with a finesse and sheer beauty which is rarely encountered. "Sing now, O Muse, of the recessive mutation on my fifth chromosome! Sing how it bloomed two and a half centuries ago on the slopes of Mount Olymps, while the goats bleated and the olives dropped...how it blew like a seed across the sea to America, where it drifted through our industrial rains until it fell to earth in the fertile soil of my mother's own midwestern womb. Sorry if I get a little Homeric at times. That's genetic, too." Seamlessly, he alternates between lyrical philosophical passages and conversations between two teenage girls. Past and present and future are all fluid and one doesn't even notice it until afterwards.
Well, I said I read Middlesex for my English class and so I did. Two people read the novel with me. One, like me, fell totally in love with it. The other, who loves zombie movies and guts and gore, hated it. His main complaint was that there was too much of a focus on sex. Yet, although that is on the surface the subject of the book, it's really not at all. It's about a person's search for their own identity. The characters are all essentially human - to not empathize with them would take a skill I simply lack. Callie is touching and absorbing - her search to find herself and define who she is and why she's here, is one which confronts everybody. "Was it love or reproduction? Chance or destiny?" Callie, like all of us, struggles to explain the meaning of her existence.
For those of you who adore "Night of the Living Dead" and "2 Fast 2 Furious" more than life itself, Middlesex is not for you. But...on second thought, I take it back. Read it anyway. You'll like it or not, but I'll bet you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Book Review: A Slice of American Pie
Summary: 4 Stars
I truly enjoyed reading this book. Jeffrey Eugenides is an amazing writer. I only have 3 complaints, however - OK, make it 4. From the start of the book, Eugenides gives away some of the ending (not all because there are so many things going on in this book) by informing the readers that the book's narrator is going to go through a change by the end of the book. So, I thought - hmmm, interesting and continued to read wanting to find out what happens and what are the feelings, emotions and circumstances that the narrator has during this change. Eugenides doesn't even come close to addressing this until much, much later in the book. Instead we are taken on a journey back through time as Eugenides chronicles the family histories of the narrator's grandparents and then the narrator's parents and then the narrator as a child. This is all very interesting and composes an important part of the story, but as a reader you are strung along for a very long ride. Perhaps, Eugenides shouldn't have even mentioned in the beginning of the book the final outcome for the main character at all. Maybe it would have been better for the readers to have learned about the change while the main character is discovering it. I think the book's weaving of time sequences is too awkward. There is so much material in this book, that I also wonder if it would have been better as 2 books. Towards the end of the boook, the book loses its even pace and central focus. I felt that parts of the ending were too sensationalized. The narrator's story of metamorphism is outstanding as it is and is capable of standing on its own. There is no need to include freakshows and car chases to add anymore high points to the story. I also felt that the premise, the root of the book's saga and catalyst for the mutated gene's arrival is a bit much and far-fetched. It could have been one degree apart and still worked. The sometimes omniscient point of view in the book can be confusing. If the scope is meant to be broad, entering the minds of different characters, then it wasn't broad enough. We never learn what the main character's brother is thinking. And even if this was included, it would have become an overload. I think Eugenides should have narrowed it down to one character and let the other characters speak for themselves.
Otherwise, I highly recommend reading this book to gain a slice of American pie. Eugenides does an excellent job presenting to his readers many sides of American life: the lives of the immigrants as they arrived looking for a place to call home, the struggles they had and the ethnic discriminations they were faced with, the growth and decline and metamorphoses of cities - particularly of Detroit, the impact the invention of the assembly line had, racial tensions, the qualms the younger generations have with the older ones and vice versa, the seedy underworld, growing up and trying to define "normal," especially when one might not exactly resemble everybody else, the pursuit of people from all different walks of life and ages, trying to find a place for themselves despite circumstances that are not in their control. He takes his readers from a mountainside in Turkey through the 1920's in America, the Depression, WWII, the Korean War, the 60's and 70's, the Cold War up to after Sept. 11, successfuly illustrating the times as they were. Eugenides shows us that humans are more than the sum of moving body parts and working brains, and that we are indeed a product of the past.
Two thumbs up for the cultural and historical perspectives.