Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Middlesex: A Novel
Book Review: 4 1/2 * Pulitzer Prize Winner is Excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex" belongs to the sprawling intergenerational book genre, but he explores themes with a fresh perspective. Calliope (later Cal) is the omniscient narrator of a story that begins in 1922 Smyrna, Asia Minor and ends almost 80 years later in Berlin. Most of the story takes place in Detroit, a city that he describes with great insight and emotion. Eugenides expertly switches between the voices of the grown-up Cal and the young Calliope; therefore, we experience events as Calliope did, but with the perspective of Cal (at age 40). Calliope is a winning storyteller, observant, funny, and with realistic childhood and adolescent feelings. Throughout the book, Eugenides demonstrates that Callie's circumstances underlie experiences shared by all: Pain, love, confusion, feelings of being both the same as and different from. I think Eugenides somewhat underestimates the emotional toll that Callie's journey would entail, particularly during her long separation from her family as she makes the psychological transformation from Calliope to Cal. Usually; however, the insights and feelings are so true that it reads like an autobiography.While the story is compelling, there are some problems that interfere with a fluid read. At times, narrative transitions are handled awkwardly through either through over use of ellipses (...) or with somewhat clunky sentences: 'Milton stepped on the gas, ignoring the scarcity not only of petroleum but of many other things as well,' which breaks into a long list of scarce hope, food, phone calls, clean socks, etc. He also overplays his hand at the Greek tragic motif he is constructing ('Sing now, O Muse, of the recessive mutation'!'; though he later, in apparent contradiction, concludes that we can forge our own truer identities) and in his broad caricatures of ethnic and religious types. There's also a sly quality that sets up "surprise" situations: In the most egregious case of 'magical realism,' or just plain gimmickry, Eugenides uses the conceit of using his fictional character 'Jimmy Zizmo' as the 'real' identity of the actual character, Nation of Islam Muslim founder W.D. Farr, and the denouement concerning Calliope's father and uncle lacks credibility. Mostly though, Eugenides' story is compelling and humorous, and he masterfully evokes place and character (industrial Detroit; a hilarious indictment of an ultra-hip 1970s-era surgeon/sexologist), with a casual ease that nicely belies the serious themes.
The book bears some resemblance to Michael Chabon's own Pulitzer Prize winner, "The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay." In both, the immigrant experience and the forging of a new identity are central, characters journey to find their own "American dream," and urban settings help shape their lives. While Chabon is the more nimble phrase writer, Eugenides is similarly poignant and symbolic. Like Chabon, Eugenides uses metaphor (based on reality) as he explores the ideas of being 'different,' the sometimes-artificial nature of boundaries, and the Greek notion of fate. It is an entertaining and often moving story that, despite some minor annoyances, I recommend very highly.
Book Review: A Big Fat Greek Read
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book! Middlesex is a big long read but not a difficult one. The first half of this novel is really an immigration story about Greek grandparents coming to America in the 1920's and looking for a better life. It moves on to the central character's childhood in a racially divided Detroit of the 1960's and ends with her coming to terms with her sexual identity in the 1970's.This novel was an amazing study on divisions in class, race, culture, generation, and obviously sex. A nice multi-generational slice of Detroit Americana.
Book Review: A Fascinatingly Brilliant Book!
Summary: 5 Stars
Jeffrey Eugenides has taken his time since his debut success with 'The Virgin Suicides' to ponder, create and elegantly write a story that almost defies telling. The title MIDDLESEX is typical of his canny abilities: it stands for the name of the Detroit home which is the ultimate dwelling of an extraordinarily interesting family of Greek emigrants, but it also refers the 'third gender' or hermaphrodite that is the embodiment of the main character. From the first paragraph the author accompanies us on a journey of history of his genetic grandparents and that history just happens to include volumes of information about Greek mythology, the countries of Turkey, Greece, and the conflicts of WWI and WWII that changed the face of Europe. His style is so engrossing that he never lets our attention stray: his complex family tales are always grounded by musings of the adult 'Cal' who has come to understand his particular physiognomy and gender identity. The book is at once hilarious comedy and touching tragedy much like the Greek plays of the characters inheritance. Eugenides has created indelible characters so well that as they reappear through this lengthy book there is no need to turn back to remind ourselves of their origin. MIDDLESEX is skillfully, intelligently written and is one of the finer major novels of 2002. Highly Recommended reading.Book Review: A Gender Confusion Story
Summary: 3 Stars
'This year's most sumptuously enjoyable book,' wrote Sunday Times Books of the Year. It is, if English is your native language. Go for it. Even if you are a native English speaker, it demands the highest range of vocabulary. If you are not a bookworm, you won't enjoy reading this book. If you are just buying a book to read on a long flight or bus ride, don't buy this book, buy something shorter and something doesn't require concentration. Middlesex is a 530 page long, complicatedly and complexly written novel. It starts from when grandfather and grandmother of the main character were just falling in love, and ends with the granddaughter, Calliope's (the main character) gender confusion. (...) You grown mustache as a teenage girl and you go to a beauty saloon every week to get it removed? You are unusually taller all the girls who are in your age group? That's the life of Calliope. The beautiful heroine ends up becoming a handsome hero when she/he was fourteen. It is a good story if you understand every single word that is written in the book. The novel was introduced to me by the professor from my university who teaches English literature. I took the literature class in Spring II semester, 2004. The class was called "the Great Books Seminar." So, students were required to read two great books, first one was Middlesex and the second one was "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie, the winner of the booker prize.
Thank God for the electronic dictionary. I have to look up the words in my e-dictionary at least twenty times each page. Do you only have a paper dictionary, and English is not your native language? Paper dictionaries are good but they are not time savers. I suggest you go buy an e-dictionary before you buy Middlesex. Do you want to know which e-dictionary do I use? It is Houghton Muffin's American Heritage Electronic Dictionary (Just kidding).
GOKOOL
(...)
Book Review: A Great Read!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best book I've read in a long time! Don't let the first 100 pages deter you. The very beginning is a bit slow but the rest I absolutely couldn't put down. It reads like an autobiography and the characters are unforgettable. This is the quickest 500+ pages I've ever read.