Monday, November 21, 2011

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Opening lines like these can't help but draw a reader in; I immediately wanted to know more about this person who was born first as a girl and then as a boy. But in the next hundred pages or so we are taken back to his grandparents' life in Greece and subsequent immigration to the US in the 1920s. Interesting to a point, but I wanted to know more about Callie than I did her family's strange incestuous history. As we get closer in time to the present telling of the story (or retelling as it is narrated by Cal, the now man, in a sort of 'my life' story) I found it really picked up, was more relevant and interesting. I like the author's writing style and even how he uses an omniscient point of view, jumping from first person to third and back again. By the end of the book I completely forgave its odd beginning in light of the quirky and sweet coming-of-age story that it ended up being.


Middlesex tells the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family, who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of 1967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Point, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. (back cover)

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 Petroskey, Michigan, in August of 1974. (opening lines)


10 comments:

Laura said...

I literally entirely agree- I was drawn in, and then mildly bored by the whole bit in Greece, but then charmed by the whole of the rest of the story. Love love love this book!

Beth said...

I loved this book. Fascinating, wasn't it?

Trish said...

Yes! I was so glad to have finally read it. Eugenides covers some interesting topics like nature vs nurture and that sexual orientation is in our DNA rather than a choice. No wonder this book is on so many 'must read' lists.

Tracy said...

We read this for bookclub - we all thought it was highly-readable, and we had a lengthy discussion about hermaphroditism, sex-determinism, and genetic inbreeding, but the majority of us weren't bowled-over by it.

Sam (Tiny Library) said...

I felt the opposite - I liked the grandparents story more than I liked Cal's, and I wanted the whole book to be about them.

I did also like Cal's story, I just didn't connect with him. I wanted to read more about how it felt to make the sex change and to find out he had been lied to.

Trish said...

Tracy - It certainly is rife with discussion material, that's for sure. But, yes, I can't say I was bowled over by it either.

Sam - It was almost like two books, wasn't it? The grandparents story and Cal's story. Once it got to Cal's story, though, the book was almost over! I would have liked to know more about him.

BookQuoter said...

Love this book, Love this author. One of my favorite quirky character in this book is Desdomona:)

Peppermint Ph.D. said...

This one has been on my TBR shelves for far too long...I'm making myself read this before I give myself permission to buy the new Euginedes :)

Trish said...

Bookquoter - ha! yes, she's great, isn't she?

Peppermint Phd - It had been on my TBR shelf for ages, too. I'm on a mission to get through that pile once and for all. And having a lot of fun doing it :)

Kailana said...

I really enjoyed this book!