Middlesex: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)
by Jeffrey Eugenides
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Book Reviews of Middlesex: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)
Book Review: Captivating stroytelling
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book! I loved everything about it. The characters are rich, the story comedic, set against a backdrop of Detroit in the 20th century. Desdemona and Lefty come to America on a dream and a prayer. Their lives as immigrants making a life in the Motor City is full of ups and downs. The lives of their children Milton and Zoe emulate those of second generation Americans who are bound and determined to be only American and leave the old country ways behind.
And then there's Calliope who narrates. We learn the family's story through her or is it his eyes? When Callie tells the story her voice is distinctly different from when the male voice Cal is narrating. The author did a masterful job writing this character's voice. Callie, as a teenager, tells us of Desdemona taking to her bed, permanently. Then Callie and Cal's story really gets interesting. I thought the author had forgotten to resolve Desdemona. I kept flipping back thinking I'd missed something. But I couldn't have. Long gone are my days of drinking, reading a book before bed and then having to reread the same part again the next day because I couldn't remember what had happened.
I was ready to reduced my rating to a four from a five all because of Desdemona. And then, suddenly and without warning, the author explains where she's been and why. Desdemona, the keeper of the family secret kept it no more. It was a wonderful ending to a brilliant story. Middlesex won my reading heart and my writing mind, earning a rating of five out of five.
Linda C. Wright
Author
One Clown Short
Book Review: Middlesex
Summary: 3 Stars
I know many readers consider Middlesex to be a work of genius, and have read several gushing reviews singing its praise. My own experiences with Eugenides' novel aren't nearly as overwhelmingly positive. I greatly appreciate the point of view of the text, and the dignity with which Eugenides approaches a sensitive subject. As an author, he seems to show a great deal of respect for heavy issues such as gender determination and hermaphroditism; while the subject itself remains a bit of a taboo, Eugenides does not make a sideshow of his main character, but instead humanizes Cal in a way that allows readers to sympathize as people working through the human condition rather than members of some gendered scale looking down on the "other".
But, as I said, my reading was not entirely positive. I felt that Eugenides relied far too heavy on textual information, and the novel is often crowded by the introduction of an academic narrative style. Fascinating passages and interesting anecdotes are often followed by pedantic prose that is intended more to display the author's skill than to supplement the narrative of the character. Likewise, the premise of the novel itself often feels far too contrived, and I found myself drawn more by passages focused Cal as a teenager and adult than to the convoluted history Middlesex constructs. While I'm sure such familial histories exist, the attention focused on specific details made me feel like Eugenides is trying too hard to force his audience to accept his narrative, as opposed to having confidence that the novel itself will sweep his readers away.
In the end I am glad I gave Middlesex a second chance, and I am happy to have made my way through it.
Book Review: Bait & Switch?
Summary: 3 Stars
When I read the back of this book, I wasn't sure it was a story I could get into. It's fairly untraveled ground, the journey of a hermaphrodite from one sexual identity to another. But that's what books are supposed to do...expand our thoughts and imagination. So I prepared myself and jumped in.
But I found an entirely different story. For the first 70% of the book, the story was that of the history of the Stephanides family, from turn of the century Greece to the Detroit the 60's and early 70's. At first, I found this irritating; this wasn't the story I'd bargained for. But the more I read, the richer the tale became. The fascinating detail, the colorful accounts, the noble immigrant struggle upon which so many families pride themselves. It became an entertaining, engrossing read.
Yet still in the back of my mind was an impatience. When do we get to the heart? When do I hear Calliope's story? Her fight, her journey? As it turns out, the book should have kept its focus on the family at large, becasue Calliope's story ends up feeling rushed and incomplete. There's an attempt at opening windows to her soul, but it's usually done in the form of adolescent adventures and experiences, not really much soul searching or analysis. She ends up running away from her family and her future much in the way the story begins to spin out of reach, into a series of sudden misadventures leading to no real conclusion. It felt as if this long, rich hard-fought story of the Stephanides came to a jangled, screeching halt.
I'm gald I read the book. I finsihed it, which is more than I can say I feel the author did.
Book Review: Lyrical Hermaphrodite Story
Summary: 5 Stars
Middlesex wowed me. I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't this. It's an immigrant story, and a hermaphrodite story (a sexual outcast story, if you will) and an American story. Eugenides tells the tale from the point of view of the protagonist, Cal, in the present, looking back. In order to tell his story properly he must acquaint the reader with his family history. Throughout the first half of the book I was interested, but not addicted. But I kept reading because I really wanted to find out what happened when Callie became Cal. But this book was so beautifully written. It has the Gabriel Garcia Marquez kind of quality, where there is so much history and backstory that you become immersed in the characters and plot until you really are living within the story. Once the timeline finally reached Cal's childhood I felt so connected to his story that I could really appreciate how the story was being told from a man's point of view, but he was talking about himself, the little girl. For the first time I found myself considering from a very personal and subjective point of view what it might be like to be unclassifiable. What if I thought I was a girl but I turned out to be a boy? What if I knew there was something different about me but I didn't know what. It's fantastic the way that Eugenides was able to give me a completely new point of view on my sex and sexuality; things I generally take for granted. I might classify this book as magical realism, due to it's mystical and sometimes whimsical qualities. It was lovely. So readable.Book Review: Not For Lazy Readers
Summary: 5 Stars
I usually read about one book a week, but I finished the 500+ pages of this one in two days. It was that good. There are quite a few reviews that called this book boring, and I find that amazing, but to each his own. You can understand that a Pulitzer Prize winning novel is going to challenge you, so if you aren't up to the challenge, stick with Harry Potter (which I read last week.)
Jeffrey Eugenides tells a non-linear tale of a Greek family which comes to America in the 1920's bearing a sad secret which will resonate down the years in the family gene pool. To me the most fasinating parts of the book were in the history -- it goes from the Roaring Twenties when the protagonist's grandfather runs a speakeasy to the 1970's and his recognition of his sexual ambiguities.
This is not a book about sex. It is about human beings and their relationships. For those of you who might find the intersexual component distasteful, I'd say move out of your third grade mindset and join the adult world. The brilliance of this book shows that although sex is a major component of who we are, it is our family that is the major player in who we will be.
A note to the squeamish: The sex in this book, while occasionally clinical, is not graphic or lurid. If you think of human beings as defined strictly by what's between their legs, this book is not for you. If you find humans to be endlessly complex, surprising and interesting, you'll find this one of the most satisfying books you've ever read.