Middlesex: A Novel
by Jeffrey Eugenides
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Book Reviews of Middlesex: A Novel
Book Review: Jeffrey Eugenides proves that he is no fluke
Summary: 5 Stars
When Jeffrey Eugenides dazzled us with his first novel `The Virgin Suicides' in 1993, we didn't know what expect next. Would he be able to produce another novel as lyrical and dreamy as his debut? Or was he another fluke, a one-book wirter?It took almost ten years, but it was worth waiting. His follow up is as good as `Virgins', if not even better. `Middlesex' is many things but an ordinary story. At first level it is the story of a hermaphrodite discovering his/her body and trying to cope with it. The novel is also a vast panorama of the story of the XX Century, showing events such as the genocide in Greece, the first days of Ford Motors, the Prohibition era and the 1967 race riots --not forgetting to mention life in the pos-wall Berlin.
History epic aside, `Middlesex' is also a personal journey of a human being trying to figure out what he is doing in the world, what life means, where we are being led to. Callie --and Cal later on-- has many questions, and no answers, and she is not even aware where to find them. She knows she is different, but she doesn't know that extension of that.
The first person narrative brings power to the novel. Callie's voice is beautiful and said at the same time. Her family --with no surprise-- is what brings her together. Even when she is not with them. At a certain point, one must run away from his/her family in order to understand his/her origins. And this is exactly what happens to Callie/Cal. In a level this book is a coming-of-age tale --a very very different one, but still a novel about becoming an adult, and leaving behind all you used to believe as a child.
Somehow, this is an extension to what he worked with in `Virgin'. We will never forget that dialogue between a shrink and one of the girls, when he asks why she tried to kill herself, she didn't even know how hard life can be. And her smart answer is that he had never been a 13 year-old girl.
Eugenides make no concessions. The novel has a sad tone --despite some funny parts. The lesson we learn is `life is no easy'. And we have to struggle to survive. Not many writers have the courage to write like that. With `Middlesex' he proves he is not a fluke, that `The Virgin Suicides' is indeed a work of genius and that his Pulitzer is more than deserved.
Book Review: Disappointing, not at all memorable...
Summary: 3 Stars
I haven't read Eugenides' first novel, and bought this one partly because it won the Pulitzer (surprising to me, after I read it..!), and partly because it was about Greek immigrants/Greek-Americans (I married a Greek-Canadian, my sister married a Greek from Athens). I know I'm going to be a minority opinion here, but I just didn't find the book special or touching or something that left me with much to think about. Nor was the writing out of the ordinary, although it's readable enough (and yet I'll readily admit that I found parts of it boring, felt it went on too much about some episodes). I like long novels when they merit the length, but this one didn't seem to, to me.Also, something that bothered me throughout the book was the 41 year old Cal, who tries to be so witty, but just wasn't. In fact, I didn't like the narrator, which was a problem. We also learn little about Cal between the ages of 14 and his present-day 41, and I couldn't put the two Cals together...why today is he STILL so afraid of intimacy? Supposedly, Cal had come to peace with his identity in his 'coming-of-age' story here.
In the beginning I thought it would be interesting to read about a hermaphrodite, but I quickly tired of it, and after finishing the book, I felt I still didn't understand enough about it, still wondered why Cal hadn't wanted to have surgery, especially to become a 'real' male.
I did enjoy the first part of the book, especially the parts in Smyrna, and the first generation of Desdemona and Lefty (I wish it had ended with their story, though...or at least at the end of Book Two). I thought about passing this book onto my sister, because of the Greek-American thread, but knew she wouldn't find that part interesting enough, either.
Mostly, I was left feeling detached and distanced from the characters, just not caring very much what happened to Cal, especially. Am sorry I don't feel the way most of the rest of you do--I do love good writing! But I'm going to sell the book and hope someone else will like it better than I did. I'm dickering between giving this book 3 stars (the way I really feel about it) and 4 stars (because it wasn't a 'bad' book, was certainly ambitious in structure and plotting...guess I'll go with my first instincts).
Book Review: So good on so many levels. Read it!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was so much better than I expected it to be. I'll admit, I didn't read "The Virgin Suicides," but I saw the movie, and found it pretentious, so I translated this trait onto the author, Jeffrey Eugenides. I owe him an apology for jumping to that conclusion. This book is accessible, funny, smart, sad...it's just a great, great novel, and a fabulously entertaining read. From page one I could not put this book down. I won't give away any of the plotline, but this is the story of a hermaprodite and the disturbing (but equal parts touching and human)family history that made her the way she is. Eugenides begins the story with Calliope, our hermaphroditic narrator, tracing a mutant gene back two generations to the Stephanides, a Greek family, emigrating from Turkey to escape the Turks. The family moves to Detroit, Michigan, and starts a new life. They raise a family, live through the race riots, and join the white flight to Grosse Pointe. It is their that second generation Greek-Americans Calliope and Chapter Eleven grow up.
Like the genetic mutation that haunts Calliope, Greece follows the family and story to America. It is a promise to the Greek Church that saves Milton in World War II; it is a Greek-named hot dog that saves the Stephanides family; it is the fires of the Turkish invasion that replays itself in the Detroit race riots; and it is a Greek myth that Calliope's life parallels. The reader is struck by the simplicity of the story-telling, and at the same time the complexity of the story. Eugenides is truly a marvel.
Calliope is the best narrator I can think of in recent American literature. Vernon Little ("Vernon God Little") pales in comparison. Calliope is human, empathetic, hilarious, and brilliant, making this book a whirlwind of all these different characteristics. I laughed out loud several times, and yet when Calliope discovers that she is not truly a girl, it is one of the most touching and heart-rending passages I have read in years. I read that page three times, and was moved every single time.
I hope that this conveys just how excellent this book is. I only wish I had read it sooner. I give it the highest recommendation.
Book Review: Unique & captivating
Summary: 5 Stars
"Middlesex" is a great many things, including a love song to Detroit. It succeeds in making the city seem mythical and beautiful (it's not). The history is fascinating, not just of Detroit, but of Greek-Turkish relations in the early 1900s and again in the `60s, and of the process of assimilation the narrator's family endure as they arrive in America, learn English, find employment (the discourse about Henry Ford and his goons is exceptionally well-done), raise a family, and eventually move to the affluent suburb Grosse Pointe (the section on the real estate "point system" used in that area-and presumably all over the United States-is enlightening). Eugenides gets everything right: the broken English of his newly immigrated characters, the great lengths Callie goes to as she hides her body in the locker room, the anxieties of expectant mothers, and adolescent angst, which Callie does about as authentically as any character I've come across. The section that finds Callie in New York with a sexologist and his conclusion about her life is thought-provoking (as is the way Callie [briefly] describes the way doctors decide what to do with a newborn intersexed baby, which is still the common practice in the United States). Ultimately, you will applaud Cal's decisions.
Eugenides spans three generations flawlessly, going from one to another so gracefully that it's almost unnoticeable. The prose is lyrical and will keep you entertained as the narrator is quite funny (and more self-aware and -deprecating than any sane person as a right to be). As Eugenides delves into the scientific intricacies of Cal's body, he does so descriptively and tactfully, without being dry or dull--not an easy task to accomplish. The other thing that one cannot help but notice while reading "Middlesex" is the research that the author obviously engaged in to write this novel. The amount of historical, factual information here is incredible, yet seamless because it doesn't read like a historical text. You don't wonder what Eugenides was doing during the nine-year gap between novels.
"Middlesex" is the best book I've read in a long time and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Book Review: Endearing!
Summary: 4 Stars
"A novel about a Greek hermaphrodite" is a completely inadequate description of this book. The book's beauty is in the way that it takes a cold scientific fact (a mutant gene) and breathes life into 3 generations of characters. The gene travels through time, living through the Greek-Turkish war, immigration, depression, race riots, and Vietnam. Just like real life, history happens in the background while these characters experience love, babies, internal and external crises. You will find yourself in love with and angry at each as if they were members of your own family. Middlesex is a story about family, about culture, about history, and finally about growing up.
The style of writing is part diary, part screenplay, and part epic. Just when you become completely wrapped up in one character's story, Eugenides will pull back with a perfectly-timed, wide-angled and poignant look at life's curiosities, and tells you what he's doing while he's doing it, "now the camera pans out, spins around, and enters the brain of so-and-so..."
Some readers might be put off by the tempo of the book. It IS as some reviewers called "flat"; it doesn't follow the usual plot-mountain formula. You don't read this story in order to get to the exciting climax, but rather to enjoy the beautiful writing and the quirky characters who will endear themselves to you. This book is written in a more circular style, switching between past and present, events and thoughts. That said, it is not at all confusing to make these switches and instead makes you feel as though you're going through the journey with Calliope instead of only being shown the 30 minute sitcom version.
My only complaint is the thin narrative of the grown-up Cal with the simplistic and predictable love-interest being the only thing going on for the 40-year old. I am sure this was done to give the reader the tidy feeling of everything turning out allright in the end, but it was weak and not believable compared to the rich, robust version of events of the past in the book. A small complaint, however, for a story that was really a peaceful and heartwarming experience beginning to end.