Middlesex: A Novel
by Jeffrey Eugenides
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Book Reviews of Middlesex: A Novel
Book Review: Twice Born
Summary: 5 Stars
Cal has been first one thing and then another. It is complicated when an enzyme is siphoned off in emerging life. Cal has a male brain but is raised as a girl. Descended from Asia Minor Greeks, born in America, the narrator lives in Europe presently. He, Cal, operates in society as a man. The male persona is Cal, the female Calliope.
Eleutherios and Desdemona Stephanides left Bithynios in 1922. At Smyrna British and Greek soldiers evacuated, leaving Greek citizens at the mercy of approaching Turkish forces. There were fires. Desdemona and Lefty, (Eleutherios), departed on the same boat as Dr. Philobosian, who had lost his entire family. The ship, the Giulia, had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Line. Lefty and Desdemona were siblings. A cousin agreed to stay mum about that issue of the propriety of the marital union. (It was mutual blackmail, the cousin had her own secrets.)
The family settled in Detroit. Lefty got a job at Ford, working in the Rouge plant. Lefty attended the Ford English School. Later he lost his job because the husband of his cousin with whom he resided had a police record. Dr. Philobosian settled in Detroit, also. The cousin gave birth to a girl, Theodora, and Desdemona had a boy, Milton. Detroit was known as the city of trees. Lefty ran a speakeasy. By 1932 Fard had established Temple No. 1, (Black Muslims). Desdemona worked for the Nation of Islam, silk-making. In 1933 Fard had to leave Detroit.
Theodora Zizmo is now called Tessie and the story shifts to 1944. In 1935 Lefty's bar patrons had formed the UAW. Milton tries to woo Tessie by playing 'Begin the Beguine' on his clarinet. Milton and Tessie marry and become the parents of Calliope. Milton graduates from Annapolis in 1949. After his military service is completed he opens a diner. Ten years after Milton starts his diner, it is no longer making money. In 1967 the riots take place.
The story continues with verve. The liveliness and warmth of the storytelling sustains the reader's interest wonderfully.
Book Review: Both a place and a gender
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a BIG book, and a little difficult to get through unless you can negotiate with your family for some quiet time.
Basically, it chronicles the formative years of Cal Stephanides, beginning with the grandparents, Lefty and Desdemona, who were really-too-close for siblings, and who fled Greece as their village burned around them. What ignited even hotter was their passion for each other, and under the billowing smoke, they hatched a plan for a new start in America, jiggling the lifeboats all the way to New York.
Their son Milton eventually married his cousin Tessie, producing a strangely-named son Chapter Eleven, and another child who became their strange daughter Calliope.
Unfortunately for Calliope, the sins of Lefty and Desdemona began the awakening process of a little recessive gene which pushed its way to the nether regions of the second grandchild, forming a little extra something to Calliope's feminine format.
Due to a half-blind doddering Doctor acquaintance, this development is overlooked for years, until more observant doctors at the emergency room make the discovery of the little flagpole.
Referred to a specialist, Calliope tells the doctor exactly what he wants to hear, and after sneaking a peek at the medical chart, beats a hasty exit, emerging from the uncomfortable female cocoon as an uncoordinated young man named Cal.
The story from here moves quickly, as Cal puts his Adam's apple forward (this should have been a giveaway long before) and finds himself quite literally in hot water up to his neck, until he ultimately finds his niche and learns to be comfortable with himself.
There are many stories supporting the main theme, some of which are like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", and some more like "American Pie". Add bootlegging, drugs, fast food and silkworms, throw in a little racism, religion, extortion and a peep show or two - and there you have "Middlesex".
A bit hefty, but never boring.
Amanda Richards, January 28, 2005
Book Review: A brilliant panorama, original and very important
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the sort of book that only comes along once a decade or more. A brilliant, sweeping portrait of a nation, a life, a history, a world, and what it means to be alive, to belong and to be a part of everything. It is beyond definition, as it's definition is itself. As soon as I read his debut The Virgin Suicides (another excellent novel) i immediately started on this one, which i already owned. I found the words swimming by, the pages turning as if blown by the breeze, the real present dissolving into the world of the brilliant, brilliant story Eugenides mesmerisingly tells.
This novel covers so many issues, tells us so much in its reading: it deals with war, racism, depression, notions of nationality, notions of the American dream, notions of who we really are, notions of love, mystery and so very much else. As a Great American novel, it is probably the best I have read, by a long long way. It is warm, amusing, touching, but also sad in places, incredibly moving and enchanting. To be honest, my head is so full of thoughts and praise for this book that i can't really expurgate them to words coherently or logically, although i am not confident that Jeffrey Eugenides is probably the most important writer working today.
He shows incredible talent here to tell his story. In the brilliant of his narrative voice, the astuteness with which he draws his characters, (particularly our charming narrator, Cal) and the brilliance of his subtle, fluid plotting. The events of the century, as the characters move from Smyrna to Detroit, flow past as the characters experiences form something vaguely encompassing a huge work of universal life. This book, really, could be about any one of us. The experiences of the characters are our own, though shaped and moulded in some different way.
This brilliant panoramic read is a wonderful novel, a complete reinvention of the great American Novel. Jeffrey Eugenides is a remarkable writer, and this is just genius. As a review, this fails entirely to convey what I think about this book.
Book Review: Family saga with a twist
Summary: 4 Stars
This book has everything that--in the hands of an expert--make family sagas such engrossing reads. It's a multigenerational novel that begins in a historically fascinating time (Smyrna during the unsettled early days of the Turkish republic) and follows a rural Greek family as they immigrate to the US and create a new life for themselves. Sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, it follows them through the years as they reach for the American Dream. But there's a secret in their blood just waiting to reveal itself through its effect on future generations. This story is told from the point of view of Cal, born Calliope, in whose body the family secret manifests itself, almost as it might in a tale from Greek mythology. For Cal is a hermaphrodite--a genetic freak created by by the violation of one of the strongest and most universal sexual taboos. As Cal reaches adolescence, he must deal with his dual nature and his changing definition of who he/she is. "Middlesex" is very much a "coming of age" story, but one in which the standard rules don't apply.
For most people, it's the intesexual nature of the main character that's the most intriguing thing about "Middlesex." John Money's controversial work on gender is echoed in Cal's recollections of his/her medical treatment, and echoes of changing attitudes toward intersexuality are there as well in Cal's reactions to it. For this reader, however, the gender issues were interesting but ultimately secondary to Cal's attempts to understand and accept his true nature. That, after all, is the essence of coming of age, no matter what one's gender or sexual identity.
"Middlesex" was at times moving and at times downright funny. Cal's pursuit of "The Obscure Object of Desire" has all the poignancy of a first crush. The Stephanides family connection to the early Nation of Islam was pure dark comedy. Cal's days in the Haight were a wonderfully unlikely and yet uplifitng finish. The book may be long and at times convoluted, but ultimately I found it a rewarding read.
Book Review: A near miss at greatness.
Summary: 4 Stars
I'd like to start off this review talking about the things that are really nice about this book-- mainly because there's a lot of them, and I actually think that nothing negative that I say should detract the potential reader._Middlesex_ is a multigenerational history of a Greek-American family which begins with a silkworm farm in Asia Minor and ends somewhere in Berlin. Along the way it takes you through the burning of Smyrna, the 1967 Detroit race riots, the depression and the rise of the Nation of Islam. It treats subjects as wide ranging as hermaphrodism, family secrets, the nature of marriage and the occasion to trust.
What's amazing is that Eugenides writes all this with an eye for detail that's really astonishing. You could read this book for its richness of detail and the fine nuances alone and come out a happy and satisfied reader. He pulls off the family story through all its generational turns and creates characters who are very human and very real.
I suppose that simply because I enjoyed it so much I wondered to myself if this was a book that was going to stick with me, or one that would molder on my shelf unread in 20 years.
While I'm probably not going to argue for unread, I also didn't find it a masterpiece. The character arc of the adult Cal felt contrived and unsatisfying-- I couldn't anchor his fear of intimacy in the history that the book reveals and I didn't believe (or didn't care) about its ultimate conclusion. Even given that the history was clearly the focal point, I still wanted to care about the present. At the very least, I didn't want to find the moments in the present aggravating-- which is unfortunately how I did find them.
So. A near miss. I will however, go back and read _The Virgin Suicides_ and whatever else he may write in the future. A near miss is after all better than not even being in the running...
Like I said, don't let this review dissuade you from reading. The book is the Book of the Hour for good reason, so you'll waste no time deciding for yourself.