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    Middlesex
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    Middlesex
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    Middlesex
    Ebook729 pages13 hours

    Middlesex

    By Jeffrey Eugenides

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    "I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974."

    So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and her truly unique family secret, born on the slopes of Mount Olympus and passed on through three generations.

    Growing up in 70s Michigan, Calliope’s special inheritance will turn her into Cal, the narrator of this intersex, inter-generational epic of immigrant life in 20th century America.

    Middlesex won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateApr 15, 2013
    ISBN9780007528653
    Unavailable
    Middlesex
    Author

    Jeffrey Eugenides

    Jeffrey Eugenides is the author of three novels. His first, The Virgin Suicides (1993), is now considered a modern classic. Middlesex (2002) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and both Middlesex and The Marriage Plot (2011) were finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Fresh Complaint, a collection of short stories, was published in 2017. He is a member both of The American Academy of Arts and Letters and The American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

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    Reviews for Middlesex

    4/5

    8,411 ratings382 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I remember loving this, but I read it 5 years ago so I don't remember it all. The backstory with the grandparents was fascinating to read. I also like that it told Cal's whole story.
    • 4/5
      A story of immigration; of Detroit; of the black ghettos, the Nation of Islam, and the civil rights movment from the immigrant edge of life; a story of intersexuality which can be read as a story about adrogony and the porous gender definitions of the last decades.
    • 5/5
      Loved listening to the audio version. Marvelous ride!
    • 5/5
      Amazing book. Keeps you entertained along the entire breadth of it. This is modern fiction that one can enjoy. Recommended!
    • 5/5
      A story of 3 generations and the consequences of life in a small town, then moving to Detroit. A story of refugees making it the US. Cal is an interesting and complex character who tells his families story with grace.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed the story except for the theatricality of the last 70 pages. Why would Father Mike try to blackmail his brother-in-law the way he did? This did not ring true at all. The section on the history of the eviction of Greeks from Asia Minor was tragic and informative. Pity that the silkworm box which had survived all the vicissitudes of life of an immigrant family in the US, wasn't worked into the end of the story - apart of course from saying that it still existed.
    • 5/5
      Well written. Engaging. Maybe a bit subjective.
    • 3/5
      A Forrest Gump style family saga taking in much of 20c American history: immigration, Prohibition, speakeasys, Detroit car factories, industrial slump, race riots, hippies... I was actually drawn by the title, but felt the interesting part - Cal coming to terms with his gender, moving on from the freak show to holding down an interesting job in Germany was not not shown at all.
    • 5/5
      Simply one of the greatest books I have ever read, and a deserving winner of the Pullitzer. Stunning.
    • 3/5
      I stopped twice while reading this to read other books, which often is a sign that I'm not going to finish a book. I'm glad I did finish it though. I enjoyed it.

      I found some of the historical passages hard to push through, but the parts of the book about the Stephanides family were quirky and I liked them.

      I give Middlesex 3.5 stars, just because there were dull bits.
    • 5/5
      A how-to on weaving research, time. history, and family into a novel. With surprises, feints, and jabs to the nose, like a Doctorow novel but more fun (I still have not learned to use fun as a verb as my 20something friends do).
    • 5/5
      A perfect book
    • 5/5
      Possibly the best American novel since Grapes of Wrath.
    • 3/5
      First book I have read about a hermaphrodite. Good writing
    • 4/5
      An excellent novel that makes one question love and sexuality. A little slow in parts.
    • 5/5
      I *loved* this book. Really, really loved. This was the first contemporary fiction I'd read in quite some time (I'm normally a Classics girl), and it was well worth going outside of my usual concentration. I felt fully immersed in the world of the book and as if I knew the characters and world personally, even though it was a time, place, and set of characters very different from my own life. There were some parts of it that required some suspension of disbelief though. My man John Linnell says this is his favourite book.
    • 3/5
      i thought this book was a little over-rated
    • 5/5
      Good book.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating novel that blends the genres of picaresque adventure and biological casebook. Eugenides's construction of the story is flawless and the result is an absorbing meditation on gender, desire, identity and the fundamental human urge to fashion our own destiny.
    • 4/5
      I was heavily leaning towards giving this book 3 stars but went with four instead. I am not sure if that was the correct choice. With over 21 hours of listening time, being able to hold my attention is surely deserving of 4 stars.

      More often than not this novel felt like it was two separate books. I get the connection and why the author felt all the backstory was needed but frankly I felt it had disjointed feel about it. It was highly entertaining! I enjoyed the back story far more than I enjoyed the parts specifically about Callie/Cal. I feel this book would have been better as a trilogy. Callie's struggles were real but I am not sure enough time was spent on her to really make me feel I knew the character. Perhaps that is the point as the character was questioning her own identity. At the end of the novel I found myself wondering what happening to Cal as he adjusted to living as a man. Not the boy Cal we were introduced to but the man.

      If I had chosen to read the print edition I am not sure I would have stuck with it. The audio edition was the right choice for me. It was very well done.
    • 4/5
      Not what I expected - a cross-generational story of Greek immigrants undergoing the American experiment, punctuated just slightly with gender identity issues. A very fun read.
    • 4/5
      It's the story of Calliope Stephanides and the two generations that brought her into this world. It's Greece and Germany and Grosse Point. It's the science of genetics meeting the mother of all family secrets. Calliope is also Cal, one and the same. Girl meets Boy. Girl is Boy. Boy is Girl. Sound confusing? It isn't. It's poetic and sad, funny and smart. Something you just have to read for yourself. Cal will tell you the story. His story. Her story.
    • 4/5
      A great read!
    • 4/5
      Cal tells his story of growing up a girl, not realizing that he had a gene that made him intersex. His story goes back as a family saga of immigrants from Greece in the 1900s and how the family deals with questions of identity and race.There were moments the story dragged for me and I wasn't immediately blown away by it, but after reflection I have to say it's really well put together and has a lot of meat to it. I've been recommending it highly to friends who enjoy a literary, thought-provoking tale.
    • 5/5
      I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! It's a sprawling family saga that chronicles, incest, hermaphrodites, love, confusion, immigration, identity, and the human condition. I was hooked from the beginning. The audiobook also does an amazing job bringing the Greek-American accents to life and is wildly entertaining. The story follows Calliope Stephanides and the three generations leading up to her. From a small village on Mount Olympus to industrial Detroit, this family saga is a masterpiece. Every character is wildly unique, wonderfully developed, and worth cheering for. All the stories weave together to help explain the curious case of Calliope's hermaphroditic existence. Engrossing, wonderful and all around amazing. Definitely worthy of the Pulitzer Prize it was awarded!
    • 5/5
      Really loved this one. Very readable coming of age story of a young intersex culturally Greek character, Cal/liope. Highly recommend.
    • 5/5
      Surprise delight. Transexual theme not really my cup of tea, but here it is tr eated in such a way as to intrigue and draw the reader in. Besides a good story it's full of information, myth, humour, atmosphere, surprise. Can't say I learned anything about the Trans issue, but just enjoyed the story, and in particular the Greek immigrant background presented with great warmth.
    • 2/5
      Strange, strange, strange.
    • 4/5
      excellent!
    • 2/5
      Too self-consciously "comic."