Middlesex

Rating:
Summary: Nicely done
Review: This is a terrific story full of deep and complex characters, situations and a plot that keeps you guessing

Rating:
Summary: Middlesex is worthy of the Pulitzer.
Review: Great writing excites me. No, better than that, it elevates me. It raises my own personal writing bar. And that is exactly what Middlesex does for me. Eugenides is a storyteller's storyteller. His story is colorful, exquisitely descriptive, haunting, humorous and tragic. And, most of all, it is intelligent.

Except for my brief encounter with the movie "The Angry Inch," I know almost nothing about what it means to be a hermaphrodite, and "The Angry Inch" is too blaringly offensive to elicit any kind of empathy from me. But with "Middlesex," I find myself so empathic with the characters that I am actually entering the body of hermaphrodite Cal Stephanides and feeling the roiling emotions of what it means to be this intelligent misfit.

"Middlesex" begins with the words: "I was born twice..." And like most novels, I am mildly interested in the storyline in the beginning, although I'm aware immediately that the style of writing is new and refreshing. So the prose is what keeps me reading, and then the storyline catches on fire, and I am staying up late at night just so I can get a few more pages read of the 529 pages. I stay this way until late last night, when I read page 529, and I am sad that the story has ended. I want to email Eugenides and ask, "Then what happened?"

Add intermarrying relatives to the "family script," and you begin to understand the complexities of the multigenerational cause and effects that hermaphrodites supposedly inherit. The story begins with the marriage of Desdemona and Lefty Stephanides in Turkey and follows their immigration to Detroit, Michigan, then traces the family tree down to Calliope Stephanides, the narrator. Along the way, we get a Forest Gump look at historical Detroit. It's personal and compelling. So much so that I am looking at the back flap of the book at Eugenides' picture, wondering if he is writing an autobiographical story. So much of the story is close to the author's personal history. My thought is, how can one truly understand what it means to possess both genders in "one body" unless one has had the real experience? Of course, this is pure conjecture. So let's put it this way: If Eugenides is not a hermaphrodite himself, then his ability to portray one in this story is ingenious and, well, worthy of a Pulitzer.

Rating:
Summary: Pleasantly shocked
Review: I thought the writing was wonderful. The title "Middlesex" was certainly proper. I plan to read the author's other book.

Rating:
Summary: What's that smell?
Review: Oh yes, i recognize that smell. It's the fetid stink of mediocrity wafting through my cerebral cortex--a Eugenides type reading experience indeed. I thought he was bad when he wrote the Virgin Suicides, but this longwinded, turgid, aimless novel far surpasses the banalities of the previous release, launching Middlesex into the realm of full blown charlatanism. bravo, jeffrey. those writing workshops have done wonders for your craft. not only are you drab and pretentious, but you are also destroying literature as we know it, squashing the enthusiasm that any reader might have had in arts and letters, crushing hopes left and right for anyone who expects more out of the literary world than mere word play and cleverness. oh, eugenides, you've out done yourself. the world of literature now has its new anti-christ.

Rating:
Summary: Audiobook highly recommended
Review: An avid consumer of audiobooks, I rank the unabridged version of Middlesex my favorite to date. I loved Eugenides' writing. Add to that Kristoffer Tabori's amazing performance in the audio version, and WOW, you've got a combination that can't be beat. Middlesex is filled with eccentric characters, and Tabori gave each a distinct and dynamic voice. Desdemona, Lefty, Callie, Milton -- they all came to life in my imagination as I listened. Tabori infused much humor into the novel with his inflections and intonations that I might have missed had I simply read Middlesex. I have only one complaint: I found this audiobook to be so engrossing that during a long car trip I missed major turnoffs THREE times! Oh well, it gave me more time to listen to Middlesex.

Rating:
Summary: This was a wild ride!!!
Review: I had no idea what to expect when I ordered this book. However, since it was winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for fiction I said "what the hell." I was not disappointed. Although, it was a strange bird, it was very entertaining and well worth the 21 hours I spent listening to it. If you enjoy a wild ride, (in the tradition of Wally Lamb's "I Know This Much is True") this book is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Not just a Greek Salad!
Review: Middlesex combines the fun of a family saga with the pain of adolescence through a young girl's quest for her sexual identity.
Jeffrey Eugenedes manages to get to the heart of America through the eyes of a young girl and her Greek immigrant family in the tumultuous 1960's in Detroit.

The author leads us through the arrival of young Callie's grandparents'to Ellis Island and their trials and tribulations acclimating to their new American lifestlye. Through their eyes we experience World War Two, The Civil Rights Movement and The Vietnam War (just to name a few).

How do all these factors, from ancestry and family to world events affect our young heroine? Eugenedes keeps us in suspense throughout the novel. I couldn't put this book down. I warn you readers, I was even late to work a few times trying to sneak in some early morning reading time.

Through twists and turns, one more interesting than the next, everything comes into very clear focus. We get a glimpse into the multitude of factors that shape, for better or for worse, human sexuality in America and in the world.

Rating:
Summary: Put this on your list!
Review: A great family drama. As you begin the novel, the narrator immediately informs you that he is a hermaphrodite. Cal, formerly Calliope, takes you back to war-torn Smyrna in 1922 where we meet his grandparents and the recessive gene that travels across the Atlantic to America and eventually results in his birth. Fantastic images, interesting characters, and a flurry of themes that weave together a fabulous saga. A great read.

Rating:
Summary: Jeffrey Eugenides proves that he is no fluke
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Literary Merit Vs. Enjoyment
Review: Did I enjoy this book? Honestly, not that much. Personally I felt that the book was slow and sex oriented and packed full of characters who were constantly doing things that aggravated me, but t did have some very significant ideas. I happen to dislike this kind of novel, but I would suggest reading it anyway because of the universal topics about the differences between the sexes and the hardships that every teenager, boy, girl, or both at the same time, must face. Even though the frequent sex scenes made me a bit queasy and I found myself coming to hate the seemingly stupid decisions of the characters I feel that they are a very accurate interpretation of the average person set in an un-average situation such as being faced with the fact that you are a hermaphrodite. I believe that this book has acquired so many accolades because of the fact that it's characters are normal people who make stupid decisions, and constant mistakes. Even though it pains me to say so, they are realistic and accurately express the views and feelings of the mainstream. No matter that I hated this book, it still has merit and should be read by all, if not necessarily for pleasure but for the experience and the knowledge about the hearts of humans that you will gain through the reading.