Rating: 
Summary: boring
Review: couldn't finish...no 'there, there.' just couldn't care less about brother/sister marriage, any of the characters. seemed pointless. don't understand what all the hoopla is about. i ususally dislike award winning books....i think i'll stop buying them (three junes, yuck, etc.). best book i have read lately is 'emperor of ocean park.' that was interesting and different.
Rating: 
Summary: Perseverance of the Spirit
Review: Middlesex is a straight up great book (no pun intended). Yes, there are some elements that deal with alternative sexual identity classification. No, that's not the main focus though. Middlesex is about personal journey and the perseverance of the troubled spirit. I consider Rikki Lee Travolta's "My Fractured Life" to be on of the best books in the past 5 years, and I read Middlesex because of the constant comparisons. I was not disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Take A Chance On This One ( it isnt what you think)
Review: I forget why I read this but I remember that I didnt want to.
and Im VERY glad that I did.
its a great book.
A multigenerational saga. the main character ( the narrator) doesnt actually come to live untill the later parts of the book.
EVen then, it isnt a "book about a person with a genitic disorder", its just a story about someones family and eventually about themself.
its very well written.
the only cirticism that I could give against this one is that I thought it could have actually been two books. not necessacarily becuse it was so long but because the first part had a differant feel than the last part.
Still, well worth going against your possible decisions not to read it, and to actually go ahead and give it a chance.
( its already won a Pulitzer so I dont think the author is worried about any criticisms I might have LOL)
really, go and read it, its VERY VERY GOOD!
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful epic about a what?
Review: I have been a fan of Eugenides since The Virgin Suicides, so I came into this book with high expectations. I would have to say that they were met and nearly exceeded. The book is thoughtful and poignant, beautifully illustrating the struggles of fitting in. Certainly not all people can relate to Callie and her hermaphoditism, but all can relate to the pain and uncertainty of being 13 and not knowing your place. Eugenides has a way of inviting the reader to care about his characters. Throughout the reading of Middlesex I found myself wanting to personally know his characters, and could see parts of my family and friends in them. Eugenides seemlessly blends a spanning history while keeping in contact with the main character. I would have to say that the only downfall of this novel is that it ends too abruptly. The end seems to have been cut off for fear that people would lose interest. I believe that based on Eugenides powerful narrative that this book could have easily been another hundered pages longer. I wanted to know more about Cal and what happens to him and his family. But overall, I would have to say that this book is well written and well worth the time it takes to read and reread it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Novel!
Review: Jeffrey Eugenides has written an excellent novel with his, "Middlesex: A Novel." I thought the characters were unique and very believable and the plot had me swiftly turning the pages as swiftly as I could. Brava, Jeffrey Eugenides, on a job well done! (Highly Recommended Novel!)
Rating:
Summary: Good, But Not Really Worth the Pulitzer
Review: Middlesex is an epic story. It begins in Asia Minor (apparently the part of Turkey where Greeks live), moves on to Smyrna, then ends up in Detroit. Overall, it is the story of how a gene traveled from the narrator's grandparents to him/her. How this gene travels is never explained, but owing to the novel's subject matter it has something to do with intermarriage. My favorite section of the novel was the beginning. We learn about the narrator's Greek grandparents. They are hilarious and seem lifted from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. They fade in importance, and the narrative shifts to their son, Milton. The novel is chock-full of hilarious anecdotes, and on the whole is very funny. Milton has two children: Chapter Eleven and Calliope/Cal, the novel's narrator. Calliope is born a girl, and grows up that way, but as the novel is titled Middlesex one assumes that soon we will find she is actually a hermaphropdite. For me, the novel became less and less interesting the more we learned about Calliope and her life. The book becomes quite graphic when describing her sexual experiences (at 14), and her realization she is actually a male. Middlesex is anti-climactic, the conclusion cannot live up to the splendid narrative of the grandparents. The only thought-provoking theme raised in Middlesex is that of destiny, and what (if anyhting) we can do to fight it. On the whole, Middlesex is a good book, but falls short in comparison to other Pulitzer winners. Recommended to those wanting to learn more about Greeks and hermaphroditism.
Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding Multigenerational Great American Novel
Review: Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex" is a wonderful, engrossing fictional exploration of 20th Century America as seen through the eyes of a Greek immigrant family struggling to survive, and eventually, prosper in the American heartland. Spanning decades and continents this epic saga is told by the charismatic protagonist Calliope Stephanides. Her grandparents "Lefty" and Desdemona Stephanides flee the ancient city of Smyrna in the aftermath of a bloody massacre by conquering Turkish troops, towards the end of the ill fated Greek invasion of Turkey after the First World War. They find sanctuary in America, moving in with a cousin living in Detroit, learning how to survive in Prohibition-era America. They will survive the gradual decline of central Detroit, as the city becomes a haven to an emigrant Afro-American population, the rise of the Nation of Islam and the traumatic 1967 race riots. And they will learn eventually of a unique genetic mutation that manifests itself in their hermaphroditic grandchild, Calliope Stephanides. This is truly an epic American saga that can be compared favorably to Michael Chabon's "The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay". However, Eugenides is a more memorable literary stylist, evoking both pathos and sympathy for the Stephanides family, while stirring elements of Greek Tragedy, Islam, and American race relations into his sprawling epic. Without question this is one of the most impressive novels I've read, well deserving of its Pulitzer Prize award for fiction. It's clearly a strong candidate for a great American novel of the early 21st Century.
Rating:
Summary: A diffent human being
Review: This book was very well written and powerfully characterized. The subject matter of Hermaprodism is not one of every day conversation and/or interest but after reading this rich and powerful novel, one cannot go away without endearing feelings for Calliope albeit the circumstances of his/her sexuality. The writer choose a name for her lead character of perplexing interest but I still cannot figure out the significance of its meaning and relationship to the character.
Rating: 
Summary: Ran out of steam
Review: It's not you, it's me. That's what I felt like saying to this book. It's brilliant, it's dazzling, it's all of those things; but for whatever reason it simply didn't grip me enough. Perhaps Mr Eugenides is more interested in the act of writing than in the effect his writing will have on his readers. And I mean no offense by that: it's a noble stance and he is very, very talented. The book just lost me after about 450 pages.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: Jeffrey Eugenides has created a wonderful novel filled with characters so rich and places so varied that it is hard to describe this book in a short paragraph. Middlesex is narrated by Cal/Calliope Stephanides who begins by informing the reader that he is a hermaphrodite. But, this is just the beginning, the real meat of the novel is the characters that make up the Stephanides family. The reader is treated to a history of the family's gene pool beginning with the incestuous coupling of Cal's grandparents from Smyrna, Greece. It follows with the description of their lives as they come to America, fleeing Greece during an invasion from Turkey. The story describes the birth of Cal's parents Milton and Tessie. Milton in particular is an interesting character who courts Tessie with a clarinet, enlists in the Navy and eventually becomes the father of a baby girl named Calliope. Callie lives the life of an average girl growing up in Detroit in the 1960's until puberty begins. It is then that we are witness to Calliope's growing isolation, fears, confusion and lonliness as she struggles to understand why she is so different. It is heartbreaking to see the struggle that she is going through. Details are what make this novel outstanding and each character and scene is loaded with details about the era, place and personality of the character. This is what makes the reader so invested in this family and care so much for Calliope. Eugenides has created a story that weaves together the generations of a family and their journey through life.
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