Rating: 
Summary: utterly brilliant
Review: MiddleSex is a brilliant portrayal of a families triumphs and tragedies spanning three generaations. The main character is Cal or Calliope but the story is filled with vivid and emotional portrayal of characters that I will never forget. Desdemona's lifes journey is so bittersweet. Euginides descriptions of these characters and the events in their lives are brilliant. I laughed, I cried and I will always remember the journey of the Strephanides family.For me, their journey will stay on my mind well after I finished reading the book. Bravo to Jeffrey Euginides. Can't wait to read his next literary masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: It Sneaks Up on You
Review: What could have been a PC-laced sermon about one of the last taboo sexual subjects instead turns out to be a wonderfully-written, honest and straight-forward examination of what it really means to be human -- we all strive for love and search endlessly for our proper place in the world. Cal may not have arrived, but seems well on his way. Eugenides is the master of the technique of telling you enough but not all, allowing our minds to fill in the blank spaces -- a refreshing read. Top of this year's list for me. I look forward to his other works.
Rating: 
Summary: Grace, humor and self-revelation........
Review: Jeffrey Eugenides has created a wonderful tale of a family's history, leaving their homeland and going to the promised land of the United States of America to create a new life. The story of their incorporation of the lives they led in a tiny Greek village melding with the life they are creating for themselves in Detroit is thought provoking.
The story is narrated by Cal, the grandchild of the immigrant couple, with a unique viewpoint, honest to a fault and at times nearly omniscient in scope.
From the death, destruction and desperation of life in a tiny war-ravaged village to the speakeasy's and later the race riots of Detroit the story engages your heart and mind.
Middlesex is an intriguing story of what holds a family together and what it is that defines who an individual really is.
When the family faces difficult hurdles involving long held beliefs, shaking them down to the foundation of what truly counts in life, the author uses the touch of a master artist. The story reveals the intricate qualities of inner- strength, love and family with a rare touch of grace, humor and the character's self revelation that leaves the reader with an intense and amazing reading experience.
Rating:
Summary: I cried when it was over
Review: This book was simply amazing. It is a fantasically crafted story that follows the narrator's genetic history from 1920s Turkey through 1960s Detroit to present day Berlin. Equal time is spent describing the lives of Cal's grandparents, parents, and Cal himself. I completely disagree with those that complain that "the real story" (about the hermaphrodite) doesn't start until Cal's life begins in 1960. Each story is so rich, so alive, and so very relevant to the person Cal eventually becomes. I felt so close to the Stephanides family that I cried for Cal, for his parents Milton and Tessie, and his Grandmother Desdemona in the final pages of the book. I did not want this book to end. I believe this book will become the classic it deserves to be.
Rating:
Summary: immigration and its viscissitudes
Review: Though this book is narrated by a hermaphrodite, to argue that the book then is about a hermaphrodite or the condition that causes hermaphroditic people, is to miss the point of the book. Though Cal's condition is central to his character, it is only incidental to the narrative arc of the book; it is a symbol of the dysfunction with which he arrived at the point that he tells the story of his family's travails.This is really a story about ethnic strife, war, immigration, assimilation, materialism, social unrest, and, finally, making peace with one's past and heritage. At times funny, sad, ironic, and witty the novel investigates the attempts of the Stephanides family to come from Greece to the United States and assimilat themselves into the boiling cauldron that is the American dream. Where Eugenides excels in this novel is his descriptions of physical location and his characterization of the people populating the novel's pages.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating story
Review: This novel with its many stories and its time-winding, back-and-forth plot definately kept me reading, especially towards the middle and end. I would've given it 5 stars had it not been for the writer's style; sometimes he tends to stop, inject something, and go on about unnecessary details and what ifs? what abouts? did this character think this? or this? But considering that the entire novel is written in the first and second-person, it helps you better grasp the character. The story is just so interesting--it manages to wax sexual, mythical and philosophical, and historical and capture the turmoil and awakening of being young, the stagnation of middle age, and the despair of old age. Completely recommended and one of the most enjoyable reads I've had in a long time.
Rating:
Summary: i loved this book
Review: Middlesex is a book that I loved from the first page to the last; once I began reading it I wanted to sit still and read it all the way through uninterrupted. The plot of this book is so complex and twisting that it just can't be summarized in a few simple words, so I won't attempt to. However the author, Jeffrey Eugenides creates this complicated and multi-faceted tale about the secrets of three generations of a Greek family and tells it in such an intimate and detailed manner that the reader is completely sucked in. The author manages to move seamlessly back and forth between four very different periods of time: turn of the century Turkey, 1920's Detroit, an adolescence in the 70's and the present day Berlin. Eugenides paints each of the sites in such rich detail that you feel completely immersed in the lives and thoughts of the people of that particular time. I never found the transitions between locations disruptive or confusing, instead these switches only made the narrator seem more real because it was the same way I would tell the story of my family to a friend. The characters are certainly unusual but they are described in such personal detail that as a reader you not only understand their actions, but also become deeply connected to their lives. The members of the Stephanides family are portrayed in such a loving way that I felt that I knew them and accepted them as if they were my own family. Having read several extremely negative reviews of this book I would just like to offer one bit of advice to readers that I think will ensure a better reading experience: DON'T read the back and expect the book to be exclusively focused on the life of a hermaphrodite because that is only a fraction of the story being told and you will be disappointed. I found the story as a whole to be truly wonderful and I recommend it to anyone looking for a touching and engrossing book to read.
Rating:
Summary: Fine literature
Review: One of the best books I've read lately. Being curious about why some people gave it bad reviews, I have read some of them, and it is pretty interesting to see how they totally miss the point. And by the way, it's fun to see that people continue reading books they don't like, just because they are in reading groups.
What happened to the good, old experience of reading for pleasure?
Rating: 
Summary: Torturous read
Review: I love to read but found this book difficult to finish. If it wasn't for my book club, I would have given up on it. The author goes off on so many tangents that it is annoyingly frustrating. The first 200 pages could have been left out completely. The real crux of the story is buried in inconsequential details, infuriating details, unending details. The author really should have written several books instead of overloading this one with too much history. And he left out the stuff I really wanted to know, how did Cal live his life after finding out about himself? When it really started getting good, the book ended. I am surprised at how many stars this book got, very misleading.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Books I Have Read
Review: I found myself near depression when I realized how close I was to finishing this book. Every night I felt as though each chapter was another interesting conversation I was having with a good friend. What is amazing about this book is not just the great writing, but Eugenides' ability to make this reader relate to someone so completely different from herself. Just excellent.
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