Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides is at once an immigrant story and a story of America’s history; it’s a story of random chance and the singular path that each person’s story makes to reach its culmination; it’s a story whose themes repeat – the burning of Smyrna in Asia Minor in 1922, and the riots of Detroit in 1967; passionate, new love that shrivels with time and lack of nurturing.

The story really centers on Cal Stephanides, nee Calliope Stephanides. Raised as a girl, it isn't until Calliope reaches her teen years that the truth of her biology is understood - Cal is a hermaphrodite.

But as Cal takes us back to the beginning of his story, or as early back as he can trace the beginning, it turns into another story altogether. Siblings fleeing their destroyed village and reinventing themselves as they cross the Atlantic and find a new home in America; the discovery that the American dream is far different from the American reality; cousins drawn to one another as World War II begins; a strange cast of characters whose lives weave in and out like the silk from the worms Cal’s grandmother kept back in Smyrma.

Those who want to better understand the difference between sex and gender, between biology and selfhood.

The author's ability to thoroughly engage the reader through prose.

Jumping from past to present tense, as well as third person omniscient to first person, sometimes within the same paragraph.

Share it with others. Hone my craft to the point where I can evoke settings and sensations in the way the author does.

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Created Oct 26, 2013 at 5:56pm • Submit your own review...