Middlesex: A Novel

Reviews (See all 6,669) Write a reviewfor this

It's a hit!

I must start out by saying that it took me over three weeks to get through the first 250 pages of this book - not because it wasn't well written or... (show more)

I must start out by saying that it took me over three weeks to get through the first 250 pages of this book - not because it wasn't well written or interesting; but because it took the author that long to effectively build the story. It was good, but it didn't suck me in at first. Be patient, my fellow reader, it will be well worth it. I read the latter 200 pages in two days.

The author is insightful, wise, and intelligent - and makes me want to learn more about both Greek mythology and history. It's amazing how much of "that stuff" he is able to weave through the pages of novel that is set in the 1900s.

He manages to cover three generations of a Greek family that emigrated to the United States, as well as effective scribe the narrator's struggle to find his gender identity in the midst of everything else. Puberty and that awkward phase in life is something to which we can all relate.

Oh, and if any of you attended an all female high school, pay attention to page 327 (Picador paperback edition, (c) 2002; Chapter: Obscure Object). Flawless insights run abound there, with respect to behavior at an all female school.

A fabulous read, I definitely recommend it. (show less)

 

 

by Facebook-gebruiker

No, it's a flop!

Wow this was a hard slog! It took me about 100 pages to get into it, and then I found myself wrapped up in Desdemona & Lefty's story. By about 250 ... (show more)

Wow this was a hard slog! It took me about 100 pages to get into it, and then I found myself wrapped up in Desdemona & Lefty's story. By about 250 pages in I totally lost interest, but then with 75 pages to go it got good again.

I have to be honest, I found parts riveting and others questioned why on earth "that" particular bit took up 4 chapters or so.

I think it tackled a very hard subject very head on, and gave me an understanding of something I think has really been swept under the rug, and remains to be such a taboo subject.

Having read the book now I have mixed feeling, one part of "Thank God that’s over" and the other part "I'm glad I read it and didn't give up".

**Tip - Don't read this just because you liked Jeffrey Eugenides other book 'The Virgin Suicides'. It is hard to believe it is the same author! (show less)

 

 

by Josie Forshaw

More Reviews

• 

  despite being in Oprah's book club, this is one of my favorite books. It's the story of a Greek immigrant family moving to Detroit. Telling the history of the city through this lense is fascinating. Eugenides is one of my favorite fiction writers. Beautiful, but often times dealing with some of the darkest human emotions.

   

   

  by Anonymous User on Jan 31, 2008 at 09:17PM

  Is this review helpful? yes no
   
• 
  

  ‘Congratulations Mrs. X, it’s a …. [insert sex of baby here]!’ To what extent do these words affect the outcome of our lives, how we live, how we perceive ourselves, how we perceive others? A pronouncement that commits us to the world of social signification, as a boy or girl, punctuated by a slap on the rear. Is biology destiny? Perhaps, more accurately, can our perceptions of what constitutes biology be relied upon, or is it the case that we see what we want to see?

  Enter Cal (né Cal... (show more)

  ‘Congratulations Mrs. X, it’s a …. [insert sex of baby here]!’ To what extent do these words affect the outcome of our lives, how we live, how we perceive ourselves, how we perceive others? A pronouncement that commits us to the world of social signification, as a boy or girl, punctuated by a slap on the rear. Is biology destiny? Perhaps, more accurately, can our perceptions of what constitutes biology be relied upon, or is it the case that we see what we want to see?

  Enter Cal (né Calliope) Stephanides, in all his Greek oracular splendour. He is considerably favoured in that he is his own muse, his own Tiresias, his own interlocutor. But with this comes a damning privilege: Born a hermaphrodite, at the age of 14 he undertakes his own decision, virtually at knife-point, about what sex he is. Even in our ‘anything-is-possible’ world of today, what must it be like to have the choice? Actually, to have to have the choice?

  Cal, like many hermaphrodites, lived in accordance with his perceived gender (female) until he went through puberty (or didn’t, as a female), when a pair of undescended testicles, and his erstwhile clitoris (albeit larger than the norm) were finally recognised as male genitalia. But this story is not so much an exhibition of titillating attributes as much as a quest, in the Classic sense of the word, for identity, in which ‘what I am’ and ‘how you see me’ are related, but not synonymous.

  This tale occupies that sacred space of the border, something that at once limits and proposes … a frontier, a new beginning. To be constituted as something in society is to be recognised as a signifier, an individual; but the social contract tacitly states that we conform to the subtextual grammar of social organisation. So, what to do with a hermaphrodite … neither or both man nor/and woman?

  Consider this: What is the difference between sex and gender? Masculine and feminine? Man and woman? And how do you know? Cal’s story highlights the places in which these outcroppings of identity formation, that at once appear so solid and reliable, are uncovered as misdiagnoses and preconceptions, as an aetherial scaffolding propping up what society wants to see, and not what is.

  Our sexes are not based wholly on what we have in our knickers. There are many factors that determine sex, something Calliope discovers, surreptitiously, alongside the fact of her XY genotype. For Calliope, the XY, and her long-standing passion for the Obscure Object (her best (female) friend), are basis enough for her decision, despite her rearing. Even still, each of us has chromosomal sex, gonadal sex, hormone levels, internal genital structures, external genital structures … plus! the way we’re raised to think of ourselves, and the way others see us. With all of these factors in play, there are myriad ways in which to signify as male and/or female, to be a hermaphrodite; and yet the phenomenon is still considered rare. (Perhaps this is because many hermaphrodites are unwittingly so?)

  People love to claim the cornerstone of biology: biology is destiny. But if biology is so diverse, and much of it is actually unseen, i.e. unexpressed phenotypically, why are we as a society so derailed by the presence of hermaphroditity, a concrete biological fact? Why time after time does the cookie cutter descend to stamp out a ‘normative’ boy or girl? Why can’t nature be left to itself? We fear and are attracted to the border; we negate it through lowered voices and nods, Significant Looks, ridicule, derision, … and still can’t tear our eyes away. Tiresias the Greek symbol of the all-knowing was such precisely because he was a hermaphrodite. And so in some cultures the path of enlightenment unfolds.

  This is more my world view than a book review, but I can say that Cal’s is a story that (hopefully) will cause you to revisit what society wants us to consider taboo, and ask yourself why. (show less)

   

   

  by Facebook-gebruiker on Aug 09, 2009 at 05:44PM

  Already read

  Is this review helpful? yes no
   
• See all reviews
  Write a review