Author: Jeffrey Eugenides

Publisher: Picador

 ISBN #:   978-0312427733

 Type:  Fiction

 Pages: 544 Trade Paperback

Published:  June 5, 2007

Purchase:  $10.20 (HERE) 

The Summary

Cal Stephanides starts his story by explaining that he has been born twice, once as a baby girl and again as a teenage boy.   A hermaphrodite born in the 1970′s in Michigan had a more complicated and difficult life than most others.   Coming from a Greek-American family, Cal tells the story of  how a single mutated gene traveled through his family line and found its way to him,  causing his bi-gender condition.  The beginning of this story begins with his grandparents in a small town in the early 1920′s Greece, then leads to their flee from their home during the war to their arrival in Detroit, Michigan.  These immigrants struggle to make it in their new country and experience some of America’s greatest history as they raise their family.  As the family tree continues to expand, an inevitable union passes on the mutated gene which would eventually belong to Cal. 

Born Calliope, Cal lived up until her teenage years as a girl before tragedy strikes her and she is forced to leave her town, family, and the only friend she truly cared for.  Cal’s new life as a man unfolds for the reader, but as the book comes to an end, the reader is definitely wanting more!

I absolutely could not put this memorizing book down!  I’ve never read his other novel, The Virgin Suicides, but I’m willing to bet that it’s a great book, as well.  This story was so intriguing that I didn’t want to close the pages and go to bed!  This is not just the story of Cal and how he came to become who he is today, but it is also a tale of a family… and what a journey it is!

There are images so disturbing that I will never forget some scenes from this book.  Other scenes had my hoping for the safety of Desdemonda and Lefty, Cal’s grandparents.  I think what really tethered me to this novel is the compassion that I felt for the characters.  I could empathize with Calliope and how she must have felt being a boy trapped in a girls body.  I feared right along with Desdemonda for the healthy birth of her children.  I hoped for Lefty that he would find the way to provide for his family safely. 

Despite my connections, compassion, and the overall intrigue I experienced while reading this book, I also realize that this may not be the book for everybody.  Be prepared for adult content, although very clearly written and not in bad taste.  It’s a walk in the history of an immigrant family making their way in America as much as it is the story of a child whose life became the cumulation of choices those before him had made.

The Rating

On Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale,” I am giving Middlesex a rating of 10 out of 10.  I admit it, I was addicted!

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