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Search - Middlesex
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Middlesex Author: |
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Book Information
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Other Versions of this Book: Hardcover, Hardcover, Audio Cassette (Unabridged), Audio CD (Abridged), Audio CD (Unabridged)
Book Description:
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver's license...records my first name simply as Cal."
So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.
So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.
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Top Member Book Reviews
Leigh P. (
46 member(s) found this review helpful.
Entirely too long, entirely too much backstory, and entirely undeserving of the Pulitzer Prize. Eudenides spends 3/4 of the book describing in great lengths an episodic history for all of the characters told from the point of view of a narrator who could not possibly know the level of detail he/she is giving.
The last 1/4 of the book is amazingly well-done, with flowing and informative prose, as well as giving the reader a plethora of medical information. I truly felt as if I was in the head of a hermaphrodite. The author excels at this. However, it reads incredibly slow, so only pick it up if you've got some time on your hands.
It's worth the read if you're either perseverant and don't mind a dense, background-heavy story, or if you're like me and are trying to read the Pulitzers.
Amanda A. (
25 member(s) found this review helpful.
Wonderful! Happy to see gender issues in main-stream literature! Though the book begins with a slower pace as the reader learns the rich history of Cal's grandparents, the second half of the novel flashs by with his personal story.
I loved the novel and wished it kept going... I didn't want to finish it knowing the story would be over. The reader is always aware of two time periods: the present Cal telling the story and his life unfolding during narration and, in the beginning the story of his family, while later in the novel the second time period is Cal's childhood.
I recommend this book if you have the time to devote to reading it, the intellegence to comprehend the wonderful literary techniques and vocabulary, and the trust in the author to deliver a brilliant story. Lastly, anyone studying sex and gender issues would thrill to read the second half, as a thorough workover of sociological nomemclature is utilized.
Nancy O. (
17 member(s) found this review helpful.
Cal has lived a life in two genders. Raised as a girl, he eventually discovers that he is a hermaphrodite, a person born with both male and female organs. But the story doesn't start here. To discover why Cal is the person he is, we have to go back in time to his grandparents in Greece, then to his parent's relationship, and finally back to Cal's life story as a little girl who found her life dramatically changing once she hit puberty. Middlesex is a wonderfully written novel about a controversial subject. In many ways, it is an epic. By the end of the novel, you will find yourself changed by the story of a little girl who grew up to discover that she was something else.
14 member(s) found this review helpful.
Fantastic book. It may take you a bit to get into the story - the author's style is unusual and the start of the book takes you into a foreign land. Beautifully crafted novel that will have you thinking about the story for days after.
A. J. C. (
13 member(s) found this review helpful.
I really liked this book. I'm a fan of long family dramas spanning multiple generations, but I've never read a book about a hermaphrodite before. There were a few parts in the story that I found a bit outlandish, the silk-worming in Detroit, for instance, with the cult-leader who ended up being none other than... (don't want to spoil it), the freak show incident in San Francisco, and the dramatic car chase at the end, just to name a few, great book regardless! I enjoyed the novel's focus on genetics. The sperm as narrator was brilliant, don't want to give too much away. I highly recommend this book, original!
13 member(s) found this review helpful.
I read this book in a book club long before Oprah found it and don't know why she hyped it up so much. I'm open to reading about pretty much anything, but just could not get into this book and was kind of irritated with it. That's just my opinion, but I thought I'd share it.
10 member(s) found this review helpful.
Bizarre but worth reading. It's like a train wreck from which you cannot look away. The whole gender identity question is souch a loaded subject and the author makes it very personal.
10 member(s) found this review helpful.
One of the best I've read this year. There's a lot of backstory and character development but that's why I love it. A really fascinating look at an original subject.
Highly recommended
Michele W. (
9 member(s) found this review helpful.
I thought this was a gripping story of the Stephanides family from Greece to Detroit. With all of the detail spent on the grandparents' and parents' stories, I wish more time had been devoted to Cal. I will recommend it to my bookclub; but many will find it too long to read.
8 member(s) found this review helpful.
I LOVED THIS BOOK!! That being said, my best friend is trodding through it begrudgingly. For me it was one of my top 10 books I have ever read, I really enjoyed it, from beginning to end, I did not want to put it down. Several of my book club members told me they did not enjoy the beginning but liked it better once it got further along.
Read All Book Reviews of "Middlesex"
Please Rate these Book Reviews
My family is from Michigan, although I was raised in the American South after my parents divorced. My dad worked for Ford for 35 years, an incredible fact in itself given the present state of the American auto industry. From this book, I learned a great deal about the Detroit that came before the riots in 1969, and was reminded of the posh suburbia I lived in as a small child. Like the narrator, I left that suburbia behind and moved far away, and I became a much different person than the person I would have become had I continued living in the 'burbs of Detroit and going to a nice private school. Moving from public school to public school once I left Michigan, I learned quickly to adapt my behavior just as the narrator learned to do the same as life went on.
Talk about family love!!! Takes a little getting used to, but still interesting.
Lissette H. (I really enjoyed this novel! One of my favorite books read in 2006.
Diane C. (Read All Book Reviews of "Middlesex"
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