Book Reviews of Middlesex

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

I was just telling my SIL that this book is amazing. It reads so much like a memoir that I had to keep checking the word "fiction" on the back cover. It is the story of a girl who finds out when she is 14 that she is really a boy. It explains the reason behind her plight and how she finally finds out why she is so different that other girls her age. I love a long book so it wasn't too long or drawn out for me at all.
Highly recommended. Oprah picked a good one this time for sure.

This book is on my top-ten-of-all-time list! The story sweeps through three generations of the Stephanides family, chasing an unseen gene mutation that was destined to land right in the lap of Calliope Stephanides, literally. The story is written around actual historical occurrences and tells of each generation living through its own oppression, from the burning of Smyrna to the Detroit race riots of l967, to Calliope's own secret. From one generation to the next forbidden love endures, but not without consequences. This is a significant and incredible novel and I hated to see the last page.

A marvelous book. At times it is a little disconcerting the way the story travels back and forth in time. This book is set in Detroit - and having grown up in the area it was extremely interesting to me to read about things that were happening that I was too small to really take notice of.

A most excellent book! It is the most recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize and very well deserved. I read all 527 pages in 3-4 days which is good for me. It is the story of Callie who was born and raised as a girl, but little did she and her family know she was actually born part male and female due a genetic disorder brought on many years of her Greek family's incest. I don't know why incest keeps coming up in books I read. I really don't intend for that to happen. Haha!

The story isn't just about Callie, but also about the history of her family in Greece. Years of them marrying cousins and eventually SIBLINGS (her grandparents were brother and sister) Calllie was the "lucky" one in the family to receive both recessive genes of the disorder. It isn't until puberty that Callie starts to realize she's not a normal girl. She had always felt something was different with her, but being so young she could never understand. When an accident happens and Callie goes to the hospital and doctors discover she's not exactly normal "down there", a doctor in genetic sexual disorders begins a study on her. When Callie sneaks and reads his report on her, she realizes she doesn't want to be a SHE anymore but a HE. Callie then decides to run away at the age of 15 or 16 and start living as a boy named Cal. Cal travels to California and ends up joining a freak show where he/she remains for a few years until Cal's brother comes and gets him to bring him back for their father's funeral.

There is sooooo much more to this book than I can even explain. The story sounds ridiculous but the writing is so good. It doesen't just say what happens, it explains why it happened and how the family go to where they are today.

My only complaint with the story is after coming to know Callie, I really don't think she would run away they way she did. She just up and left her family right then and there after reading the report from the doctor. Being an only child of a very loving, sheltering family, I don't think she would have it in her to really just say "ok I'm a boy now and I'm going to California". But....it made the ending interesting so I'll accept it I guess.

This was like 2 storied melded into one. I enjoyed the first 3/4s of the book more than the ending.

Amazon.com
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." And so begins Middlesex, the mesmerizing saga of a near-mythic Greek American family and the "roller-coaster ride of a single gene through time." The odd but utterly believable story of Cal Stephanides, and how this 41-year-old hermaphrodite was raised as Calliope, is at the tender heart of this long-awaited second novel from Jeffrey Eugenides, whose elegant and haunting 1993 debut, The Virgin Suicides, remains one of the finest first novels of recent memory.

Eugenides weaves together a kaleidoscopic narrative spanning 80 years of a stained family history, from a fateful incestuous union in a small town in early 1920s Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit; from the early days of Ford Motors to the heated 1967 race riots; from the tony suburbs of Grosse Pointe and a confusing, aching adolescent love story to modern-day Berlin. Eugenides's command of the narrative is astonishing. He balances Cal/Callie's shifting voices convincingly, spinning this strange and often unsettling story with intelligence, insight, and generous amounts of humor:

Emotions, in my experience aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness," "joy," or "regret." … I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic traincar constructions like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy." ... I'd like to have a word for "the sadness inspired by failing restaurants" as well as for "the excitement of getting a room with a minibar." I've never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I've entered my story, I need them more than ever.

When you get to the end of this splendorous book, when you suddenly realize that after hundreds of pages you have only a few more left to turn over, you'll experience a quick pang of regret knowing that your time with Cal is coming to a close, and you may even resist finishing it--putting it aside for an hour or two, or maybe overnight--just so that this wondrous, magical novel might never end. --Brad Thomas Parsons -

I enjoyed this book. It is quite dense and difficult to get through at times. But it's a very interesting and unique read.

Great book! I didn't think I would get into a story about a hermaphrodite, but, I could not put it down!

Simply one of the best novels I've ever read. Eugenides weaves a magical tale about Calliope/Cal Stephanides' life and family tree, spanning the 20th century - from Greece to Detroit. I could not tear myself away from this book - it was THAT interesting and well written. To those who say "too much backstory", I argue that the backstory was the best component of this book! Absolutely a keeper for me.

Middlesex paints wonderful word pictures; at least that is what a friend told me when she lent me the book. It's true. Jeffrey Eugenides writing style is exquisite, revealing a panorama of generations belonging to the Greek family Stephanides. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 and it's easy to see why.

The protagonist is also the narrator, Cal, a man who spent the first 14 years of his life being raised as a female. Cal, a hermaphrodite, must learn to balance his maleness and his femaleness, but explains how he ended up being the recipient of both sex organs. He begins his story by telling about his grandparents from Greece, his own parents in America, and then his own story.

I wasn't in love with this book, but it was worth buying. The concept was interesting, but as others have said, too much unecessary information. I did get tired of reading it about 3/4 of the way through, and skimmed much of the last of the book. All in all entertaining for me, glad I read it.

For the most part, the book is well written, but I felt it was full of information that was completely unnecessary. Very long winded, provides more of a history of a culture than a story about a persons personal journey.

A fabulous read and great story of three generations of a Greek-American family.

Absolutely a wonderful book! There is a lot to the story, but you won't be able to put it down. You'll want to continue reading until the last page is turned.

Read for my book club--it provoked strong reactions in everyone who read it. You may like it or hate it: You'll definitely be fascinated by it, which may be why it won the Pulitzer.

Interesting story tracing a Greek family, their intermarriages and results of those unions. Reads at times like non-fiction. A very good read.

I seldom give five stars to a book - this one deserves it. An intelligent, engaging read.

This was an absolutely fantastic book, well-deserving of its award. It involves the story of a hermaphrodite and is intertwined with his family history. I literally could not put it down.

I loved reading this book. It was a real page turner. I found the story fascinating and believable.

I loved this book! Mr Eugenides explores a topic rarely covered in fiction...and in doing so, makes it relative, honest, touching, and open. I have not yet read his other book, The Virgin Suicides, but it's now on my Wish List. I at once wanted to be part of this family; the grandparents, the mother and father, the aunt, the daughter even. Mr. Eugenides seamed together the Greek culture, family tradition, Detroit, war, and the racial conflict of the 60' and 70's, along with the sexual and emotional exploration of a young girl beautifully. In the end I wanted everything to work well for Cal...I grew to love him too. And that was magic.

This book begins as a fascinating read and slowly but surely degrades. It has too much plot, too many little sub-stories that are beside the point. The detail is revealing and fascinating at first, but becomes redundant and boring. The author veers away from the main character too much, which is too bad, because s/he is really the person the reader is interested in.

I managed to muddle my way through it, but I don't recommend it!

I couldn't get through this book, it was just too hard to get into. I put it down and came back to it thinking I could this time but I just couldn't do it.

This is a great book. It is one of those books that begins in the present and then goes way back in history to explain the situation. If you don't like that kind of thing, you may have a hard time reading it. It does skip around a little in time. The story was fascinating to me, and well written. I didn't find it to be a page-turner until I was about 3/4 of the way through. but that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it.

I'd recommend this book. It was fascinating, at times disturbing, and yet thoroughly enjoyable. While it was long, every piece of the story was connected together, with an over ridding theme of how our families can shape us in ways we may or may not perceive. I personally liked the beginning of the book best, but I also enjoy historical fiction. Being from Michigan, I really enjoyed the settings of Detroit, Grosse Pointe, and Petoskey - all very accurate. Toward the end of the book, the exploration of gender issues and how we define male/female was thought provoking.

This is the most over wrought, over reaching, self indulgent novel I have ever read. It is the type of book that fancies itself to be the next great classic when it is merely the type of novel read by pseudo-intellectuals that want every one to know how literary they fancy themselves. I thought it could have been great; the story is actual quite interesting, but the self professed Homeric tendencies were a MAJOR turn off. Next time I want to feel virtuous and literary, I will read an actual classic rather than bothering with another novel like this.

Fascinating reading that will leave you thinking...a topic you hardly ever read about in contemporary (or otherwise) literature!

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.

I was grabbed right away from the first paragraph....but then trudged through a bit. All in all I thought this was a GREAT book and often wondered how many people HAVE lives like this.

This is probably the best book that I have read this year, perhaps in several years. It chronicles the development of a family simultaneously with Cal. It pulls you along, at first, like a car wreck ahead of you on the highway might, waiting for Cal to arrive (in more ways than one). There is no disappointment with the culmination of this tightly told story and the last 100 pages pull you along effortlessly and leave you wishing there were 100 more.

SLOW in the beginning. Very detailed back story parts of which I felt were tedious and not entirely needed for the story. Once the narrative shifts to Calliope's life the story is much better and wonderfully written.

This book is wonderfully well written. It is part historical immigration love story, part coming of age story. The narrator, although fictional, easily fooled me to the point I sat down and looked several things up because it was just so convincing.

To be honest, there are a few irritating things. Some characters have no name and instead are referred to only be nicknames ("Object" and "Chapter Eleven") and then other characters just exist within the story without any explanation.

Overall I really enjoyed this novel. It was touching and poignant and can't truly be appreciated in pieces but as a whole work.

Ugh!

I tried to read this book a few times, because of all the good reviews. Never could get into or follow this one. My mind just kept drifting. Not for me.

Great book! Starts out a little slow, but ends up being very engaging.

I wasn't at all sure I'd like this book, but I loved it. It fascinates on several levels: as a multi-generational family history, as a psychological study, a coming-of-age tale, and as a first-person narrative from someone given a cruel genetic burden. Well-written and utterly captivating; I recommend it highly.

I was so sad at the end of the book. I didn't want it to end and I felt I was losing a friend when I finally put it down.

Our book club just finished Middlesex, and it generated a colorful, lively conversation. The story, itself, go mixed reviews--some loved it; some couldn't get through it. The biggest complaint seemed to be the length and intricate detail.

Personally, I never would have picked this one up in a bookstore based on the description. However, I couldn't put it down once I started reading it.

You'll build your biceps carrying this one around, but the story is engaging from start to finish. An in-depth look at a family over 3 decades and 2 continents. Nearly our whole book club finished it -- and that's saying something!

What a fascinating story. Amazingly simple to follow despite complex structure and timelines. A good read for a Detroiter especially. Eugenides detail and descptions are unparalleled. I am ready to read everything he has written.

LOVED this book - loved it. Even if this doesn't really sound like your cup of tea at first, give it a chance . . .

A friend highly recommended this book. I found it full of detail I really didn't care about and was happy to finish it. I never read another book this friend recommended.

I have to say this is different from anything I've ever read. This book is about an hemaphrodite and about his/her ancestors. It was good and I was able to finish it but I can't say that it is one of my favorites.

I went into this thinking I ought to read it because it had won the Pulitzer Prize, even though the idea of reading the life story of a hermaphrodite didn't appeal to me. I was pleasantly surprised! I will be lending this around to friends for sure! What I got and didn't expect was a sweeping family history, set in Greece and Detroit from WW2 to the present. It was reminiscent of Herman Wouk's fantastic family saga "Inside Outside." Yes, the lead character is a hermaphrodite, but you find yourself sucked into the back story and enjoying the characters of her family also. Terrifically well-written, funny, fascinating, and heartbreaking at once. They say that there is a huge difference between liking a novel and enjoying it. I expected to like this novel because of the tremendous writing but not particularly enjoy the story. To my surprise and delight, it delivered both.

I have to be honest, after reading The Virgin Suicides, I was very excited to read Middlesex. And then I started reading it. The book was bland, so bland I had trouble finishing it. This to date is the only book that has taken me over a year to read. I was so disappointed in this book and think that Jeffrey Eugenides has more talent than this.

This is a different kind of book but def a good read. I enjoyed it.

This book is difficult to get into and I wish that there would have been more time spent on his life as an adult instead of the history of his family. I understand the importance of explaining how he came about, I just felt the book ended too quickly once we got into real time.

This book kept me captivated all the way thru. The characters are eccentric and very thoroughly described. The story flows smoothly and is and easy read. I higly recommend it!

Maybe I am not sofisticated enough to truly appreciate a Pulitzer Prize winner, but the story felt a little too long without having much of a point to me. But I did enjoy how the author weaves pieces of American history through the Stephanides' family history. It was a pleasurable read, but not the kind of book that I had a hard time putting down.

A Pulitzer-prize winning novel - really good.
It's an extremely realistic, insightful novel about a hermaphrodite. It starts out with the narrator's grandparents emigrating to the US from Greece after the Turkish invasion, and has a lot to do with The Immigrant Experience (reminding me at times of 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Klay'), and continues on through the narrators birth, being raised as a normal girl, falling in love with 'her' best friend, realizing at puberty that something was not right - being taken to an expert, threatened with a mutilating operation, running away, working in a freak show in San Francisco, and eventually finding a successful life and hope for a real relationship in Berlin...
Those details don't really give anything away, because the book is all about the experience and the emotions, about family, tragedy, relationships, revelations and hope. Highly recommended.

good book, but long read. Well worth it. 5 stars. The story of a hermaphrodite who was born with both genatalia. Raised as a girl , as the male genatalia went unnoticed at birth. She was in a bad car wreck as a teen , when they discovered the male genatalia. She made a very tough decision to relive her life as a man. She had never menstruated or had female breasts. And these facts contributed to her decision to become a male. Very good.

I thought this would potentially be a sordid, unpleasant read. But it was really interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed the family history in the story that brings us up to the present day narrator. It covered a lot of ground, but smoothly. Also, he uses a lot of color and metaphor, but it's engaging as opposed to burdensome.

This is a very odd book, but worth reading. It is described by the New York Times Book Review as "a colossal act of curiosity, of imagination and of love." It is touching, sometimes funny, very involving, and just a tad bizarre. It received terrific reviews and was deemed the Amazon.com "Best Book of 2002."

This beautifully written book is more than a story of a hermaphrodite. It is a rich family history interwoven with the history of Greek immigrants, as well as a history of life in the Detroit area from the early auto industry through the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. I liked all the characters from the grandparents Desdemona and Lefty through the narrator, Cal/Callie, though I still wish Cal had explained where the older brother Chapter 11 got his name!

Very much enjoyed this book. Interesting topic, well developed.

What a great read! A fascinating look at one family and their long held secret.

Middlesex is one of those must read books, but you may not enjoy it while you are doing it. It is a strange story with an even stranger topic, but it so well-written and so challenging that you must finish it.

What an excellent book and story. So weird and original, yet heartwarming too. I enjoyed it very much!

EXCELLENT book. Based in Detroit, which is my home town. In addition, it is just a wonderful and compelling story about a genetic condition most of us don't know anything about.

I really wanted to like this book, but honestly, now that I've finally finished it, I feel somewhat cheated. This book is really tough to get through - so much Greek history and history of Detroit. I kept waiting for something to happen, knowing that so many loved this book, but nothing ever happened until the final quarter of the book, and even then, I wasn't thrilled.

Way too long, way to heavy. Why did this win a Pulitzer?

This book is a great read!- Understanding the culture wasnt easy but really worth it. By understanding where the character came from and how some traditions are set was worth reading.

This book was really hard to get into and the end just kind of seemed to leave you wondering what happens next. Cal finally learns the truth about why he is the way he is but that's where it ends. It was a looong read for me because it was hard to get into.

I love books that span generations. Bittersweet.

Boy, this was not the easiest book to read. No problem with the subject matter, but sometimes it just seemed to drag along. I found Cal's family's stories more intriguing than her own. Luckily, there were a lot of family stories.

Although it took me a while to read this book, I enjoyed the story from both a literary and scientific perspective. I have heard complaints about the backstory elements, the character development of Cal's grandparents and parents, but I found it fascinating. I particularly enjoyed the section of the book about Cal's life, though, and his coming of age and transformation, and the blurred lines between female and male. I do wish there was more of that part of the story - I understand that the book was structured around the development and occurence of Cal's two births, but I wanted to know more about how his life unfolded after his second. All in all, a really good read.

Extremely well written book about several generations of one family. I wish there was more written about the main character...this book could easily have a sequel.

I encourage you to persist through the slower parts of this book. The author gets a little wordy in many parts of the book, but the story comes through. It's worth reading, even if it is not my favorite book ever.

starts out slow then gets very wierd and more interesting....

I absolutely love this book. A very interesting read with an enjoyable plot and heartwarming characters.

Very strange book - interesting but also length at times. Tended to be very descriptive in places that did not really add to story.

I thought this was a very strange book. I just couldn't get into it. Kind of depressing.

I thought this book was just OK. It took me a while to get through it because I kept losing interest.

Absolutely fabulous book. He definitely deserved the Pulitzer for this one!

I got stuck in the middle and was a slow read.

A great read--very original conflict.

A great story about, well, a transgender who's family came from Greece

This book is about a girl who "turns" into a boy. The author describes 3 generations of a Greek-American family and their history inpacts on this child's life. A very interesting read.

This book is suprisingly good.

Pulitzer prize winner about a Greek-American girl in Detroit who has a sex change operation as a young adult

A coming of age novel with a real twist. The cover quote from the New York Times sums it up well: "Part Tristram Shandy, part Ishmael, part Holden Caulfield, Cal is a wonderfully engaging narrator...A deeply affecting portrait of one family's tumultuous engagement with the American twentieth century." The novel won the Pulitzer Prize.

This book gives the reader a poignant look at the differences among all of us. I liked the sympathetic treatment of the main character's uniqueness.

This is a fantastic book. So deep, complex, and enthralling.

I LOVED this book - it was creative and kept me turning the pages!

Back cover: Middlesex tells 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 1967, 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.

This is a true page turner. 529 pages and I would have loved another 529. The characters are fleshed out and you grow to truly care about them all. Finding one's identity is hard enough for the average person, Calliope is far from average.

Wow, excellent book. Very real character describing something very foreign to most of us.

Very well written and interesting book. Great book for book clubs because there is definitely a lot to discuss about it!

A bit slow to start, this Pullitzer Prize-winning novel really grabbed me as the narrator's story got underway. A compelling tale of the American 20th century, the immigrant experience, and the meaning of gender. Well-worth reading.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Middlesex is a well written epic following the life of a remakably honest and real character, especially considering how surreal her condition. Eugenides does an excellent job of setting the story through time and major historical events.

Fascinating depiction of an hermaphrodite born into a Greek-American family.

My absolute favorite book. I read this one over months in small installments because I never wanted it to end. The romance between Lefty and Desdemona, the Stephanides family matriarch and patriarch was especially gripping--even though you know ahead of time that the choice they're making will hurt the family, you can't help but be sympathetic. Recommended to anyone who loves a juicy but well-written family saga. I can't wait for Eugenides' next book.

This was a very good, thought provoking book! I would definitely recommend it.

Beautifully written and surprising. Loved it so much that I purposely read more slowly so it would last longer.

While not as engaging as "The Virgin Suicides," this book is nonetheless a good read (and a Pulitzer winner). Jeffrey Eugenides has a flair for language and characters.

This book is a fast read but each character has incredible depth. The author beautifully illustrates each character's strength and weaknesses. I could not put this one down!

An overall thrilling book which is so rich and descriptive and really involves the reader

Family secrets explained in a touching story.

I was SO engrossed by this book! The narrative was very easy to read even as he jumped between generations. Although it is a long book I hated reaching the end. I sure hope "they" don't ruin the story by making a movie of it...

I enjoyed Middlesex very much. The Stephanides family, and all of its "quirks" is immediately captivating, and it is an interesting look at the nature of sexuality in the "nature vs. nurture" debate.

Great epic story that spans three generations.

Long winded and somewhat difficult to understand at times.

Very interesting read. I wouldn't have thought this topic would have interested me, but the writing was very good and it was an engrossing story.

This is powerful reading about immigrants from Greece and Americanization and an hermpahrodite ... hard to describe, harder to put down.

An absolutely wonderful read. Compelling narrative, well developed characters, I hated for it to end.

A very good novel, capturing the life of a Greek transvestite. The main character unravels a family history more dysfunctional than she could have realized, as she tries to cope with her body's constant changes.

Skilled writing, but the story really just dragged on. I never really got drawn in enough to care about the characters. Definitely not as good as The Virgin Suicides.

This book was chosen by my bookclub and while I did finish it, I did not enjoy it. The author missed the mark on this book by spending too much time jumping between generations and not enough time making me actually care about the main character (which is also the narrator). I had heard so much about this book and was very disappointed with the book on so many levels.

Middlesex is one of the best (not to mention longest) books i have ever read. I was sad to leave the world of the characters when the book finally came to an end.

This book was good, but it didn't hold my interest nearly as much as Eugenides's first novel, "The Virgin Suicides".

Middlesex is an engaging story told by Calliope Stephanides, a third generation Greek-American. Calliope's story begins long before her birth, in a small town in Turkey. Our omniscient narrator tells her story and that of her family in such an engaging way, I found it incredibly difficult to stay away from Middlesex for long. It was a truly enjoyable read, filled with excellent narration and memorable characters.

An excellent literary story. Kind of a modern greek tragedy, actually.

Very interesting and unusual story line.

Many times while I was reading "Middlesex" I was reminded of the movie "Forrest Gump", I think because "Middlesex" is as much a history of America (and Detroit in particular) as it is about the characters who inhabit its pages. Much attention is given to the experience of being an immigrant in America as well.

I feel the same way about "Middlesex" as I feel about "Forrest Gump". I respect the story, and I found it to be interesting, engaging and entertaining enough while I was reading it. But something about the story, and the characters in particular, failed to find a permanent place in my heart. I can't ever picture myself rereading "Middlesex", nor was I dying to stay up all night reading it. The book's narrator, Callie/Cal, is very close to my age. I was amused when Callie mentions her Dr. Pepper-flavored Lip Smackers and her Love's Baby Soft powder. (That sure brings back memories!) And yet...I could never really picture Callie using these things. Something about her was not fully-fleshed and she never seemed like a real person to me. In fact, none of the characters did. Much of the time, they seemed more like archetypes than real people, and while that wouldn't bother me in some settings, it just didn't work for me here.

I didn't find this book very interesting. I took me months to finish it (not like my usual 2 days for a good book).

I really loved this book. It was in the time my parents and grandparents were living and it was great to relate to that part of it. Just a very good book if you like to ponder life's mysteries.

A family saga, of love, hurt, laughter and lies. The story of a bit of altered DNA that travels through a Greek family from the old country to Detroit and forces choices a 15 year old shouldn't have to make. Great read by the author of "Virgin Suicides" another great read.

this book is a must read. it takes you from old world greece to mid century chicago to current day in a greek-american family. you know from the first few pages that the lead charachter is different from others but alas she does not find that out till later in the book
it is a good read but the end seemed to come fast and was not satisfying,he really should have thought more about it...or did he leave it so open for a sequel???

The author handles a very touchy subject in a well thought out way. At times the book went into the head of the lead character a little to much.

Fascinating, beautifully written, engaging novel!

loved this book!

Talk about family love!!! Takes a little getting used to, but still interesting.

I really enjoyed this novel! One of my favorite books read in 2006.

a very twisted tail of a boy/girl... very good read

good

Good story line. Well written. I enjoyed this book

Very Interesting.

Very well written, very absorbing.

Great story... both my book clubs loved it.

Amazing book. Worth the pulitzer it won.

Best Book 2002--Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

One of the three or four best books that I've ever read. Deserved the Pulitzer prize!

Great book!

Great book! Very engaging.

my favorite book of 2004.

This book was assign in my book club people like it, however I didn't read the book.

I haven't read it! For some reason, can't get into it...so many people love it, though.

pulitzer prize winner, haven't read yet.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

One of my favorite reads this year.

Excellent book! A different kind of story and totally enjoyable!

Very interesting read, darn hard to put down....

This was a really good book.

wonderful epic!

didn't read it, was given to me, and i never could get into it.

This was wonderful. Couldn't put it down.

What an interesting, great read!

Wow! One of the best books I've ever read.

Best book I've read this year!

Intriguing, kept me up all hours of the night, must have!

Odd reading, but I did have to finish it to see what happened.

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