Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides review

 

I read this book almost twenty years ago and remembered liking it but wanted  to read it again.  Eugenides also wrote The Virgin Suicides, which I read after this and after watching the movie. It's a story that you can really sink your teeth into - 500 pages of loveliness and wonder and so different from The Virgin Suicides that you'd never think that they were written by the same author. It tells the story of Calliope - who was born intersex and raised as a girl but who becomes a boy during adolescence. 

The story begins in the 1920's in war torn Turkey and Greece, where the Stephanides family has to flee across the Atlantic to America, where they end up in Detroit, through World War II and, eventually, to Grosse Pointe. We come across at least three distinct family generations and, through their story, Eugenides handles many diverse themes including incest, immigration, adolescence, gender and family secrets. I loved how Eugenides dealt with these complicated themes - he could have easily been heavy handed but he was not.  ANd his writing style was purely divinity, with a narrator (Ca/l/Calliope) who was absolutely engaging and memorable.  While I certainly don't mind books that are 500 pages long, I know that some people do - this book flew by. You would never believe that you were done reading it in as quickly a time as you finished.  

It is an endearing and smart story with unforgettable characters.  Loved it.