Middlesex
4/5
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About this ebook
But there’s a provocative twist. Cal, the narrator -- also Callie -- is a hermaphrodite. And the explanation for this takes us spooling back in time, through a breathtaking review of the twentieth century, to 1922, when the Turks sacked Smyrna and Callie’s grandparents fled for their lives. Back to a tiny village in Asia Minor where two lovers, and one rare genetic mutation, set our narrator’s life in motion.
Middlesex is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire. It’s a brilliant exploration of divided people, divided families, divided cities and nations -- the connected halves that make up ourselves and our world.
Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Eugenides (Detroit, 1960) estudió en las universidades de Brown y Stanford. Es autor de tres aclamadas novelas, todas ellas publicadas por Anagrama: Las vírgenes suicidas, llevada al cine por Sofia Coppola: «Extraordinaria novela, las hermanas Lisbon son a la literatura de los noventa lo que el Holden Caulfield de El guardián entre el centeno fue a la de los cincuenta» (Sergi Sánchez, El Mundo); Middlesex, que obtuvo el Pulitzer 2003 y fue considerada una de las mejores novelas de las últimas décadas: «Sobresaliente, poderosísima» (Antonio Fontana, ABC); «Magnífica saga familiar, una novela deslumbrante» (Ignacio Martínez de Pisón); «Colosal» (David Guzmán, La Razón); y La trama nupcial: «Fino y empático... Eugenides vuelve para reclamar su lugar entre los maestros artesanos de la (gran) novela (americana)» (Rubén Pujol, Rockdelux); «Una luminosa meditación acerca de la distancia que media entre la literatura y la vida» (Eduardo Lago, El País).
Read more from Jeffrey Eugenides
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Reviews for Middlesex
8,306 ratings373 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I remember loving this, but I read it 5 years ago so I don't remember it all. The backstory with the grandparents was fascinating to read. I also like that it told Cal's whole story.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A story of immigration; of Detroit; of the black ghettos, the Nation of Islam, and the civil rights movment from the immigrant edge of life; a story of intersexuality which can be read as a story about adrogony and the porous gender definitions of the last decades.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loved listening to the audio version. Marvelous ride!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing book. Keeps you entertained along the entire breadth of it. This is modern fiction that one can enjoy. Recommended!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A story of 3 generations and the consequences of life in a small town, then moving to Detroit. A story of refugees making it the US. Cal is an interesting and complex character who tells his families story with grace.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I enjoyed the story except for the theatricality of the last 70 pages. Why would Father Mike try to blackmail his brother-in-law the way he did? This did not ring true at all. The section on the history of the eviction of Greeks from Asia Minor was tragic and informative. Pity that the silkworm box which had survived all the vicissitudes of life of an immigrant family in the US, wasn't worked into the end of the story - apart of course from saying that it still existed.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Well written. Engaging. Maybe a bit subjective.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Forrest Gump style family saga taking in much of 20c American history: immigration, Prohibition, speakeasys, Detroit car factories, industrial slump, race riots, hippies... I was actually drawn by the title, but felt the interesting part - Cal coming to terms with his gender, moving on from the freak show to holding down an interesting job in Germany was not not shown at all.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Simply one of the greatest books I have ever read, and a deserving winner of the Pullitzer. Stunning.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I stopped twice while reading this to read other books, which often is a sign that I'm not going to finish a book. I'm glad I did finish it though. I enjoyed it.
I found some of the historical passages hard to push through, but the parts of the book about the Stephanides family were quirky and I liked them.
I give Middlesex 3.5 stars, just because there were dull bits. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A how-to on weaving research, time. history, and family into a novel. With surprises, feints, and jabs to the nose, like a Doctorow novel but more fun (I still have not learned to use fun as a verb as my 20something friends do).
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A perfect book
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Possibly the best American novel since Grapes of Wrath.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5First book I have read about a hermaphrodite. Good writing
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An excellent novel that makes one question love and sexuality. A little slow in parts.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I *loved* this book. Really, really loved. This was the first contemporary fiction I'd read in quite some time (I'm normally a Classics girl), and it was well worth going outside of my usual concentration. I felt fully immersed in the world of the book and as if I knew the characters and world personally, even though it was a time, place, and set of characters very different from my own life. There were some parts of it that required some suspension of disbelief though. My man John Linnell says this is his favourite book.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5i thought this book was a little over-rated
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fascinating novel that blends the genres of picaresque adventure and biological casebook. Eugenides's construction of the story is flawless and the result is an absorbing meditation on gender, desire, identity and the fundamental human urge to fashion our own destiny.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I was heavily leaning towards giving this book 3 stars but went with four instead. I am not sure if that was the correct choice. With over 21 hours of listening time, being able to hold my attention is surely deserving of 4 stars.
More often than not this novel felt like it was two separate books. I get the connection and why the author felt all the backstory was needed but frankly I felt it had disjointed feel about it. It was highly entertaining! I enjoyed the back story far more than I enjoyed the parts specifically about Callie/Cal. I feel this book would have been better as a trilogy. Callie's struggles were real but I am not sure enough time was spent on her to really make me feel I knew the character. Perhaps that is the point as the character was questioning her own identity. At the end of the novel I found myself wondering what happening to Cal as he adjusted to living as a man. Not the boy Cal we were introduced to but the man.
If I had chosen to read the print edition I am not sure I would have stuck with it. The audio edition was the right choice for me. It was very well done. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not what I expected - a cross-generational story of Greek immigrants undergoing the American experiment, punctuated just slightly with gender identity issues. A very fun read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's the story of Calliope Stephanides and the two generations that brought her into this world. It's Greece and Germany and Grosse Point. It's the science of genetics meeting the mother of all family secrets. Calliope is also Cal, one and the same. Girl meets Boy. Girl is Boy. Boy is Girl. Sound confusing? It isn't. It's poetic and sad, funny and smart. Something you just have to read for yourself. Cal will tell you the story. His story. Her story.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! It's a sprawling family saga that chronicles, incest, hermaphrodites, love, confusion, immigration, identity, and the human condition. I was hooked from the beginning. The audiobook also does an amazing job bringing the Greek-American accents to life and is wildly entertaining. The story follows Calliope Stephanides and the three generations leading up to her. From a small village on Mount Olympus to industrial Detroit, this family saga is a masterpiece. Every character is wildly unique, wonderfully developed, and worth cheering for. All the stories weave together to help explain the curious case of Calliope's hermaphroditic existence. Engrossing, wonderful and all around amazing. Definitely worthy of the Pulitzer Prize it was awarded!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A great read!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cal tells his story of growing up a girl, not realizing that he had a gene that made him intersex. His story goes back as a family saga of immigrants from Greece in the 1900s and how the family deals with questions of identity and race.There were moments the story dragged for me and I wasn't immediately blown away by it, but after reflection I have to say it's really well put together and has a lot of meat to it. I've been recommending it highly to friends who enjoy a literary, thought-provoking tale.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Surprise delight. Transexual theme not really my cup of tea, but here it is tr eated in such a way as to intrigue and draw the reader in. Besides a good story it's full of information, myth, humour, atmosphere, surprise. Can't say I learned anything about the Trans issue, but just enjoyed the story, and in particular the Greek immigrant background presented with great warmth.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Really loved this one. Very readable coming of age story of a young intersex culturally Greek character, Cal/liope. Highly recommend.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Too self-consciously "comic."
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5excellent!
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Strange, strange, strange.