Middlesex: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club) by Jeffrey Eugenides
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.74 You Save: $9.26 (62%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Middlesex: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)
Book Review: Detailed and Interesting Novel
Summary: 5 Stars
Middlesex is about a young hermaphrodite and his change from one sexuality, to another. This book jumps around telling stories from three generations of this Greek-American family. Because Jeffrey Eugenides writes about a rarely talked about subject, the reader receives some shocking details and interesting facts that the reader would have never thought of before. Throughout the entire book there are three main ideas being discussed, genetics, relationships, and sexual identity.
This book was really enjoyable. I had a lot of trouble taking breaks from reading this book. I always wanted to know what happened next. Hearing from other people about the book, as well as reading the back of this book, I figured it would be about Calliope and her transformation. Although for more than the first half of the book I found myself reading the history of this Greek-American family, their travel from Europe to America, their ideas of the great American dream and their struggles to live it. Although, throughout the first half of the novel, I always found myself yearning to know how Calliope felt and to hear about her full story. The reason I liked this book so much is because of the way the author pulls the reader into the book and really puts the reader into the lives of the characters. I liked being able to feel as though I was in the room with these people. Jeffrey Eugenides writes in so much detail I can just see myself being in the characters' shoes.
Jeffrey Eugenides builds up the story before he even tells it. Such as towards the beginning of the book Jeffrey writes "When this story goes out into the world, I may become the most famous hermaphrodite in history." This way of writing makes you feel confident in finishing the book as well as convinces you to keep reading because there always seems to be something better ahead you don't know about yet. Another thing Jeffrey Eugenides does is, write from the perspective of a Naïve Narrator and therefore when reading this book you are ignorant of what is going on. Then something comes as a big surprise and it pulls you in and makes you want to read more.
I would definitely recommend this book to others. Not only because it is such a page turner, but because it is such a beautifully written book, full of exciting details and insightful metaphors. This book I believe can be really enjoyable to many and educational as well. This book is a perfect example of unique writing and it really gives you a different perspective on other authors' writing styles.
Book Review: Jeffrey Eugenides proves that he is no fluke
Summary: 5 Stars
When Jeffrey Eugenides dazzled us with his first novel `The Virgin Suicides' in 1993, we didn't know what expect next. Would he be able to produce another novel as lyrical and dreamy as his debut? Or was he another fluke, a one-book wirter?
It took almost ten years, but it was worth waiting. His follow up is as good as `Virgins', if not even better. `Middlesex' is many things but an ordinary story. At first level it is the story of a hermaphrodite discovering his/her body and trying to cope with it. The novel is also a vast panorama of the story of the XX Century, showing events such as the genocide in Greece, the first days of Ford Motors, the Prohibition era and the 1967 race riots --not forgetting to mention life in the pos-wall Berlin.
History epic aside, `Middlesex' is also a personal journey of a human being trying to figure out what he is doing in the world, what life means, where we are being led to. Callie --and Cal later on-- has many questions, and no answers, and she is not even aware where to find them. She knows she is different, but she doesn't know that extension of that.
The first person narrative brings power to the novel. Callie's voice is beautiful and said at the same time. Her family --with no surprise-- is what brings her together. Even when she is not with them. At a certain point, one must run away from his/her family in order to understand his/her origins. And this is exactly what happens to Callie/Cal. In a level this book is a coming-of-age tale --a very very different one, but still a novel about becoming an adult, and leaving behind all you used to believe as a child.
Somehow, this is an extension to what he worked with in `Virgin'. We will never forget that dialogue between a shrink and one of the girls, when he asks why she tried to kill herself, she didn't even know how hard life can be. And her smart answer is that he had never been a 13 year-old girl.
Eugenides make no concessions. The novel has a sad tone --despite some funny parts. The lesson we learn is `life is no easy'. And we have to struggle to survive. Not many writers have the courage to write like that. With `Middlesex' he proves he is not a fluke, that `The Virgin Suicides' is indeed a work of genius and that his Pulitzer is more than deserved.
Book Review: accomplishes the near-impossible- turning hermaphroditism into a bestselling topic
Summary: 5 Stars
I wouldn't give this book five stars based on my personal preference- the author's style and sense of humor relies too much on a somewhat irritating "cuteness" for my taste. But there's no way I could deny that this is a five star work by virtue of accomplishing something I would have thought impossible- turning a story about a hermaphrodite into an international bestseller.
To be sure, Eugenides' acute attention to detail is remarkable, and there's a fair bit of cleverness in the story of the Eugenides family over three generations. For example, the protagonist describes thinking about his parents: "Is there anything as incredible as the love story of your own parents? Anything as hard to grasp as the fact that those two over-the-hill players, permanently on the disabled list, were once in the starting lineup? It's impossible to imagine my father, who in my experience was aroused mainly by the lowering of interest rates, suffering the acute, adolescent passions of the flesh."
Eugenides' take on Detroit, the setting for much of the story, is responsible, if far too tame to counteract the mainstream media's fallacies that somewhat unfairly cripple the city's image today. He properly pins the blame for the city's destruction democratically on not just one race but "all these people coming from everywhere to cash in on Henry Ford's five-dollar-a-day promise," while acknowledging racist systemic factors holding down the black population ("Desdemona realized now why there was so much trash in the streets: the city didn't pick it up. White landlords let their apartment buildings fall into disrepair while they continued to raise the rents.").
Still, this felt like a timid work, entertaining but not enlightening or moving, until about page 400 when the protagonist finally visits a sexologist to clear up the mystery of his/her gender. At this point the book delves into a heavy handed background of the biological and cultural aspects of hermaphroditism, astutely concluding that "Sex is biological. Gender is cultural. The Navajo understand this." Much like the protagonist doesn't tell dates upfront that he/she is a hermaphrodite, the author patiently waits 400 pages to properly delve into the subject when the time is right.
Book Review: Meet Cal/Calliope: The Best Narrator Since Garp
Summary: 5 Stars
The best book I read in June 2007 (and probably for awhile before that), which is saying something as I started the month with Khaled Hosseini's brilliant "A Thousand Splendid Suns", is "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides. Eugenides gets as close to the spirit and creativity of John Irving's classic The World According to Garp, one of my favorite novels of all time, as I've read in the intervening 30 years.
The narrator and central character, Calliope Stephanides (or "Cal" as we first meet him), is a hermaphrodite, raised as a girl, but living and writing as a 41-year old man as the book starts. Cal proceeds to tell his current story, but mostly his backstory, including the ancestry whose genes mixed to create his condition. Out of this we get European history (ethnic Greeks being purged from Turkey in the 1920's (which is also covered very well in Louis deBerniere's Birds Without Wings); the Europe to U.S. immigration experience; Detroit cultural history, both inner city and suburban, from the rise of the auto industry to the riots of 1967 (with a surprising guest appearance by the Nation of Islam); a detailed scientific exploration--physiological, psychological and cultural--of hermaphroditism, and a whizbang finish that comes at you from at least two directions.
Some books I read slowly because they are boring or difficult. I read "Middlesex" slowly to savor every chapter: to enjoy Eugenides's deft handling of both the voice of a male narrator telling a story through the eyes of the female he once was; and as the living embodiment of his/her family history, knowing things (or making them up, as he admits) about his family that he couldn't learn directly or even indirectly. His colorful language and phrasing made reading an engaging and delightful experience. It's clear that he loves to write and to entertain, inform and enlighten his reader. Somehow it all works, in a literary tour-de-force that makes me wish that its author doesn't wait nine years to publish his next book. Highly recommended to all lovers of literary fiction.
Book Review: Fabulous Work of Entertaining Literature
Summary: 5 Stars
I must preface my remarks by admitting that I am, apparently, a literary phillistine. Most works of acclaimed literature fail to interest me and prove to be a slog to get through. I am left wondering whether I am somehow unequipped to appreciate fine literature, or whether, in fact, the Emperor is wearing no clothes. Suffice it to say, when reading for pleasure, I rarely gravitate to the classics or Pulitzer prize winners.
That said, it is a real pleasure when I can find myself truly enjoying what is considered a great work of literature. At such times, I begin to believe there may be hope for me after all. Such was the case with Cold Mountain, Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns and most recently, Middlesex.
This novel weaves a fascinating tale, in three distinct threads, through the eyes and emotions of a hermaphrodite. The story begins through the narration of a now middle aged foreign service bureaucrat, Cal Stephanides. Cal was born a "female", but upon reaching puberty, began demonstrating the secondary sexual characteristics of a male. The story then reverts to Cal's grandparents as they immigrate from a war torn Asia Minor. From that point, the story flows smoothly back and forth from the ancestors, to Cal's (Calliope's) childhood and to the present day in a surprisingly seemless fashion.
The story is gripping, both for the history imparted (most particularly Turko-Greek relations in Asia Minor in the post WWI years and the growth and decay of Detroit) as well as for the lives of the primary characters. A minor thread touching upon the foundation of the Nation of Islam in Detroit is particularly entertaining. And throughout, the writing is extraordinary without being oppressively dense.
When reading a book of this quality, I'm constantly reminded that, at least in my opinion, the underlying essence of a good book lies in the artistic telling of a captivating story. The finest writing on the planet cannot cover for a story that either goes nowhere or is simply boring (Suite Francaise comes immediately to mind). This fine novel has both, outstanding writing and a fascinating story with which to demonstrate it. Highly recommended.