Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
This week on my commute to work, I have been wrapping up the Audible version of Middlsex, written by Jeffrey Eugenides, and narrated by Kristoffer Tabori. The narrator's voice is going to be hit or miss with some listeners; Imagine if Harvey Fierstein, the actor who plays Robin Williams brother in Mrs. Doubtfire, was reading to you. If it doesn't sound like your cup of tea, just pick up a hard copy of the book.
The narrator of the actual story is Cal Stephanides. The twist to Cal's identity (revealed roughly three pages if that into the book so not actually a spoiler) is that Cal, born Calliope, is an inter-sex man born with 5-alpha reductase deficiency, a recessive condition, that caused Cal to be born with female characteristics. Throughout the narrative, Cal recounts the histories of himself, his parents and his grandparents, mixing in true events from history such as the Balkan Wars and the Detroit race-riots.
Middlesex is a contemporary family saga that spans three generations of the Stephanides family, beginning with Desdemona and Lefty Stephanides, a brother and sister living on a village set somewhere on Mount Olympos. Orphaned and isolated, the siblings grow close, and after fleeing the Turkish assault on Smyrna in 1922 and boarding a ship to begin anew in American, the siblings create new identities for themselves on the deck of that ship, and get married.
Yes, I know....I know...but as the narrative pushes further and further from Greece you can almost forget this fact. Almost. Desdemona surely does not, and spends the remainder of the book (and her life) worrying over the condition of her children's genetic makeup, and the condition of her own soul.
As for the rest of Desdemona and Lefty's bulk of the narrative, the plot focusing on the tale-as-old-as-time theme of the young immigrant fleeing to pursue the American Dream, finding it almost impossible to grasp at times. But the Stephanides do well enough; during prohibition Lefty makes a steady income running a speak-easy out of his basement. Our narrator's father, named Milton, shares the same opportunistic spirit and makes his own living throughout the novel running a successful chain of restaurants and hot dog stands.
The last third of the novel focuses mainly on Cal's childhood, when he was then known as his female identity Calliope. Knowing what we know about Cal right from the get-go, it's heartbreaking to witness the struggles adolescent Calliope endures while struggling with her identity.
This book is an enjoyable, quick read because you don't want to ever put it down. Listening to the Audible version was a great way to spend the morning and afternoon drive to work. I give this book a 4/5 stars and would definitely recommend it. I'll also include a link to the Audible sample as well: https://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/middlesex-a-novel/191336
-Meg
The narrator of the actual story is Cal Stephanides. The twist to Cal's identity (revealed roughly three pages if that into the book so not actually a spoiler) is that Cal, born Calliope, is an inter-sex man born with 5-alpha reductase deficiency, a recessive condition, that caused Cal to be born with female characteristics. Throughout the narrative, Cal recounts the histories of himself, his parents and his grandparents, mixing in true events from history such as the Balkan Wars and the Detroit race-riots. Middlesex is a contemporary family saga that spans three generations of the Stephanides family, beginning with Desdemona and Lefty Stephanides, a brother and sister living on a village set somewhere on Mount Olympos. Orphaned and isolated, the siblings grow close, and after fleeing the Turkish assault on Smyrna in 1922 and boarding a ship to begin anew in American, the siblings create new identities for themselves on the deck of that ship, and get married.
Yes, I know....I know...but as the narrative pushes further and further from Greece you can almost forget this fact. Almost. Desdemona surely does not, and spends the remainder of the book (and her life) worrying over the condition of her children's genetic makeup, and the condition of her own soul.
As for the rest of Desdemona and Lefty's bulk of the narrative, the plot focusing on the tale-as-old-as-time theme of the young immigrant fleeing to pursue the American Dream, finding it almost impossible to grasp at times. But the Stephanides do well enough; during prohibition Lefty makes a steady income running a speak-easy out of his basement. Our narrator's father, named Milton, shares the same opportunistic spirit and makes his own living throughout the novel running a successful chain of restaurants and hot dog stands.
The last third of the novel focuses mainly on Cal's childhood, when he was then known as his female identity Calliope. Knowing what we know about Cal right from the get-go, it's heartbreaking to witness the struggles adolescent Calliope endures while struggling with her identity.
This book is an enjoyable, quick read because you don't want to ever put it down. Listening to the Audible version was a great way to spend the morning and afternoon drive to work. I give this book a 4/5 stars and would definitely recommend it. I'll also include a link to the Audible sample as well: https://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/middlesex-a-novel/191336
-Meg
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