Middlesex

Jeffrey Eugenides

Cal Stephanides narrates the Stephanides family's story from the Mediterranean in the 1920's up through Cal's teen years in the mid 1970's. Lefty and Desdemona Stephanides immigrated to the United States from Greece when their area of land was returned to Turkey in the revival of the war between the two countries. They had lived in a small village that had intermarried for generations. They they escaped burning Smyrna and eventually went to Detroit. They started a new life with their own set of secrets.

Their son, Milton, marries his second cousin, Tessie at the end of World War II. They had courted, then Tessie started dating the man Milton's grandmother feels would be best for her. They become engaged, but Milton is able to reclaim the woman he loves.

Milton and Tessie have two children. The oldest is their son Chapter Eleven and their younger is their daughter, Calliope. But Callie isn't what everyone everyone, including herself, thinks she is. She's a hermaphrodite.

Jeffrey Eugenides tells the story of the Stephanides family from Cal's perspective. It opens with Cal stating he was born a girl in 1960 and then reborn as a boy in Detroit as a teenager. The reader knows his genetic makeup from the beginning. The narration is partially first person in Cal's voice and partially the third person overview.

Lefty and Desdemona have a deep secret. Middlesex follows them from just before they leave their village until Lefty's death and Desdemona's self banishment to bed to await her own death. It tells how they snuck out of Smyrna and were able to go through France to take a ship to America. They married while on the ship. In the United States they first live with their cousin and her husband. Eventually Lefty starts a speak-easy that turns into a legitimate bar after Prohibition is repealed.

Milton and Tessie's story takes first generation children and how they make the United States (specifically Detroit) their home and culture despite their Orthodox Greek parents. Milton, especially, was raised immersed in his parents' culture. But he breaks away. After losing a restaurant in the 1967 Detroit race riots, he goes on to build a successful china and giving the Stephanides family a comfortable living.

Then Cal tells his own story when he was Callie and growing up. Callie knew she was different as she grew older, but never knew exactly how or why. She relates her story of Milton and Tessie as well as her own growth and maturing.

Cal also gives a brief glimpse to his current life as he's a little over 40 and living in Berlin. He talks about how he feels with his lifestyle. He talks about how even now he has the feminine side as well as the masculine side of his personality. He's now in diplomacy with the State Department and is very comfortable in his position.

Eugenides tells a compelling, involved, intriguing story of multiple generations. He has done his scientific and historic studies to give the book an authentic atmosphere. His narrative pulls the reader in with belief. After leaving Greece, Middlesex is a saga of immigrants in the United States and their struggles both adjusting to their new country and keeping their own culture. Then their children break away from that. And all of the chronicle continues to follow the genetics that combined to make Cal the way he is. Throughout the tale Cal talks about how the events from the past led to his future.

Nature or nurture? That is one other major theme Eugenides explores. Major studies have been done on how gender is determined, how it affects our lives, and how our genes versus our environment affect how we react as men or women in the United States.

Middlesex is a great book. It explores many themes and tells a wonderful story at the same time.

Notice:  Non-graphic violence; Strong indecent language; Strong sexual content