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Interviews | December 15, 2009

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Middlesex

by Jeffrey Eugenides

Middlesex Cover

Awards

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent drivers license...records my first name simply as Cal."

So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.

Review:

"[A]n uproarious epic, at once funny and sad, about misplaced identities and family secrets....Mr. Eugenides has a keen sociological eye for 20th-century American life." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Review:

"It's a gas, a romp, the cat's pajamas....The convolutions of the novel's plot, its big gestures, its deftly handled threads of imagery and symbolism and its wealth of detail combine to produce a largely delightful read." Bethany Schneider, New York Newsday

Review:

"Middlesex isn't just a respectable sophomore effort; it's a towering achievement, and it can now be stated unequivocally that Eugenides' initial triumph wasn't a one-off or a fluke. He has emerged as the great American writer that many of us suspected him of being." Jeff Turrentine, The Los Angeles Times

Review:

"[I]t's off proportionally, both section-to-section and overall, its two halves at odds, each interesting at times but neither truly satisfying, despite Eugenides's prodigious talent. Like Cal, it's damned by its own abundance, not quite sure what it wants to be." Stewart O'Nan, Atlantic Monthly (read the entire Atlantic review)

Review:

"Middlesex vibrates with wit....A virtuosic combination of elegy, sociohistorical study, and picaresque adventure: altogether irrestistable." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"Here's your heads-up....Yes, it's that good....A novel of chance, family, sex, surgery, and America, it contains multitudes." Jonathan Miles, Men's Journal

Synopsis:

The Pulitzer Prize-winning story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American family who travel from a tiny village. Calliope is not like other girls and must uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction.

About the Author

Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit and attended Brown and Stanford Universities. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published by Farrar, Straus, & Giroux to great acclaim in 1993, and he has received numerous awards for his work.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 10 comments:
Susan Jacobson, December 28, 2009 (view all comments by Susan Jacobson)
i had heard about this book for a long time, and never picked it up. i wasn't sure if the topic or setting would hold my interest (even tho' it was a prize winning book) once i did pick it up? it hooked me :) i dare anyone to get 50 pages into this book without becoming smitten, or being able to put it down for short periods even! i plan now to do more research on the subject. it's an interesting one, and more common than people might think. read this book! you won't regret it. :)
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sengler1, May 26, 2008 (view all comments by sengler1)
I read the Virgin Suicides first, and then ended up taking Middlesex with me for a four month stay in Costa Rica. I savored every page and made it last the whole four months I was abroad. The characters are both vulnerable and inspiring and the plot travels through 4 generations without losing cohesiveness. I LOVED this book.
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(16 of 31 readers found this comment helpful)
Abby, September 3, 2007 (view all comments by Abby)
A wonderfully original subject matter told in a fantastic way, I could relate with this narrator. Jeffrey Eugenides has remarkable talent. I didn't read his first book, The Virgin Suicides, but I am going to now.
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(29 of 61 readers found this comment helpful)
View all 10 comments

Product Details

ISBN:
9780312422158
Subtitle:
A Novel
Author:
Eugenides, Jeffrey
Publisher:
Picador
Location:
New York
Subject:
General
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Teenagers
Subject:
Gender identity
Subject:
Hermaphroditism
Subject:
Domestic fiction
Subject:
Greek Americans
Subject:
Detroit
Subject:
Grosse Pointe
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Bildungsromans
Subject:
General Fiction
Copyright:
Edition Number:
1st Picador ed.
Series Volume:
98-13
Publication Date:
September 16, 2003
Binding:
TP
Language:
English
Pages:
544
Dimensions:
8.20x5.54x1.01 in. 1.08 lbs.

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