Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

I took somewhat of a hiatus from reading because I was throwing back about 3 or 4 hundred pages a week, which was fun, but, alas, my mind has limitations and was ready to implode at that pace. So I said, Alright mate (talking to my wearied mind here), I’ll let you have your break, but when we get back I’m gonna hit you with a off-putting story about a brother-sister romance and the hermaphrodite narrator it spawned two generations later. So that brings us to where we are now, Middlesex. Why would anybody want to read such a weird story? I guess many people ask the same question about Lolita, but in that we find that Nabokov not only pulls off a readable and enjoyable story about a pedophile, he somehow makes us sympathize with ol’ Humbert Humbert and his perversity as well. Middlesex is sort of the same way. But I wouldn’t say necessarily in the sense that you feel sorry for the main character, Cal, but more in that he is part of an incredible story.

For those who haven’t read any blurbs on this Pulitzer Prize-winning work, I will briefly summarize it. The story is told in first-person as Cal traces back the roots of his unfortunate genes to the attraction of his grandparents, who were lovers, but also siblings, and thus very disgusting. He tells the story of their romance in Greece and then their emigration in the 1930’s to Detroit, where they dispose of their identities as brother and sister and start anew as husband and wife. They have sex a couple times, probably more, and then out come two children, without defects, who incredulously are not attracted to each other. However, the boy grows up and eventually marries his cousin, and it is out of this wedlock that a girl, Callie, is born. But astute readers will note that Cal is telling this story and it is he that this Callie turns into late into his teens. Cal then narrates his flee from normal life and attempt to start a new one as a boy.

This is obviously a very dumbed-down summation and I actually feel slightly guilty because this book is really good and contains a story that at times felt so real and true that I had to remind myself that it was just a novel. Before I read this book I was a little turned off by the fact that it traces generations before getting to the main point, but now I can safely say that this journey is worth it and even brushes up on your 20th century US history in doing so. When the page finally turns to Cal, about 3/5ths deep, you actually feel a lot more appreciation for him as a character before he has even set eyes on the world. As I said before, Eugenides surrounds the plot with clues that make it all seem like a real account, which I think really boosts its likability in some way.

There is one flaw in the actions of one of the characters that I thought wasn’t really accounted for, but I can’t really divulge it here without giving away too much of the plot. It may be not be too significant for some but it did make me question, Would he really do that? over and over. If you ever read this book, ask me about it. I think that’s all I wanted to say about this book although it’s a little stale on my mind. I do recommend it though, especially in comparison to the other multiple generation spanning, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.