I’ve avoided this book for so long because I wasn’t drawn to the premise: three generations of a Greek immigrant family and a narrator who’s a hermaphrodite. Though I have nothing against reading such subject matters, the birds eye view felt messy. I never actively seeked this book and only bought it when I came across it in the bargain bin.
I read the Virgin Suicides a long time ago and really liked it. Eugenides have a very unique voice heavy with meandering clarity. He also writes beautifully with sting in the tone, which makes his book at times cynical and funny. All the positives that apply to the Virgin Suicides apply to Middlesex, which turns out to be a more cohesive book, and perhaps more personal book.
I’ve always been interested in Greek / Turkish history and was glad that the grandparents’ story received a full treatment. The 1920s were full of historically significant events which affected the lives of many people at that time, including Lefty and Desdemona Stephanides. I’ve read about the fires of Smyrna from history books, but that small segment in the book brought the story alive. Smyrna (Izmir nowadays) was brought alive with the smell of figs and shite. Olfactory really helped the depiction of some of the places in the book.
The story moves to Detroit where more historical significant events took place, such as Nation of Islam movement, the ascendancy of Ford factories and prohibition. Though it feels messy to mesh all these events into the book, these events never felt out of place. You can argue that these events were formative to the main characters.
Meet Calliope (Cal) Stephanides, who narrated the story from the beginning at the latter half of the book. Calliope reminds me of modern day high school sharp-tongued heroines in movies. Think Juno (Ellen Paige has also swapped genders to Elliot Page), and Hailey Steinfeld in Edge of Seventeen. The voice of Cal colours Middlesex with the spite of her inevitability as a hermaphrodite.
Middlesex raises important questions about gender identity, of nature vs nurture and cultural identity from a gender perspective. It is an excellent book for those who take on gendered reading in literature. Add to that adolescent issues, immigration mentality (especially Greek), and the book slapdashes the reader with a wonderful complexity.
The answer to Calliope’s gender is minute when we place it in the kaleidoscope of the other minor characters of the book. Each Stephanides is amazingly drawn, they are largely likeable and mostly forgivable. But let’s face it, the main star of the book is Eugenides’ prose.
