Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides

I read Middlesex over Christmas break this past year.  I picked it up because a few different sources had mentioned it, and I thought I needed to know what all the hullabaloo was about.

HOLY COW.  This book is probably one of my new all time favorites.

Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides is a story about Calliope Stephadnides.  It tells the story of the Greek-American family that started in a tiny village on Mount Olympus, come to Detroit during Prohibition, raise a family living through the race riots and Depression, and finally end up in Grosse Point, Michigan.

Calliope is not a normal girl.  She traces her history back for her readers to uncover family secrets that have made her into what she is.  She also recalls the painful way she discovers “what” she is and her reaction to it.

The novel structure is that of a frame story.  Present-day “Calliope” tells the reader the past and relates it to why relationships are now difficult.

This book is so fast-moving and has so many twists, I just couldn’t put it down!  While Calliope’s story is not one most people can relate to on the surface, her struggle with “coming of age” is something we ALL go/went through.  Her discoveries in and of themselves are not universal, the way she deals with them and comes to terms with them ARE universal.

Middlesex is sad, disturbing, funny, interesting, moving, and epic.  Go read this NOW.