Michael Finocchiaro's Reviews > Middlesex

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides is a surprising and wonderfully written story about the life of Calliope/Cal Stephanopolis who in the opening lines "was born twice: first, as a baby girl...and then again as a teenage boy." The subject of hermaphroditism or intersexuality is addressed throughout as the book as a running theme as the cinématographique narrator Cal looks back at his childhood as Calliope and explains his complex incestuous family history from the origins of her grandparents as Greeks fleeing Smyrna as the Turks invade to Detroit from the 20s up to the 70s.

The narrative time shifts between his life as a 41 year old man Cal to this running family history written in a witty, humorous style which I found fun and engaging. The text ingeniously woven together from history and science with many recurrent themes (silkworms, Greek orthodox beliefs and practices, guilt and redemption, etc). I couldn't put this book down. This is the only Eugenides book I have read but it will definitely check out his other books.

An interesting sidenote: trying to explain the book "daddy is reading" to my 7yo daughter and my 10yo son, I was able to painlessly explain why brothers and sisters cannot get married (a very common kid's question) and even reproductive functions in a painless and intuitive way: since Callie has organs of both sexes but the penis ("zizi" in kid's French) is inside her vagina ("zezette") she cannot have babies and will never menstruate ("clean the house where the baby can live"). She also has too many male hormones to develop breasts which happens about the same time or just before menstruation. This deformation was the improbable result of the union of a brother and sister two generations back. Nature wants to ensure a varied gene pool and thus it is better to seek love outside one's own family. This explanation seemed to satisfy both of them :)

UPDATE: Great recent article at good housekeeping.com: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/...