Middlesex

By: Jeffrey Eugenides

Narrated by: Kristoffer Tabori

Length: 21 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school in Grosse Pointe, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry-blonde classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between them - along with Callie's failure to develop physically - leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. In fact, she is not really a girl at all.

The explanation for this shocking state of affairs is a rare genetic mutation - and a guilty secret - that have followed Callie's grandparents from the crumbling Ottoman Empire to Prohibition-era Detroit and beyond, outlasting the glory days of the Motor City, the race riots of 1967, and the family's second migration, into the foreign country known as suburbia. Thanks to the gene, Callie is part girl, part boy. And even though the gene's epic travels have ended, her own odyssey has only begun.

Spanning eight decades - and one unusually awkward adolescence - Jeffrey Eugenides' long-awaited second novel is a grand, original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire.

Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Audie Award for best unabridged fiction, Middlesex marks the fulfillment of a huge talent, named one of America's best young novelists by both Granta and The New Yorker.

Check out more selections from Oprah's Book Club.

©2002 Jeffrey Eugenides (P)2002 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC

Critic reviews

Audie Award Winner, Fiction (Unabridged), 2003

"Eugenides proves that he is not only a unique voice in modern literature but also well versed in the nature of the human heart. Highly recommended." (Library Journal )

"Not only are his interpretations of the characters astonishingly credible, but his internalization of the narrative is nothing short of amazing." (Publishers Weekly)

"A towering achievement...a story that manages to be both illuminating and transcendent...[Eugenides] has emerged as the great American writer many of us suspected him of being." (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

a masterpiece

A true masterpiece, both literary and narrative.

Beautiful writing & great narration

The story is really interesting, and you get to know this character and his family so well. At first I was worried that the narrator sounded too masculine. But he was so talented, and expressive that I got over that pretty quickly. I would not have wantEd to have heard this book read by anyone else.

Fantastic

I have to say that this is the first book I have read or listened to and have been prompted to write a review or give a reccomendation. Middlesex was one I was never able to put down from the time I started listening until I finished it and then I didn't want it to end. I nearly drove my family wild because I was totaly out of commision until I finished. I felt like I was part of the family through the whole story. An outstanding piece that I would highly reccomend to anyone between 25 and 70.

wonderful read, liked main character

The narration of this book was very good, but especially the novel was excellent. I cared very much about the main character, and felt a fairly profound level kinship and identification. Even though I have not lived in the same place, the same type of family or the same situation, I identified with the main character as a person throughout the novel, and with other characters as well. The references to U.S. historical events were interesting and the different characters were quite fascinating. I was interested in the main character and the other characters, even in terms of their day-to-day life. Eye-opening, enjoyable and a wonderful read.

Can't Put Down

Humourous, Light, Deep, Sad, Empowering, Impactful, Unforgettable, Fulfilling.

Middlesex takes you on a journey over 3 generations - every moment compels you to unveil more as we uncover the life of Calliope with admiration.

I will re-read this book several times to pick up more nuances each time.

An Excellent Tale

This was a delightfully rich story filled with characters so carefully crafted that you felt you knew them. The descriptions of social change, and the devolvement of Detroit are incredibly accurate. The narrator was fantastic at capturing all of the personalities in their accents and timbre, enriching the telling of the story even more.

Wonderful book

Wonderful book and story, with the best narrator I've ever heard. The story takes its time unwinding, with past and present scenes interspersed liberally. Don't get this book if you want a quick, uncomplicated, straightforward plot. But if you have the time, like good character development and enjoy a great story, then I highly recommend this book.

Start Book One then SKIP to Book 3 or 4

There is A LOT of middle in this story that I felt could've been trimmed down and not hurt the narrative. As some reviews noted, you can pretty much skip half of the middle of the book and once it gets to Callie's early teens and her progression to Cal. That for me was the story I came for though maybe people interested in small Greek towns and World War history may enjoy the middle back story

Fascinating

Although this book is fiction, it is a good insight into a very real problem for some unfortunate people. I found it fascinating.

Great book - great reader

I wasn't quite sure what to make of this book when I chose it, but decided to give it a try and was rewarded for doing so. The author tells a fascinating story interweaving history, geography, genetics, and personal relationships. The resulting whole cloth is as complex and interesting a pattern as I've "read" in along time. The reader is superb, giving the book a voice that matches it prose perfectly.