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)

An epic everyone should read! Brilliant writer!

So thoroughly enjoyable. And the narrator was first class.A timeless novel. Congratulations to a well deserved writer.

Amazing!

I did not want this story to end! I listened to this novel for 2 months on my drive to work and I was drawn in each day! This was well done and taught me a lot about gender identity, sexuality and the love we must have for all humans!! Thank you! Btw… where’s the movie!!

Simply the best book ever written

I read this book many years ago and was quite captivated and moved by it. Listening to it some 20+ years later, I feel even more strongly affected by it. It is beautifully written with characters I will live with and think about for the rest of my life.

Great book

This book focused on a topic that was completely unique to most. The writer used such creative language and descriptions that were serious, but sometimes humorous, I highly recommend.

Not exactly what I expected

I thought this book was going to be about a hermaphrodite. Although it was, the story involving Calliope Stephanides the main character in the book does not really come into play till approximately the last quarter of the book.
Instead, the book is a saga, starting back from Cal's grandparents and their journey out of Europe and to the US where Cal's parents come into play and finally Cal and his brother become part of the book. The journey is a fascinating one and quite enjoyable.
The narrator Kristoffer Tabori did a marvelous job reading and acting out this novel. It was long, but a good story, a difficult subject that was handled well.

Unforgettable

I enjoy historical fiction and was interested in the setting of Grosse Pointe Michigan which I have visited. Thirty minutes into the tape I started to doubt my choice but decided to stick with it awhile longer. It was well worth it! Don't let the unusual subject matter deter you. This is a compelling story, beautifully written with an excellent narrator. It will linger on my mind for some time.

Wow, Absolutely outstanding

Wow, I loved this book. I was at first put off by what I thought was the subject of the book’s material and, while I am always loathe to give away too much in a review about book, its content is not a lurid description about deviant sex. This is a love story about an unusual relationship between a brother and sister that probably results in an unusual offspring two generations later. While the title of the book, Middlesex, describes a place, it is also a play on words that describes that third generation intersex offspring.

Middlesex won the Pulitzer Prize-winning and, I believe, rightfully so. Though not intersex himself, the book is apparently loosely based on aspects of the author's life and observations of his Greek heritage with occasional allusions to Greek mythology. The book is less about sexual acts but instead, it more explores elements of gender identity. The author’s source of inspiration for the novel was Herculine Barbin, the diary of a 19th-century French convent schoolgirl who was intersex. However, this aspect of the book does not come to light till nearly its middle and all does not become completely clear till its end. The end, which at first, seemed to be somewhat rushed.

I will not continue to reveal more about the book for it is the unfolding of circumstances that helps to make this such a wonderful read. The book is well-written, exciting and never crude or again, lurid. The book is written with a sensitivity and compassion that should attract nearly any reader. Reviewers from the medical, gay, and intersex communities have mostly praised Middlesex and I cannot adequately do so here, again without giving away too much. Suffice it to say this is a wonderful book worthy of anyone’s read.

While outwardly only one, I believe that each of us contains within us aspects of both genders. Often we deny one and cling to the other. For some of us however, because of some variable in nature, we find our identity quite ambiguous if at all even possible to glean a difference.

While there is not always agreement on a definition or on what constitutes intersex, it is estimated that between 0.1% and 0.2% of live births are ambiguous enough to become the subject of specialist medical attention, including surgery to disguise their sexual ambiguity. The subject of surgery to “correct” this condition becomes an important part late in the book. I think that it is one of the most important parts of the book and again, it is treated with the greatest of sensitivity and compassion found elsewhere throughout its content.

The book is especially well-narrated. At no time in the listening did I ever feel that the narrator was anyone else but the person about whom this book was written.

Very interesting theme and read

I bought this on it's stars rating and Pulitzer Prize win. I am so glad I did. I sometimes find it hard to follow characters when all names are uncommon. But not this story. I think it's because their first names were so distinctive. The theme of the book, hermaphroditism, is unique in itself. I am not entirely through the book, but want others to try this wonderful narration. There's even music!

Must reading for endocrinologists in training!

Imagine the confusion of your own pubertal years. Remember the confusion, the uncertainty, and the highs and lows of exploring sexuality. Now double this confusion by being a genetic male, raised as a girl. A perfectly content young girl is beset by raging hormonal effects that he/she does not understand in this novel about a young man with 5-alpha-reductase deficiency, a condition in which there is block in conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone. He had all the attributes of a charming young girl as a child; as he entered puberty testosterone production raged and led to confused feelings and desires out of sync with the the role of a young woman. Jeffrey Eugenides explores autosomal recessive disease in a sensitive and humorous way that mixes tragedy and joy in an effective way. We are left to wonder who "Peter Luce", the eminent sexologist portrays. Perhaps the most educational and entertaining book I have read in several years; a must for anyone who interfaces with pubertal-aged young men or women.

Fantastic... entertaining... educational

This book is not unlike a nesting doll: open one and you will find another one, and another one, and so on. There is a story within the story. We learn about Greek exodus to America, Greek-American community, assimilation, keeping old country's culture, growing pains, and ...middlex. A must to read!