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)

lots to think about

When one grows up in one sex and lives in that sex one does not understand the real impact of society and culture on one's life. This book introduces a different and confusing and lonely world that many people inhabit in real life.

Great book

If you could sum up Middlesex in three words, what would they be?

funny, engaging, unexpected

Who was your favorite character and why?

I really loved many of the characters

Which character – as performed by Kristoffer Tabori – was your favorite?

Desdemona maybe?

If you could take any character from Middlesex out to dinner, who would it be and why?

the object- to try to better wrap my head around her character

Any additional comments?

I had heard the intro to The Marriage Plot, and that really turned me off from Eugenedes, but this book was a real surprise. I really enjoyed the stories and the characters and the active narration. It was a really engaging and wonderful book.

The narration sold it

What did you love best about Middlesex?

Long ago I tried to read this book but just couldn't get into it. I think I found the pace a bit slow, initially, and just couldn't keep up my interest. However, having a book read to me while I busy myself doing something else around the house, means that I don't have to plow through the slow stuff on my own. The narration was absolutely stellar. I was continually impressed with the narrator's many voices in a complex story. And the story itself was intriguing, a bit "out there" and so well told. I also laughed out loud in a few places and revelled at the author's use of the english language in others.

Almost perfect

I loved this story and I loved the reader. however I only gave the performance 4 stars because I'm from the Detroit area and the reader gets the pronunciation of some of the local places and street names really wrong. it bothered me that he didn't look into the correct pronunciation.

Great Book

It's really good, narrated well, and it's a very good story. The narrator does a great job keeping you interested. It's totally worth your credit.

FANTASTIC

Sensitive subject matter done with amazing wit and humor and artfully told. I looked forward to listening to it every day and was so sad when the tale ended. Absolutely gold.

Awesome!

Truly a remarkable book - well written and informative! Enjoy!!

I loved the book. Well worth your time.

Experience the world through the eyes of someone else. Don't we all feel like an outsider sometimes?

Narrator detracts from the story

I like the story, but the narrator's rushed delivery, overly dramatic style, and annoying accent all distracted me. The story is told by Cal, the main character, who is supposed to be from Detroit, yet we're subjected to a narrator with a New York accent that only becomes more pronounced when he rushes-- which is often.

Loved it!!!

Amazing story of a Greek immigrant family to the US. Well-written, heartbreaking at times. Beautifully narrated.