Middlesex: A Novel
Written by Jeffrey Eugenides
Narrated by Kristoffer Tabori
4/5
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About this audiobook
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.
In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school, Grosse Pointe, MI, 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 - leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. The explanation for this shocking state of affairs takes us out of suburbia - back before the Detroit race riots of 1967, before the rise of the Motor City, to 1922, when the Turks sacked Smyrna and Callie's grandparents fled for their lives, back to a tiny village in Asia Minor where two lovers, and one rare genetic mutation, set in motion the metamorphosis that will turn Callie into a being both mythical and perfectly real: a hermaphrodite.
Sprawling across eight decades - and one unusually awkward adolescence - Jeffrey Eugenide's long-awaited second novel is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire.
Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Eugenides is the author of three novels. His first, The Virgin Suicides (1993), is now considered a modern classic. Middlesex (2002) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and both Middlesex and The Marriage Plot (2011) were finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Fresh Complaint, a collection of short stories, was published in 2017. He is a member both of The American Academy of Arts and Letters and The American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
More audiobooks from Jeffrey Eugenides
The Virgin Suicides Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fresh Complaint: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Middlesex
8,411 ratings394 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Simply one of the greatest books I have ever read, and a deserving winner of the Pullitzer. Stunning.
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- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everything about the book was great and the narration really knocked it out of the park.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Completely and utterly entertaining and beautifully narrated. Best this year.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Such a wonderful and thorough book. I loved reading it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Best audiobook ever! Please choose this one and not the other narrator, he captures Cali perfectly. I just loved every minute of this intricate, fascinating, deeply researched and superbly written feat of humane and beautiful writing.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The audio version feels like overcooked Shakespeare from the Borscht Belt. Stopped after one chapter. I prefer audiobooks that are more evenly read, not so dramatic as this one.
Since I heard so much good about this book, I will probably pick it up as a classic print version. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very detailed and sketched with believability. Great story to open up the mind to differences we don’t see. Enjoyed the book
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Narrator and Author. Perfect combination!
Read it please. You will like. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The narrator made the characters come alive and I could identify with Detroit as I was familiar with all the places he mentions and the times were when I grew up. I liked that he goes back in time before he was born and how he describes the feelings of his ancestors. It’s a unique way to write and I loved this book so much I think I will listen to it again!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a grand multi-generational omniscient first-person fable about an intersexual and his family. I say “fable” because so much of what happens stretches the parameters of probability despite being rooted in realistic aspects. Epic in its scope, it nevertheless captures an amazing sense of family and their effort to live some version of the American Dream. And parts of it are extremely funny!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I quite enjoyed reading this book. It's set up like an autobiography/memoir/family history with an omniscient narrator. The story follows the Stephanides family through 8 decades as their unique story unfolds and intersects with historical events (the burning of Smyrna, the founding of the Nation of Islam, the burning of Detroit). When I put it this way, it reminds me of Don DeLillo's Underworld, but to me, Middlesex was much more personal, more enotional than Underworld. The characters are as complex as the story; nothing in this book is as it seems on the surface. Themes keep reappearing in different contexts, revealing more and more about the characters and situations. Middlesex is a study in duality--male and female, black and white, life and death, hope and despair--and the often murky distinctions in between.
Several years ago I watched a documentary about people born between genders and since then have often wondered how both the cultural and biological genders we're assigned influence each of us. Middlesex really helped me to see this in a different, more personal light. I have a feeling this book is going to stick with me long after I return it to the library. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Middlesex has been stacked in a pile of books I like to refer to as my "Jumanji" books. The two main child characters in the film Jumanji, begin a creepy, larger-than-life board game that results in the "Little Man Tate" boy disappearing, and the the young girl running away in horror, putting an abrupt end to the game. Though stowed away in the attic soon after the occurrence and forgotten, a distant jungle drum beat still emanates from the board game, forever beckoning that someone continue the game, and finish what was started. That pretty much sums up my avoidance dance with this amazingly beautiful book. I first began this audio book in 2007, and got so carried away in the language and pace of the narrative, that I knew I wanted to dedicate more time and attention to it, for fear of missing any details. I returned the book to the library and bought a physical copy from my local used book store. Since then, Middlesex has sat in that pile of "Jumanji" books, forever beckoning me to finish what I started. Sure it's made it's way into my purse a few times, and followed by a few false starts, but nothing lasting. Even the cajoling from well meaning friends in that "I can't believe you haven't read that yet!" voice didn't help. So finally, after 7 years, I broke down and bought the audio book and downloaded it to my phone last week, so that I could take it and the Stephanides family with me everywhere. What a journey we've had! "I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." So begins this sweeping family saga of three generations of Calliope/Cal's family beginning in Asia Minor on through to Detroit, and finally ending in Berlin spanning the 1920s to present. Through this historical narrative, we learn about the Stephanides family and their dark family secret. Told in a sort of whimsical voice, with Woody Allenesque aside interruptions, it's hard not to get swept up in the story and totally lose yourself, or to find yourself laughing out loud, or rolling your eyes incredulously. I can easily believe that this book took Eugenides 9 years to finish. It is such an epic read, and each sentence packs a sensual punch. There are a handful of books that have left me this happy and disoriented...also incredibly sad to turn the last page. It's worth noting that the narrator, Kristoffer Tabori, is one of the best voice actors I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. How good is he, you may ask? Audible.com only has a handful of weird books for which he is credited on. The selection seems to be limited to children's horror stories, funky sci-fi, and self-help books. Oh well, that's dedication. I hope the Tales from Lovecraft Middle School books are worth it, because guess who'll be listening to them here shortly. As for the rest of my "Jumanji" books? I'm hoping to tackle a few more this year. The Time Traveler's Wife, Cold Mountain, Into the Woods, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close are at the top of that pile. I can already hear you, dear friend. "You haven't read those yet? Whatsamatterwithya"? I know! I'm hopeful.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The first half of the book didn't interest me much. I wanted the story of Cal, not the story of Cal's grandparents and parents as appetizer. The next three eighths were very engaging and the final eighth became a chore again. In sum, I liked three eigths of Middlesex.
I'd been looking forward to reading a book with an intersex narrator. I wanted to know more about Julie Kikuchi, because I found her to be a really engaging character, possibly because she was mostly absent and therefore mysterious. I'm glad this book wasn't a simple love story though, focusing like a transgender documentary only on the most obvious and crude aspects of being neither male nor female, so I appreciate that about it.
But I had hoped this book would move me more. Perhaps the author's very literary way of jumping omnisciently in and out of heads despite writing from first person POV meant that I couldn't quite identify with Cal. At least Eugenides has proven that there are no POV writing rules. At least, not if you're Jeffrey Eugenides there aren't.
I now want to read an intersex biography I heard of a while ago, except I have to remember the title of it first. I think intersex people are in a unique position to understand how gender works in our society. I'm not sure Middlesex offered me all that much insight, since the author himself can only but guess, like most of the rest of us. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved this book. When it ended I wanted to read more. I loved the whole story and the characters. There was just something about it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5April 2008 selection of the GB Book Club. This is not what I thought it would be. I had braced myself for something self-consciously shocking and revolutionary, and instead discovered a quietly intimate story of several generations of the Stephanidies family, narrated by the youngest member... who happens to be a hermaphrodite. Cal is more than just the sum of his parts -- if you'll excuse the pun. He's a daughter, a grandchild, an awkward teen, a girl in love... to paraphrase the author, Cal's transformation from girl to boy, while unusual, is no more radical than what happens to each of us in that transformation from birth to adulthood.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Most Iconic Books Set In Each Of The 50 States - MichiganThis is the epic tale of Calliope, the most famous hermaphrodite in history. Starting with her grandparents' life in a remote village in Greece and moving forward to modern day, this generational tale examines issues of immigration, transformation, and actualization.Calliope's particular genetic mutation goes completely unnoticed by doctors and boyfriends until she is fourteen. Then her life as she knows it completely changes. Faced with the choice between a cosmetic operation that will destroy all her sexual feelings, she drops her gender and runs away. Calliope's compelling story is cast against the vibrant background of some of America's most turbulent decades. A truly American novel.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My wife, Suzanne--her family on her father’s side was Armenian. Her great uncle came over to the United States from Armenia sometime during the Turkish massacres when he was in his early teens. He was a young boy pushed westward by the horrors of genocide in Armenia and pulled westward by the American myth of opportunity and security. Once he arrived to Boston—an odyssey that took him from Armenia to France to Ellis Island back again to France then to Liverpool, on to Canada and finally into the United States—he settled down as a day laborer with the single life-goal of bringing other members of his family (nuclear and extended) to the New World.
Middlesex for me was a variation of my wife’s family story. There are so many similarities between Greeks and Armenians is regard to their world visions. As far as I know, her relatives did not carry unique genes, unless brilliance counts. But with that exception, Calliope’s family story could be Suzanne’s family saga: the saga of victimized immigrants reformed by and in reaction to the socio-political and economic currents of the United States. And it is that very breadth of life, of people moving across time and space in XX Century America, which makes Middlesex so rewarding a read. For me, the sexual identity struggle of the narrator (Calliope or Cal?) was really incidental to the family’s adventures and misadventures. It was another view of the American experience much like Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom. The two works seem much in the same vein, charting the experiences of dysfunctional families in a dysfunctional country.
Certainly, the narrator’s sexual identity or awareness was a thread of the saga. By the end of the novel, there was a resolution that seemed satisfying enough. At the core of that resolution was the message, echoing Polonius’ counsel, “to thine own self be true.” However, the strength of the work was not that concluding realization but rather the broad family context from which the narrator emerged. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I can't say that I didn't like this book, because I did. The problem was that I only liked parts of this book. At times I felt like a treasure hunter, picking through myriad details that were, at times, pointless (I thought), to get to the parts that interested me. I ended up skimming entire pages at times. (Warning, spoilers ahead.) Was I really supposed to care that the Greek commander thought his legs were made of glass? I felt details like this added nothing to the story; rather, it made me feel that there was too much detail about some things, yet not enough about others. I wanted to know about Cal/Callie, and the parts that focused on him were absolutely fantastic and fascinating. Other parts of the book were certainly entertaining, but I thought the author asked me to buy into too much. Jimmy Zizmo returning as a Muslim minister, who Desdemona just happened to go to work for? The peep show? Father Mike? It all seemed like it was reaching too far.
I see that I've dwelled mostly on the negative here, but as I said before, the great parts that were sprinkled in between these sometimes overwhelming and unbelievable details were really, really good. I loved Cal's relationship with the Obscure Object and her brother, Jerome. I loved the story of Lefty and Desdemona. It is difficult to say whether the good outweighed the bad, but I think it did. This isn't the book for everyone, but it is very interesting in the end. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The opening line - âI was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.â? - was the hook that got me to buy the book in the first place (browsing in the bookstore). Although at first glance it appears to be a book about sexual and gender identity and how that might transform one in a lifetime (especially if that one is a hermaphrodite) - it is really a far-reaching multi-generational family saga beginning in Turkey and ending in Detroit - with a few twists along the way. This book is a good read, with a compelling storyline and excellent character portraits. Where the read thins is during the narratorâs present life (scenes of which are interspersed throughout the tale) which seems surprisingly devoid of detail and character compared to the rest of the book. This aside, it was worth the purchase.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In this novel, Eugenides uses the story of a hermaphrodite as a metaphor for the ways in which immigrants are forced to straddle two worlds, each with its own culture, history and expectations. His meticulous recreations of 1920s Greece and 1970s Detroit give the book a feeling of authority that makes it easier to accept the oddities of its observant, candid narrator. It would have been even better had it been two hundred pages shorter.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I picked this book up in a charity shop for 50p. Had it been priced higher I probably wouldn't have bothered: although I'd had recommendations to read it, and despite its regular appearance on any number of 'books everyone should read' lists, I was fairly sure I wouldn't like it. And having bought it, I was pretty sure it would take me a long time to plough through it.I was wrong on both counts. I loved this book, and I neglected all sorts of important tasks while I devoured it in less than 48 hours. Right from this stark and startling opening sentence, this remarkable book surprises and moves the reader. It is the story of Greek-American Cal Stephanides, and of his family and genetic heritage and the circumstances which mean that he spends his early years as a little girl.It is an immensely powerful story, thought-provoking and it is beautifully told. I rather wished that we'd heard a little more of how Callie/Cal the subject became Cal the narrator, but on the other hand there is something very satisfying about the way that the book ends with a new beginning.The various strands of the story are interwoven in a way which engages interest and moves the narrative along in a lively manner. The historical and regional detail and atmosphere are beautiful, and the characters are very believable and human.Very strongly recommended.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I first started this book, it immediately reminded me of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. They’re both generational epics, telling an individual’s life by starting with their grandparents. They both have an omniscient narrator, despite being first person. They both use descriptive aliases instead of names. They both tell the story of a community by talking about one family. And, since I read both in audio, the narrators read them in a similar fashion, though Middlesex wasn’t quite as frenetic.
I loved it when I was reading it but once finished, I couldn’t help wishing for changes. I wish there was a bit more connection between Cal’s condition and her Greek immigrant community. I wish the broad, sweeping saga was just a tad more broad and a tad more sweeping. I wish there was a better wrap-up instead of just the end that there was now. I wish Middlesex had a tad more energy and a tad more humor. In short, I was hoping it would be exactly like Midnight’s Children. It’s definitely not fair to Middlesex to judge it by what I admired most in another book, but I seem to be doing that a lot lately.
On its own merits, it is a wonderful book, and the narrator (Kristoffer Tabori) is excellent at telling the story. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5i thought this book was a little over-rated
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is the best book I've experienced in a long time. The narrator odd astounding. Bell be s tough act to follow.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Having read and greatly enjoyed The Virgin Suicides, I wanted to read more by Jeffrey Eugenides. Middlesex did not disappoint, though it was not as fluid a read for me as the aformentioned first book of his I read.The characters were compelling, and I thought it was a fascinating story. The movement between past and present wasn't jarring at all, though I think the two could have been balanced a little bit more.Cal was indeed, as the back of the book proclaimed, a compelling narrator.Overall, I enjoyed the book, although it took me longer to read than I would have anticipated.Quotes worth saving:pg. 125 "Just like ice, lives crack, too. Personalities. Identities."pg. 343 "The only way we know it's true is that we both dreamed it. That's what reality is. It's a dream everyone has together."pg. 379 "So do boys and men announce their intentions. They cover you like a sarcophagus lid. And call it love."pg. 425 "I hadn't gotten old enough yet to realize that living sends a person not into the future but back into the past, to childhood and before birth, finally, to commune with the dead. You get older, you puff on the stairs, you enter the body of your father. From there it's only a quick jump to your grandparents, and then before you know it you're time-traveling. In this life we grow backwards."pg. 479 "Biology gives you a brain. Life turns it into a mind."
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Even though this book is rather lengthy, I loved the story that covers the Stephanides family history over three generations from their beginnings in Europe. Their incestuous lives through the generations leads to a mutated 5th chromosome and a hermaphrodite child, Cal. The story and characters were engaging, very wonderfully written It includes not only sexual identity, puberty and all the anxiety that goes with a “normal” child growing up but also insight into several historical aspects of the country - immigration into this country, bootlegging, and the racial riots of the 1960s, It underscores the fact to me that we are ALL God’s children, no matter who we are. We are not to judge anyone for any reason. A book that I think about long after I put it down is definitely deserving of a 5 star review.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Middlesex is one of these books, you read and than give up your own writing ambition because you think you could never be so good as Jeffrey Eugenides. But after a couple days and dozen of calming cups of tea you realise that his unique writing style is very demanding and requires a lot of concentration and there are a lot of distractible people out there.Jeffrey Eugenides is a writing genius and Middlesex is a miracle, but if you intend to read some pages in the evening, cook a meal and watch an episode of Top Gear all at the same time, pick an easy read novel. 'Cause Middlesex needs and deserves your full attention.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very good book in terms of understanding heredity/genetics as they blend with world history, how people strive to relate to their surroundings and how times change.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Na Virgin Suicides waren mijn verwachtingen hooggespannen, maar het werd een afknapper, vrees ik. Eugenides maakt van in het begin duidelijk dat dit boek gaat over een hermafrodiet, een persoon die geboren is als meisje maar door een genetische afwijking eigenlijk beide geslachten heeft, en op 14 jaar uiteindelijk kiest om als jongen/man door het leven te gaan. Interessante invalshoek, denk je dan. Deze Calliope/Cal is ook de verteller van het verhaal, in eerste instantie van dat van haar/zijn Griekse voorvaderen. En daar gaat het duidelijk mis: wat Eugenides gedurende enkele honderden pagina?s brengt is eigenlijk een heel conventioneel historisch verhaal, dat van de vlucht van zijn Griekse grootouders (overigens broer en zus) uit Turks gebied (waarbij we weer de klassieke Griekse versie van het bloedbad in Smyrna gepresenteerd krijgen), en hun vestiging in Detroit. Af en toe is dat best interessant, maar het is zo uitvoerig gebracht, bovendien met enkele zeer onwaarschijnlijke plotse deviaties van de verhaallijn, dat voor mij de lol er na meer dan 200 bladzijden wel af was. Op dat moment had Eugenides nog niks gedaan met de hermafrodie-problematiek en uit veel besprekingen maak ik op dat hij dat eigenlijk verder op ook nauwelijks doet. Sorry, Mr. Eugenides, ik had veel meer verwacht.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5To be honest, I found this book deeply disturbing, and had a hard time identifying with the protagonist. Normally I pride myself on my open-mindedness when it comes to literature, but I couldn't deal with it--the incestuous brother-sister relationship, the mermaid-stripper, the protagonist her/himself--it lost me. If you think you can handle it, I applaud your constitution. But count me out on Eugenides for the conceivable future.