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A review by tanyamariereads
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
3.0
I picked this up at a thrift store last year and was looking forward to reading it. I’ve heard of Jeffrey Eugenides and his stories, but this was my first time reading any of his work. Middlesex, which came out in 2002, won the Pulitzer Prize and was an Oprah’s Book Club pick. I thought that would amount to a fantastic novel to read, but there were things that I couldn’t overlook that left me disappointed.
The novel is told from the perspective of Cal Stephanides, an intersex man from a Greek-American family, and covers his life along with the two generations before him and how it led to his 5-alpha-reductase deficiency. The first 2/3 of the novel really focuses on the lives of his grandparents who came to the U.S. as refugees, to his parents in Detroit during the era of the Motor City and the race riots of 1967. I loved the historical accuracy Eugenides provided for the plot of the story for the lives of Cal’s grandparents and parents. When it came to finally talk about Cal’s life, I was underwhelmed.
Jeffrey Eugenides builds a lot of momentum for a majority of the book, so I was surprised how much of Cal’s life was crammed into a few chapters. I also did NOT like how one female character who was Cal’s “first love” was referred to as “The Object” for the entirety of the time she was spoken about in the book. Cal simply excuses this for wanting to protect her identity and claims he’s referencing a movie that reminds him of her, but she could have easily been given an alternate name. I was also confused when the story would be told from Cal’s first person perspective to an omniscient view of the novel’s minor characters. There are other story flaws I don’t want to speak about due to spoilers.
All in all, I think the plot of the novel was an interesting idea, but the ending and Eugenides poor development of the main character Cal was what made it just a little above “okay” for me.
The novel is told from the perspective of Cal Stephanides, an intersex man from a Greek-American family, and covers his life along with the two generations before him and how it led to his 5-alpha-reductase deficiency. The first 2/3 of the novel really focuses on the lives of his grandparents who came to the U.S. as refugees, to his parents in Detroit during the era of the Motor City and the race riots of 1967. I loved the historical accuracy Eugenides provided for the plot of the story for the lives of Cal’s grandparents and parents. When it came to finally talk about Cal’s life, I was underwhelmed.
Jeffrey Eugenides builds a lot of momentum for a majority of the book, so I was surprised how much of Cal’s life was crammed into a few chapters. I also did NOT like how one female character who was Cal’s “first love” was referred to as “The Object” for the entirety of the time she was spoken about in the book. Cal simply excuses this for wanting to protect her identity and claims he’s referencing a movie that reminds him of her, but she could have easily been given an alternate name. I was also confused when the story would be told from Cal’s first person perspective to an omniscient view of the novel’s minor characters. There are other story flaws I don’t want to speak about due to spoilers.
All in all, I think the plot of the novel was an interesting idea, but the ending and Eugenides poor development of the main character Cal was what made it just a little above “okay” for me.