Middlesex

by Jeffrey Eugenides

Why did I read this book?  It was after listening to Baster, a short story by Eugenides, read on The New Yorker fiction podcast. The story was humorous but tackled a serious subject: the choices people make about sexuality, childbearing and career.  I could see that here was a writer who wasn’t afraid to take on such difficult and politically fraught subjects, and was keen to read more.

Middlesex is the story of Cal, a young person raised as a girl (Calliope) but who at puberty find out that she has been born with hidden male genitalia.  Though this is hinted at throughout the earlier chapters, the full story is revealed more or less chronologically and the details don’t come out until some way into the book.  Indeed, the earlier chapters are mainly concerned with Cal’s immediate forbears: her Greek grandparents who fled Anatolia at the time of the Ottoman invasion, and her parents who were born and raised in the US but who retained, to some extent, the Greek culture of their parents.  The setting of Detroit, its streets and climate, the changes in the city over the middle years of the twentieth century – all are well understood by Eugenides, whose own environment and experiences are surely mirrored here.  Even down to the mention of the annual, brief invasion of fish flies – which I experienced myself in July 1974.

I would not rush to read another Eugenides novel, much as I enjoyed this one.  It is long, and quite complex and slow-moving.  I rather feel that his best medium may be the short story – and I will look out for more of these.