Jeffrey Eugenides opens his novel, Middlesex, with great brio: “I 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.” He proceeds to give the reader an excellent novel combining modern genetic theory with epic narratives of Greek tragedy and comedy, combined into a never boring, insightful, often humorous view of mid 20th century middle America, gender issues, science, and human fallibility.
The plot is ambitious with outlandish twists that flirt dangerously close to that fine line between belief and disbelief. As I mentioned the novel is serious and fun, and it combines opera and tragedy in epic proportions in a complex structure that never quite topples over. This truly is a masterful novel and a wonderful story that does stay with the reader for a while, primarily for Eugenides great skill in rendering adolescent angst and confusion, reminding the reader of their own periods of uncertainty, and making Cal (Callie’s) story so moving and endearing. Cal is completely believable and fully developed. The plots and the central thesis are well maintained throughout despite a labyrinthine plot worthy of the Minotaur. This novel is so much more than the story of a hermaphrodite finding his place in the world. It works on so many metaphorical levels, playing up the trauma of growing up from the innocense of childhood to face the almost deoncstructed nature of modern American society, and also echoing the confusion of first and second generation Americans trying to negotiate their way through and find their place in American culture.
An excellent, excellent novel