A Big Fat Greek Wedding with a Twist
Volume 48, Issue 10
August 27 - September 9, 2004
By Charlotte Prywes

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Adolescence is difficult. No, it’s worse than that. Even a well-adjusted teenager has problems maintaining his or her equilibrium. Imagine an ordinary fourteen-year-old girl trying to cope with her looks, her friends and the changes of puberty. Then consider Calliope Stephenides who learns she was born with both female and male sex organs. Middlesex is her/his story.
A novel that begins, "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," had better live up to its promise. Middlesex does.
The first half of this novel is about Desdemona and Lefty, a brother and sister attempting to escape war-torn Turkey. They realize their love for each other is not that of siblings. Try as they might, they can’t stop their feelings. When they are able to get on a ship leaving for America, they adopt new identities and marry. The story takes us from their tiny Greek village, to their shipboard romance, and to Detroit of the 1920s and 30s. From there we become immersed in the world of Prohibition, the Ford car factories, the rise of Black Muslims, race riots of 1967, assimilation, upward mobility and the pain of one little girl who is not like others.
The saga of Lefty and Desdemona is told in such an understated way that it is believable. They fell in love, came to America, and had children. Just like everybody else. However, there was a rogue, recessive gene floating around, waiting to be activated in a future generation. Calliope, the grandchild of Desdemona and Lefty, bears the brunt of that.
The story of Cal’s parents, Milton and Tillie, is captivating. The way Milton uses an insurance windfall to begin a fast-food chain is the story of the American immigrant experience. Milton and Tessie, are second cousins. Calliope is the baby girl they were hoping for. Not for a moment did they suspect anything was wrong.
You almost don’t want to be swept into the second part of the story. The characters are loud, colorful, emotional and compelling. We empathize with them every step of the way.
The tale evolves into a coming-of-age story. Eugenides cleverly weaves the history of the problematic gene throughout the story. However, it almost seems as if he wrote two books, one about the Greek immigrant experience and one about a hermaphrodite. Eugenides deftly allows us to enter the world of a hermaphrodite and understand what it means to be both a boy and a girl. But the second part doesn’t resonate emotionally the way the first part did. And, although 41-year-old Cal narrates from the beginning, we never feel we know him as well as the other characters.
This Pulitzer prize-winning novel is a wacky, sad, funny, fascinating tale. The kind of book you think about long after it’s finished.