Middlesex

by Jeffrey Eugenides | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0747564485 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Morella7 of -- Irgendwo --, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on 11/6/2013
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Morella7 from -- Irgendwo --, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Middlesex is a significantly more ambitious and much odder novel than Jeffrey Eugenides' resonant debut, The Virgin Suicides (on DVD), which was a bittersweet paean to adolescent love. This is a sprawling family saga, bursting with life, which spans three generations and crosses several continents. At its core, however, is another unorthodox but exquisite coming-of-age story.
The book's wily narrator and central character, Calliope Stephanides (named after the muse of epic poetry) is a hermaphrodite raised as a girl who comes to realise she is happier as a boy and is now living as a man in contemporary Berlin. Cal's tale begins, appropriately enough, in Greece (or more precisely Asia Minor)--an Aegean Strasbourg whose sovereignty is claimed by Greece and Turkey. In 1922 brother and sister Lefty and Desdemona Stephanides escaped their war-torn homeland and arrived, as man and wife, in Detroit, America. It is this coupling that ultimately begets their grandchild Calliope and her ambiguous sexuality, as she, or rather by then he, sanguinely notes:

Some people inherit houses; others painting or highly insured violin bows. Still others get Japanese tansu or a famous name. I got a recessive gene on fifth chromosome and some very rare family jewels indeed.
As Cal recounts the experiences of the Stephanides clan in their new land--from the Depression to Nixon--he unfurls his own symbiotic odyssey to a new sex. Cal's narrative voice is arch, humorous and self aware, continually drawing attention to its authorial sleights of hand, but never exasperating. This is big, brainy novel--The Oracle of Delphi puts in an unlikely appearance in the middle of a teenage tryst--but one full of compassion. Eugenides' astonishingly rich story persistently engages the heart as well as the mind. --Travis Elborough

Journal Entry 2 by Morella7 at - Per post of in persoon doorgegeven , Utrecht Netherlands on Friday, June 6, 2014

Released 9 yrs ago (6/6/2014 UTC) at - Per post of in persoon doorgegeven , Utrecht Netherlands

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I am fulfil a wish.

Journal Entry 3 by MMMaartje at Nieuwegein, Utrecht Netherlands on Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Thanks so much for the book, Elvis! :) It arrived here safely, and I am looking forward to reading it! :)

Journal Entry 4 by MMMaartje at Castricum, Noord-Holland Netherlands on Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Released 8 yrs ago (7/5/2015 UTC) at Castricum, Noord-Holland Netherlands

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Taking this one to the meeting in Castricum, to pass on to Boekentrol :)

Journal Entry 5 by Boekentrol at Leeuwarden, Fryslân (Friesland) Netherlands on Sunday, July 5, 2015
The book arrived safely with me today. Thank you for bringing it to Castricum with you, Tizzalicious!

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