Book review: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

By the author of The Virgin Suicides, this novel deals with the Stephanides family, their move from Greece to America, and the descent down the family tree of the mutated gene which results in the narrator being born an intersex child. (One with ambiguous genitalia.)

It is an epic book, which aims to present a sweeping picture of not only one family's history but also of contemporary American history. For me, the parts of the book that dealt in detail with historical events were the least gripping of an undeniably compelling story. In a different book, I would probably have had more patience for them, but the bits of Middlesex involving instead the intersex narrator Calliope were just so fascinating in comparison. The novel did seem a bit unbalanced in this respect.

However, I should qualify this by saying that I read the last 200 pages or so in a compulsive rush between 1 and 4am last night, so it would be pretty unfair to call any part of the book boring. It dealt quite extensively with the scientific and genetic issues connected to being intersex, as well as the history of the condition. It was not a text which offered any simplistic answers to the complex questions many intersex people and their parents must deal with.

I really enjoyed Middlesex, but I finished it wanting to know more about the narrator's adulthood and future, and about being intersex in today's society. I'm kind of split about this though, because more focus on these things might have made the book less an intelligent exploration of the history of America, its immigrants and the hermaphrodite gene and more of a voyeuristic study. Either way, I'd definitely recommend it - smart, compelling and thought-provoking.