Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

            For a few weeks, I am between semesters. This means I am able to search for books that interest me, not just books that fill an educational need. With this in mind, I browsed through the David R. Parks Lending Library at The Center, looking for a good book about Intersex people. I checked out Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. The synopsis on the back of the book states that Callie is not like other girls because of “the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal.” I believe in judging a book by the cover, at least by the synopsis on the cover. Based on the synopsis on the cover of this book, I decided to take it home.

            Callie is raised as a girl, and finds out at the age of fourteen that she is actually a male. He changes his name to Cal, changes his clothing, the way he walks, the way he talks, and his mannerisms. In short, everything about himself. Without ruining the storyline, this is not as easy as I make it sound. Additionally, the book is not really about this transformation. Three quarters of the book is really about the family dynamics for two generations prior to Cal. I did appreciate the personal perspective of the emotional changes Cal went through. Additionally, I found it poignant that people in the story think they have Cal pegged as a certain type of person, and "knew it all along", even though they have no idea. Cal takes this all in stride, but I feel this is typical of certain people. This story is obviously fictionalized, but reads as if it is based on a true story.

            I enjoyed the perspectives provided by Eugenides, and I hope you will too.

That’s how I understand things,

Laura