Rating: 
Summary: Sorry, Can't Tell You....
Review: I have been asked countless times what this book is about. Sorry, I can't tell you. This isn't a book about one thing. This isn't a book about a few things. This book covers more than just a life, more than just one lifetime. I loved "The Virgin Suicides", and I figured that I wouldn't be able to go wrong with another Eugenides book, even though I wasn't quite sure about the subject. Hermaphrodite? Greece? Detroit? Not things I'm that versed on, or ever thought I was that interested in. The book starts with a man named Cal, who, the first of his life, was known as a girl, named Caliope. Callie, as she was called, knew she was a little different, what she didn't know was that this was predetermined by not her parents, but by her grandparents and beyond. Hers is a struggle that not many people know, but one that will make you think of her/him for a long long time after finishing this book. Think you wouldn't enjoy reading a book about hermaphrodites, Greece, Turks, Detroit, incest, silkworms, Prohibition, race riots, runaways, Muslims, Hercules Hot Dogs, and an innocent confused girl/boy in the middle of it all, then you're wrong. You will.
Rating: 
Summary: Ended too quickly.
Review: I enjoyed this book. I wish that we had spent more time with Cal after the discovery of her true sexual identity - I wanted to learn more about how s/he coped with the discovery. I felt the book screeched to a halt a bit too quickly. That said, it was a good read, interesting and well written.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting and profound novel about gender and identity
Review: Like many fans of the "Virgin Suicides," I was impatient to read another book by Eugenides. The author seems to be on the brink of something profound. In "Suicides" it was about motivation and secrets. Why did the girls kill themselves? This question seemed only partially answered. In "Middlesex" Eugenides once again takes on a taboo topic which is at different turns is both more and less successful than "Suicides." "Middlesex" is an important novel because it explodes certain myths about sex and gender. Eugenides' Callie/Cal bluntly states her/his position in the novel - he/she is both male and female. Nature didn't trump nurture and nurture didn't trump nature. They melded together to make her/him emotionally androgynous. This is the reason why I believe this novel is so profound. Life is frequently gray and Eugenides applies this basic principle to his novel. I particularly liked how Cal, even as a "man," states his dislike of other men. It reminds me of all the heterosexual men out there who playfully refer to themselves as lesbians. They're attracted to women, have true friendships with women, and generally can't stand the company of other men. To read all the relationship self-help books on the market you wouldn't even know that such men existed. Despite certain criticisms of this novel, the history of Callie's/Cal's family is extremely important to the story. It shows how the central character arrived at the final destination. Not only that, the long family history is quite interesting. I'm not sure why anyone would think it was boring to read about the destruction of Smyrna, life in a Greek village or immigrants arriving at Ellis Island and migrating west. These details only add further depth and meaning to the novel. It would have been nice to have more information about Cal's life as a man and what he went through in his evolution as an adult. But still, this is a minor detail overall. Eugenides sprinkles details about Cal's life as an adult throughout the novel. It would have been nice to have more information, 20 or so pages perhaps, about what it was like in his 20s. The other criticism which I have to agree with is Eugenides cutesy labeling of Callie's/Cal's brother as "Chapter Eleven." When I first saw this I thought that the publisher had made a printing error. I even did a search on the Internet to see if this was the case. It was simply distracting to read "Chapter Eleven" over and over and think of a real person. I can imagine this came up with Eugenides' editor at some point. I can even picture them debating about whether this was an effective way to be funny. Frankly, it wasn't. I think Eugenides could have said this was his brother's nickname, but to use this name over and over, without ever using the real name, was annoying and seemed contrived. Overall, I'd give "Middlesex" 4 1/2 stars. Eugenides' two novels have been so good, I just hope I don't have to wait another ten years for his next novel.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely fantastic!
Review: I loved this book! I have not read "Virgin Suicides", but have seen the movie, and found it very interesting. That was the main reason I wanted this book, and I haven't regretted it for a millisecond. The writing is out-of-this-world good, and the story is amazing. I laughed, I cried, I was totally engrossed. There were times I couldn't put this book down, and ended up reading until all wee hours of the night. I love coming-of-age
stories, and while Callie's story is very different from most such stories, it is certainly extremely interesting and wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Book
Review: This is one of the best books I've read in a very long time. Despite the unusual subject matter, this is a human and compassionate read. It is sweet, disturbing, evocative and touching. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Detroit in the '60s, and the poignant "coming of age" viewpoint. Euginides is a master storyteller.
Rating:
Summary: A reader in Colorado
Review: Other reviewers have gone into detail about Middlesex, so I will keep this brief and say only that for lovers of contemporary fiction, this book is not to be missed. My feelings while reading it were the same as those I had with another great recent novel, Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections: I simply didn't want it to end because I didn't know what I could possibly find next that would remotely compare. Readers who love this book will find themselves purposefully slowing their pace as the chapters wind down--a way of preserving the inevitable ending, and to delay having to say goodbye to this memorable and tenderly realized cast of characters.
Rating: 
Summary: Good if you skip the first couple hundred pages!
Review: I was surprised at this book after reading the reviews for it. The author should have skipped all the boring family background and got to Cal's story. Once Cal's story is being told, which is not for several hundred pages, the book takes off. I could barely skim the begining, with bits of Cal's dating woes sparsely scattered throughout.
Rating:
Summary: It teaches you to accept human diversity in a humorous way
Review: I couldn't praise enough this book. It teaches you all on making yourself accepted to yourself and the others. It teaches you of tolerance, of the fundamental thruth that we're all human despite our differences, no, because our differences. And it does this in a humorous, witty way. It has something of Laurence Sterne, and something of Saki: a bit of Rabelais and of Cyrano. It's also a poignant look on some of the wretched episodes of violence and hatred of which the past Twentieth century is so rich. I've loved this book. It'll makeyou laugh, and it'll make you think!
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: Ok, so at age 14 Cal knows enough that he shouldn't be having an operation to reshape his genitalia so that he fits into society a little better. Truth be told, how many of us wouldn't do exactly as our parents and Dr. told us? We'd just want to be viewed as normal. At this point in the story, Cal became a hero with guts and determination, knowing that even if the rest of his life would be lonely, he would at least live it honestly.
The beginning of this book lead up to this point. This family cannot live without one another, even incestantly so. When Cal takes off, he knows it's for the best. All the other characters cannot seem to understand the ramifications of wallowing in each other for decades....
Rating:
Summary: Quite simply awesome!
Review: It seems all of the reviewers here want to try to match the heft of this awesome novel. Read it, you WILL enjoy it.
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