Jaelyn reviewed Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Review of 'Middlesex' from 'Storygraph'
3 stars
Telling the life Cal Stephanides, an intersex person from Detroit, starting with their family history as Greek expats who fled the Turkish expulsion of Greeks from Asia Minor to America. The story follows two generations before reaching Cal, describing major historical events on the way such as the Detroit race rot in 1967.
It felt to me like two great but disjointed books. One being the story of Greek emigrants and the other being the life of Cal, growing up without understanding they're intersex until a chance discovery as a teenager and an attempt to force surgery upon them. The way they're tied together feels unsatisfactory, leaving the family story without a meaningful ending and Cal's story underdeveloped (though perhaps that is inevitable either way from a cis writer?).
It is nevertheless an interesting read both as a multigenerational family tale covering period events, and as the tale of a …
Telling the life Cal Stephanides, an intersex person from Detroit, starting with their family history as Greek expats who fled the Turkish expulsion of Greeks from Asia Minor to America. The story follows two generations before reaching Cal, describing major historical events on the way such as the Detroit race rot in 1967.
It felt to me like two great but disjointed books. One being the story of Greek emigrants and the other being the life of Cal, growing up without understanding they're intersex until a chance discovery as a teenager and an attempt to force surgery upon them. The way they're tied together feels unsatisfactory, leaving the family story without a meaningful ending and Cal's story underdeveloped (though perhaps that is inevitable either way from a cis writer?).
It is nevertheless an interesting read both as a multigenerational family tale covering period events, and as the tale of a misunderstood intersex child who thankfully wasn't mutilated at birth, but still had to contend with rather primitive attitudes. I would be curious to hear an intersex opinion on the book's representation.