"Middlesex" by Geoffrey Eugenides

This year’s vacation reading theme was “big, long, honkin’ books.” In addition to [url=http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3819419#post3819419The Crimson Petal and the White, I also read Middlesex. Has anyone else read it? I noted a couple of mentions in the summer reading thread, but no commentary.

I liked it. I thought it was interesting and well done and sympathetic. I liked the way the whole family thing with the grandparents was done, including the addition of the doctor to the mix, which explained why Cal’s situation was never discerned. I thought the parents were kind of slighted, though – for instance, I never really understood why they never noticed anything going on with Cal when they changed Cal’s diapers. For that matter, the question of why they got together, what that attraction was about, was not really dealt with very well.

Part of the attraction of the book was resonance with certain elements of my family history – my (Lithuanian) imigrant grandmother supported her three daughters by running a speakeasy, and I was born in Dearborn when my dad worked for Ford.

Anyone?

I haven’t read it, but the title sounds like the book is about hermaphrodites.

Yeah, it’s about a child who is born intersexual – a fact which manages to escape the notice of everyone in her family as well as various medical professionals. Although basically a boy (and one thing that can be discussed is what gender is about), he is raised famale. Good book – how 'bout you go read it real quick and then come back and discuss it with me? :wink:

link.

I don’t need to. I dated two sex-change hermaphrodites several years ago.

I read it last fall. When I picked it up, I thought maybe it was a book that involved England? Except for the bizarro cover, which is why I took a closer look.

I liked it, except I would have liked more of the biological explanations. Mainly because I don’t know a lot about hermaphrodites, and it’s such a freakishly fascinating topic to me. A bit too much of the Old World Greek grandparents and parents for my liking, though.

It did seem strange, though, that Calliope didn’t realize that anything was wrong with her. I mean, eventually after she never got her period or developed breasts or hips, she was aware that physically she was abnormal. But I always thought that transsexuals sort of “knew” even as small children that something was wrong, that they should have been born as the opposite sex. But she didn’t know, and she even enjoyed being rather a “girly girl” when she was very small.

Plus, after she decides to go male, all she (or is it he at this point?), all s/he has to do is get a hair cut. And the barber doesn’t even question that Callie is a guy. Possibly because of the male clothing and all, but you’d think that it would jump out at other people, having a masculine face. Maybe not your family, but everyone around you.

One thing I was kind of unclear on, too…was Callie a bit of both, with a masculine predominance? There were a penis and testicles, but were they hidden down…er, up there? It has been a few months, so forgive me for my ignorance.

Thanks twickster!

I have been doing the ummm ehhhmmm… ahh I dunno… yes … no thing with this book for months now!

I will give it a read now.

Zoggie: I had previously read As Nature Made Him, a nonfiction account of a boy who was raised as a girl (also extremely interesting, BTW), so had some familiarity with some of the biological issues. My understanding is that Cal was chromosonally, hormonally male, with undescended testicles and a small penis that was kind of, uh, tucked up between his legs. In childhood, when the hormones hadn’t really kicked in yet, acting as a girl wasn’t all that big a deal for him. But come puberty… well, you read the book. Apparently there was also some sort of vagina as well, since the Object’s brother thought he had achieved some kind of penetration that night in the woods.

Also, regarding the haircut – keep in mind, this was the early '70s, when most boys wore their hair as long as they could grow it (at least most of the boys I knew). “Is that a boy or a girl?” was a pretty standard question. (I myself was once called “sir” in a restaurant during that period – no makeup, wearing a dark crewneck sweater – apparently the server didn’t notice my not insignificant bosom.) Up until then, she had been kind of hiding behind her hair. Adolescence is the time when, again, the hormones kick in, and people take on a more masculine or feminine appearance, but it’s not an overnight change, so it’s not like she woke up one morning and suddenly was a he. (Plus, being Greek, the facial hair thing became just one more thing to bond with her mom about.) Also, keep in mind that people see what they expect to see – Cal’s family and friends expected to see a girl, so did – the barber expected to see a boy, so did.

I loved this book. He has this great habit of just going into all this detail and back story. And it’s something I wouldn’t usually read - I had actually read “The Virgin Suicides” by the same guy and not actually liked it very much so this was a really big, nice surprise.

nefertari

This was the part I didn’t buy at all, and was really disappointed about. I expecting some contrast and compare, gender difference discussion. But none of that at all. The author was way too squeamish discussing the biological details, also.
That being said this book taught me to try and avoid expectations in a novel. You difinitely ought to read it Krisfer. I doubt it should have been Pullitzer good, but then I looked at what else has won the Pullitzer in the past, and it’s not really in that great of company.

Thanks, twickster, but I think I’m with Lao Tsu on this one. I wish the author had gone into more of the biological gender details. I guess things might have been different in the seventies, but not that different.

One other question. Why was her brother nicknamed Chapter Eleven? They never explained that. Since reading it, I’ve come across the phrase chapter eleven, but I still am not clear on what it means.

Isn’t “chapter 11” a type of bankruptcy? Bankruptcy for individuals, I think (as opposed to bankruptsy for corporations).

I think he’s called “Chapter 11” because…

He bankrupts the family restaurant chain when he takes it over.

Also, in what’s probably no more than a funny coincidence, he’s born in the eleventh chapter of the book.

I totally enjoyed Middlesex.

Ah…Thanks. I’ve been wondering for ever so long. I saw it used in this context (for a corporation, though, actually) in the book Jurassic Park recently, and now it all makes sense.