Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides

Completed: 18 Jun, 2008

This is a story of Callie, a hermaphrodite, raised as a girl who then discovers she is a boy, Cal. The perspective of the story is told from the adult Cal looking back on his family and their history.

The family are Greek, living in Detroit. Cal's grandparents immigrated from Turkey. They were Greeks living in Western Turkey and kicked out at the end of WWI due to the conflicts between Greece and Turkey. Earlier this year, I read Birds Without Wings, by Louis de Bernieres (he of Captain Corelli's Mandolin fame). This book was also set in Western Turkey and describing the impacts on a community after WWI and the ouster of all non-Turks from Turkey. So, I was familiar with the history of what happened to Cal's grandparents.

I loved the characters in this book. Jeffrey Eugenides does a great job of capturing a wide variety of personalities and keeping them all glued together as an immigrant family in Detroit. He does a great job illustrating the "Americanization" of further generations.

Recommendation: Read it if you like stories about families steeped in history.