Well ladies, this offering is an interesting one. E. (the last aupair) took this book out from the library before she left. So, being me, I read it.
This book isn't for the squeamish. In fact, it's not for the prudish either.
Middlesex is the self-told story of Calliope Stephanides, a third generation Greek immigrant. Callie, or Cal as she spends the latter half of her life, is a hermaphrodite. The story tells of her family, her grandparents and parents, and explains how her gene mutation was passed down for generations. It also journeys with Callie as she discovers her sexuality and her attraction to women. It details the medical testing and examinations she undergoes when, at the age of fourteen, her gender-confusion is discovered. The story is interspersed with Cal's current confusion with the world of dating as he meets Julie, an Asian woman he wants more than his usual shag-and-leave with.
Did I like it? Yes. I found it really interesting and rather enlightening. It was well-written and remarkably engaging. Callie/Cal became someone I was invested in, and that is an important requirement for any book to succeed. I could have done without some of the awkward sex, and to a point I didn't think it was all required. Obviously this book is sexual in nature, and as such I didn't have an issue, but my squick button was definitely pushed when Callie loses her virginity. (I suppose it would have been better if I'd liked the guy she was with. And if she wasn't so wasted.) I think the reason I liked this book so much is because the people, the situations, are all so very human in their conception and realization.
So overall: I'm very impressed. This is going on my list of books to put on my bookshelf when I come home.
(Ems, I love you, but you'd hate this book. You'd like Callie, maybe, but you'd put it down pretty much right away.)
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remakably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." -- Jeffrey Eugenides
