Christine visited me while I was imprisoned, and wonderful person that she is, she brought me a few things to alleviate the boredom. One of them was a copy of Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex. To be honest, I didn't like his debut novel The Virgin Suicides so I didn't read this one. That is both a great shame and a great decision because I was enthralled reading it in hospital and continuing post-release!
Narrated by Cal Stephanides, birth name Calliope, it recounts the story of how he started life as a girl and ended up an adult male through a genetic mutation (5-alpha-reductase deficiency) starting at his grandparent's village in Turkey, their migration to the US following the Great Fire of Smyrna, his parents' lives, and finally his own youth and adulthood.
I'm not sure how interesting that summary sounds, but trust me on this, Eugenides starts Middlesex off in a way that made both Christine and I wonder *Where the hell can you go from this?!* But trust us, it's a book that's funny, appalling, sarcastic, and sympathetic all at the same time. I really don't think I can say much more without spoiling (although we all know from the start that Cal is a hermaphrodite), but I think it's an interesting take on how the things that define you, are often things outside your control.
I respect that this might not appeal to a lot of people, especially once you reach the big shocker, but I recommend this nonetheless!
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