Calliope Stephanides is a person born not once but twice. Calliope was born in 1960 Detroit as a little girl and reborn in the 1970's as a teenage boy. In order to understand what has happened Cal takes you back to the beginning when his grandparents fled their war torn tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus for a new start in America. Unbeknownst to them they carry a rare genetic mutation that will make itself known somewhere down the line.
Middlesex reads like an autobiography and then some. Cal tells you about all the members of his family, spanning three generations, and how he believes they thought and acted before he even came along. Through his journey of self discovery Cal will learn things about his family that they themselves never knew. He will uncover a dark secret that ultimately lead to Cal ending up the way his is.
Overall I did like Middlesex even though I felt iffy about it at times. The writing was well done, I often forgot I was reading a work of fiction and thought it was a biography. I really did enjoy reading through the different generations. The book is a bit long at 529 pages and although I know I've read longer books, this one felt long. Probably because so much happens in those 529 pages!
Quote:
"I was thinking how amazing it was that the world contained so many lives. Out in these streets people were embroiled in a thousand different matters, money problems, love problems, school problems. People were falling in love, getting married, going to drug rehab, learning how to ice-skate, getting bifocals, studying for exams, trying on clothes, getting their hair-cut and getting born. And in some houses people were getting old and sick and were dying, leaving others to grieve. It was happening all the time, unnoticed, and it was the thing that really mattered.”
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