My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finally finished reading “Middlesex” over the weekend. Its been a book that has been on my radar for awhile, but it always seemed like I was caught in reading other things. Then, when I finally got around to it, I had a ton of reading to do at work, which made my progress through the book slower than I would have liked. But, good things spring from perseverance, and I am glad to have finally read this book. The novel has so many differing angles to it that its one I could easily imagine being taught in freshman college classes, yielding great discussion.
The book is written in memoir fashion by one of the more engaging narrators in contemporary literature, Cal Stephanides, a 41 year old hermaphrodite who was raised as a girl, Calliope. The book progresses from Cal's grandparents in their village in Greece/Turkey in the early 1920s and their journey to America, and the secret that haunts their family's history. They move to Detroit, so the reader gets glimpses of prohibition, the Depression and World War II, the boom of the 50s, the race riots and white flight of the 60s; all as a background to the incredible journey of self-discovery undertaken by the narrator, who was born in 1960.
As the book covers so much ground, there is much it causes its reader to reflect upon. The immigrant experience – the motives behind immigration; the fear and exhilaration experienced throughout the process; the assimilating into a new culture without forgetting the old; the challenge, prejudice, and discrimination faced; and finally, whether the dream achieved is truly the dream realized. As with any book that spans the 1960s, there's time to consider the effect the social upheaval had on individual families; the pain caused to parents and their children in attempting to find one another despite vehement disagreements over government policy and social mores.
Personally, the most fascinating aspect of the book was the opportunity to reflect on the gender stereotypes we have in society, how they are formed and cultivated, how they effect a child's perspective of the world, and how they effect the ability of a mother and a father to address those stereotypes, one way or the other, in their own child. The book presents the old nature versus nurture debate that was so popular before the current wave of evolutionary biology started changing so many ideas. Outside of inherent biology, what differences are brought about in males and females as a result of culture, as a result of rearing? Can culture (nurture) completely override nature, or is nature always triumphant in such a battle? Why do we maintain specific ideas about the role of gender, and are those ideas helpful or a hindrance?
All this and more comes to my mind throughout the reading of the narrator's journey from Calliope to Cal. The book is thoughtful, insightful, and extremely well written. In a way, it almost feels sad to be finished; it leaves you wanting to get to know Cal better and understand even more his complex personal identity history.
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