"Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides

It is always not so simple to discuss gender issues and it seems that while mass media has learned to speak about it openly long ago, the literature since Medieval times has been too conservative to do so, preferring either to use euphemisms to describe everything that doesn’t correspond to the standard female-male relations, or, as in case with religious literature, blame all diversities, or rather not speak about them at all.

The truth is, however, that human personality (as well as human body) is too complicated to fit into any binary system and, whether we want it or not, we have to accept the variety of ways it can be expressed in.

Jeffrey Eugenides gives the issue a brand new approach. He takes a traditional and long-existing genre of family saga and turns it into narration of all sides of family life which we all know to exist but never dare to speak about. He shows that relations within the family and self-identification are not always what we presume they should be and, what is more important, doesn’t impose his judgment upon the reader, but describes, vividly and emotionally, leaving it for us to judge. Or, I would say, accept, whatever our attitude might be. The reader must be aware that it is not (only) a biography of a hermaphroditic person, but first and furthermost a family history. I advise you to start reading with this attitude not to be disappointed.

However, there is also much on the gender topic, put openly and frankly and supported by scientific facts which not only shows that the author had studied the subject profoundly, but also renders credibility to the narration. Besides the story of the main character, you can find other small stories of people with non-traditional sexuality or gender to help you to understand the protagonist better.

Notwithstanding progressive themes the book develops, the form of it is rather traditional; you won’t find any experiments in this sphere. It has the cycle structure, typical for this genre: it literary begins with the ending when forty-something-year-old Cal Stephanides reconsiders his previous life, thinking of his self-identification and sexuality, and decides that the best way to discover yourself is to start as long ago as you can to understand how your genetics and upbringing have influenced you. From here starts the story of three generations of Stephanides family, which is bound to come back to the beginning – to Cal and, unexpectedly, to Desdemona, who started this cycle. So, the whole book is a retrospective and with each new episode both the reader and the narrator come closer to the understanding of the main character’s personality.

The story is very long and covers most of the 20th century and even part of the 21st, and therefore it mentions some key events of American history starting from immigration boom in the beginning of the 20th century right into Ford era and bootlegging, through Great depression, World War II and Detroit riot to sex revolution and then modern world as we know it. However, the novel is not historical in the full meaning of the word, it’s not the event that is of particular interest for the author, but its impact upon people in general and the Stephanideses specifically.

A great part of the book is devoted to Greek culture and the problem of immigration. We follow Desdemona and Lefti all the way from Greek Bursa to the Land of Freedom and observe how they, alongside with other immigrants, try to adjust themselves to the new country and new rules, and cannot but ask: was what they gained really freedom? The issue of leaving your homeland and becoming a part of a foreign culture is always very controversial. Do you betray your motherland and your culture in doing so? Doesn’t each of us, on the other hand, have the right to pursue a better life? Do we have to save and cherish our own culture, even if we live abroad, or should we “do as the Romans do”? And if these two cultures clash together and you have to choose which way to follow, which path would be the right one? The author, obviously, won’t answer all these questions for you, but you’ll certainly have something to think about and decide for yourself.

Greek culture is obviously very dear and close to the author (which is not surprising, considering that much of the material used for the book was autobiographical) and describing all the little things that the Stephanideses do in a different way, whether he uses serious or humorous attitude, he is very nostalgic. The ways change and adjust to American environment with every new generation but still there is always something very Greek about them.

The novel “Middlesex” is one of the most open-minded proses I have ever read and I appreciate the author for not being moralistic and euphemistic while speaking about gender. It is, however, not the most shocking, maybe because it wasn’t the author objective to shock but rather to make people understand that there might be something different from what they are used to and that you shouldn’t, having given it a brief glance, mark this as black or white. Remember, no human being can fit into a binary system.