Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (2002)
Fiction, 529 pages
Picador (USA)
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK)

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize 2003

Middlesex is the story of Calliope Helen Stephanides, later known as Cal, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family. Calliope is not like other girls. As she writes:

I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver’s license…records my first name simply as Cal.

This is so much more than a coming-of-age novel. Hard enough for most kids to deal with growing up as it is, but (and this isn’t a spoiler, trust me) to approach this milestone as a hermaphrodite, brings a whole new dynamic to the experience.

Arrayed in their regiments, my genes carry out their orders. All except two, a pair of miscreants – or revolutionaries, depending on your view – hiding out on chromosome number 5. Together, they siphon off an enzyme, which stops the production of a certain hormone, which complicates my life.

Eugenides narrative surpasses any expectations I had regarding how he would handle such a subject. I constantly had to stop, and think, how he was able to so deftly write in a voice I firmly believed was Cal’s. The author disappears completely, as he should, and leaves the reader feeling they are reading a memoir.

I love the objectiveness of Cal’s tone. Far enough away that most of the emotion has softened, yet not so much that the reader ever feels held at a distance. On the contrary, the honesty and humor of the narrator is what kept me turning pages.

How did we get used to things? What happened to our memories? Did Calliope have to die in order to make room for Cal? To all these questions I ffer the same truism: it’s amazing what you can get used to.

Calliope does not die because she is an integral part of Cal. This story is how she, and he, come to terms with this reality.

The only reason I did not read it in one sitting is that this is a book that deserves one’s full attention. However, I could not restrain myself as I got closer to the end. In fact, I stayed up to four in the morning finishing the book as I simply could not put it down.

Obviously, this book gets 5 out of 5 stars and my highest recommendation that you read it if you have not already. As for me, I will be looking for a better copy. Not knowing I would like it so much I bought a very well-loved used copy. I defintely will be on the lookout for a newer version, if not just going out and buying one off the shelf. Which I should do as this a book that deserves a forever home. Like mine.

Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit and attended Brown and Stanford Universities. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published in 1993. In 2003, Jeffrey Eugenides received The Pulitzer Prize for his novel Middlesex, which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, France’s Prix Medicis, and has sold over 1 million copies.

 The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (1993)
 Contemporary Fiction, 256 pages
 Picador Reprint edition (April 28, 2009)

 Read for Picador Book Club:
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 The discussion of this book

 I have an extra copy due to a shipping mix-up.
 Details on how to win this are given at the end of this post.

The Virgin Suicides is Jeffrey Eugenides first novel, which seems apparent at first. However as the story progresses, so does the author’s skill with following through on a premise he lays out for the readers in the first sentence:

On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide – it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese – the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope.

How do you write an entire book after telling the reader the plot from the very beginning? Well, if the suicides were simply all that this book was about, it would be pretty damn difficult. Do not simply judge it by the title, or that first sentence. This book is much, much more.

The story is told from the point of view of a group of men who feel compelled to understand the tragedy that befell the Lisbon family over a course of thirteen months when they were adolescents. To borrow from Winston Churchill, the sisters are “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” To the boys in the neighborhood, they were an alluring challenge that each wanted to overcome and comprehend:

…the five glittering daughters in their homemade dresses, all lace and ruffle, bursting with their fructifying flesh.

We felt the imprisonment of being a girl, the way it made your mind active and dreamy…

The voice, or should I say voices, in this book work. And after reading what Eugenides had to say about why he did it this way, it makes perfect sense and adds to the perception of witnessing an event from a distance and all the complications which come from this:

When I wrote The Virgin Suicides, I gave myself very strict rules about the narrative voice: the boys would only be able to report what they had seen or found or what had been told to them. I think because it was my first book that helped to limit the possibilities of what I could use. It really constrained the point-of-view. Since the book was about obsession and voyeurism, and also about the things that linger in your mind from adolescence, it seemed an appropriate point-of-view
– (Excerpted from a Powells.com interview conducted by Dave Weich)

This book will not leave you with answers. No matter how much information is revealed, it isn’t enough to lead the reader, or the men, to any tangible conclusions. And this is just as it should be. Even though a work of fiction, this is how it is in real life. Suicide is no answer and has no answers; just suppositions and conjecture.

It’s very difficult to know what was in those girls’ hearts. What they were really trying to do.

In the end, the tortures testing the Lisbon girls pointed to a simple reasoned refusal to accept the world as it was handed down to them, so full of flaws.

This book left me frustrated and angry. Not at the acts of the sisters, but of their parents and the community. How they reacted and failed not only the family, but themselves. No one touched by the tragedy was left the same. I felt I was reading a proverbial train wreck, knowing what was about to happen, the devastation that would follow, and powerless to do anything about it. I wanted to reach into the pages and shake sense into those who could have made a difference. It was then I realized that the author had drawn me in and touched me deeply. I also noticed the subtle change of voice and tone that indicated this was a writer to watch. This is borne out by his next novel, Middlesex receiving the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2002.

I am giving this book 4 stars out of 5. It’s good, but not a page turner and one that keeps you up all night reading. I must say, as a book club pick, this is a perfect choice as there are many aspects of the story and the characters that will provide ample material for a lively discussion.

Now. For the giveaway. Simple. Very, very simple. I hate being made to jump through hoops, so I never ask anyone interested in my giveaways to do so the same.

• Leave a comment letting me know you’d like the book.
• Please be sure you provide me with a way of contacting you; either by giving me your email address in the comment or giving me your blog address which clearly and easily provides me a way to get a hold of you.
• I will choose a winner by numbering each comment/entry as I receive it and then using a random number generator to pick the winner.
• Entries must be received by midnight June 16th Pacific Time.
• In the past, I have only allowed Canadians and Americans to participate, however I will open this up to everyone. FYI, the shipping method I choose will be a cost effective one, and I state here and now I will not be held responsible for the book being damaged or lost in transit. (This has never been an issue, but I feel compelled to cover my backside just in case.)

Jeffrey Eugenides has written two novels and numerous short stories. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Yale Review, Best American Short Stories, The Gettysburg Review and Granta’s ‘Best of Young American Novelists’.

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
ISBN: 038542017X (English)
ISBN: 0385721234 (Spanish)

Like Water for Chocolate’s full title is, Like Water for Chocolate: A novel in monthly installments with recipes, romances and home remedies.

However it is much more than a “diary”.

This book is about relationships: those between a family of women and the challenges borne out of sibling love and rivalry; those affected by a family tradition that is the catalyst for rebellion; and of those between women and the men who pass through their lives.

The setting plays an important part in Esquivel’s narrative, as it mirrors the lives of her characters. In turn-of-the-century Mexico, it is a time of revolution and change. Not only in politics, but in the culture as well. This is clear to see within the family of the De La Garza women as the story moves along from one generation to the next. How they, and the times change, some adapting – some not.

When I first saw the film, I misunderstood the title and its meaning. Not until studying the Spanish language did I realize the error. It was my “Ah ha!” moment. The story, the metaphors, and the beauty of it all became so much clearer, and I was thrilled to finally “get it”. I decided then and there to get the book and read it. I am so glad I did.

The phrase is common in many Spanish-speaking countries and in this book, it applies to those people or emotions (such as anger and passion) that are close to reaching a point where they are about to “boil over”.

The steam rising from the pan mingled with the heat given off by Tita’s body. The anger she felt within her acted like yeast on bread dough. She felt its rapid rising, flowing into every last recess of her body, like yeast in a small bowl, it spilled over to the outside, escaping in the form of steam through her ears, nose, and all her pores.

I love this book. I love the story. I cannot get over the amount of depth and beauty in this book.

*********************

Laura Esquivel’s novel Like Water for Chocolate has sold more than four and a half million copies around the world in thirty-five languages. She has also written Malinche, Swift as Desire, The Law of Love, and Between Two Fires.