{"id":15192,"date":"2011-09-18T11:11:06","date_gmt":"2011-09-18T15:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=15192"},"modified":"2017-03-05T20:03:28","modified_gmt":"2017-03-06T01:03:28","slug":"middlesex-by-jeffrey-eugenides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/middlesex-by-jeffrey-eugenides\/","title":{"rendered":"Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2011\/09\/Middlesex.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-27963 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2011\/09\/Middlesex-533x800.jpg\" alt=\"Middlesex\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2011\/09\/Middlesex-533x800.jpg 533w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2011\/09\/Middlesex-800x1200.jpg 800w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2011\/09\/Middlesex.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\" \/><\/a>Eight years have passed since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.princeton.edu\/arts\/arts_at_princeton\/creative_writing\/professor_bios\/eugenides\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Jeffrey Eugenides<\/a>\u00a0won the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pulitzer.org\/citation\/2003-Fiction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction<\/a>\u00a0(as well as too many other accolades to list) for this, his second novel, and nine years since it was first published. Nine years later (pattern forming here? \u2013 his debut\u00a0<em>The Virgin Suicides<\/em>\u00a0and <em>Middlesex<\/em>\u00a0are\u00a0also nine years apart), Eugenides&#8217; longingly anticipated, much buzzed-about third,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/2012\/04\/22\/the-marriage-plot-by-jeffrey-eugenides\/\">The Marriage Plot<\/a><\/em>, is about to hit shelves in a couple of weeks (official pub date: October 11), and that anticipation is probably what finally prompted me to pick up <em>Middlesex<\/em>. The pressure, the pressure!<\/p>\n<p>Clearly <em>Middlesex<\/em>\u00a0holds one of fiction&#8217;s most memorable opening lines: &#8220;I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At 41, Calliope Helen Stephanides by birth certificate is now simply Cal according to his current (German) driver&#8217;s license. But even before Cal&#8217;s inception, the family saga spans 250 prior years, complete with chromosomal mutations, fifth cousins who are also siblings, triple migrations (from Greece to Turkey to the United States), multiple wars and other conflagrations, and various saints and avid sinners who all play an active role in his creation, and his undefinable, unpredictable life. Cal&#8217;s own epic self-discovery, intricately interwoven through his ancestral tale, is a complex &#8230; dare I say &#8230; transformative journey.<\/p>\n<p>Eugenides&#8217; playful, seemingly\u00a0effortless invention\u00a0belies his fearsome erudition. Absolutely, without a doubt,\u00a0<em>Middlesex<\/em>\u00a0is not to be missed &#8230; and, as in my case, truly an enormously rewarding better-late-than-never read.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2002<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eight years have passed since Jeffrey Eugenides\u00a0won the\u00a02003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction\u00a0(as well as too many other accolades to list) for this, his second novel, and nine years since it was first published. Nine years later (pattern forming here? \u2013 his debut\u00a0The Virgin Suicides\u00a0and Middlesex\u00a0are\u00a0also&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,81,23,6],"tags":[6608,10,11,51,1404,2249,50,13,2250,309],"class_list":["post-15192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-audio","category-european","category-fiction","tag-bookdragon","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-identity","tag-jeffrey-eugenides","tag-kristoffer-tabori","tag-lgbtqia","tag-love","tag-middlesex","tag-nature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/middlesex-by-jeffrey-eugenides\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eight years have passed since Jeffrey Eugenides\u00a0won the\u00a02003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction\u00a0(as well as too many other accolades to list) for this, his second novel, and nine years since it was first published. Nine years later (pattern forming here? \u2013 his debut\u00a0The Virgin Suicides\u00a0and Middlesex\u00a0are\u00a0also...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/middlesex-by-jeffrey-eugenides\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-18T15:11:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-06T01:03:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2011\/09\/Middlesex.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2101\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/middlesex-by-jeffrey-eugenides\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - BookDragon","og_description":"Eight years have passed since Jeffrey Eugenides\u00a0won the\u00a02003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction\u00a0(as well as too many other accolades to list) for this, his second novel, and nine years since it was first published. 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