Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Completion Date: June 11, 2007
Publication Year: 2004
Pages: 544
Owned Prior to 2007

A dazzling triumph from the bestselling author of The Virgin Suicides--the astonishing tale of a gene that passes down through three generations of a Greek-American family and flowers in the body of a teenage girl.

In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school in Grosse Pointe, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry blond clasmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between them--along with Callie's failure to develop--leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. In fact, she is not really a girl at all.

The explanation for this shocking state of affairs takes us out of suburbia- back before the Detroit race riots of 1967, before the rise of the Motor City and Prohibition, to 1922, when the Turks sacked Smyrna and Callie's grandparents fled for their lives. Back to a tiny village in Asia Minor where two lovers, and one rare genetic mutation, set in motion the metamorphosis that will turn Callie into a being both mythical and perfectly real: a hermaphrodite.

Spanning eight decades--and one unusually awkward adolescence- Jeffrey Eugenides's long-awaited second novel is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire. It marks the fulfillment of a huge talent, named one of America's best young novelists by both Granta and The New Yorker.

This book won the Pulitizer Prize and is the newest Oprah Book Club pick. It has been sitting on my to be read pile for a couple years now. I did not read it because was the Oprah summer pick, but more because I have wanted to read it for a while and was just really slow getting around to it. I really enjoyed The Virgin Suicides by him, but I think I liked this book better. It took a while to come out, and you can see the research put into it.

This book does a very good job of covering gender identity. Calliope was born, and because of a quick glance, believed to be a normal, healthy baby girl. It was her teenage years before the doctor discovered he had made a mistake, she spent many years as a girl and then learned that this might not be the right thing for her. Instead of just talking about Callope Stephanides as the 41-year-old narrator, Cal tells the story of the grandparents that started the genes moving towards her, of her parents that carried the family genes that were together for the first time and could thus be passed on to her. Engenides creates the history and the background for why Cal was born the way that he was.

There are some great characters in this book. The story is told from Cal's point of view as him writing his memoirs, so we get a taste of him as both a child and a few glimpses into his current adult life. Through his eyes, we learn what it is like to be a hermaphodite and the struggles that creates for a person. Eugenides decides to have the child that was raised as a girl become a man when they learn the truth of what they are. Cal, if they had a good doctor, would have been marked as a boy from the start, but the doctor did not look closely enough and so she was raised as a girl. Despite the fact that they feel compelled to change to a different gender, Cal says that he was comfortable when he was a girl and not so comfortable as a male. Gender identity is a very fluid thing that is more inspired by your up-bringing than anything else. There are rules as to what it is to be male or female.

Desdemona, Cal's grandmother is a very interesting character to read about. She feels that what happens to Cal is punishment for the sins that she has committed and worried about since she was a young woman. She was expecting something bad to happen, but when Cal was thought to have been born fine, she thought that the danger had passed. She comes from a small place that was very common for intermarriage, and thus often had cases of babies being born one sex and discovering they were another when they were older. I find that while her husband, Lefty was in the novel, the story relied more on the female side of the relationship. I feel I got to know Desdemona better than Lefty.

Other characters include Cal's brother, Chapter Eleven, which I had hoped to learn the name origin for, but it was never revealed. He got off slightly okay, his cousins had names like Plato and Cleopatra. I do not find that the parents were covered as much as the grandparents, but we get to see how they met and how their relationship played out, as well as a few other glimpses throughout the novel. I just found myself wondering how they could have overlooked Cal's complete lack of development for so long and what they did notice, consider normal.

My only problem with this book were there were a few spots where the book dragged a bit and I found myself skimming. Overall, though, it was a very good read. I recommend this book! It's very different than the normal fiction covering the shelves.

The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier

Books Completed: 66
Completion Date: April 2007
Publication Year:
Pages:
Purchased in 2007

"I have no wish to play the pontificating fool, pretending that I've suddenly come up with the answers to all life's questions. Quite that contrary, I began this book as an exploration, an exercise in self-questing. In other words, I wanted to find out, as I looked back at a long and complicated life, with many twists and turns, how well I've done at measuring up to the values I myself have set."
—Sidney Poitier

In this luminous memoir, a true American icon looks back on his celebrated life and career. His body of work is arguably the most morally significant in cinematic history, and the power and influence of that work are indicative of the character of the man behind the many storied roles. Sidney Poitier here explores these elements of character and personal values to take his own measure—as a man, as a husband and a father, and as an actor.

Poitier credits his parents and his childhood on tiny Cat Island in the Bahamas for equipping him with the unflinching sense of right and wrong and of self-worth that he has never surrendered and that have dramatically shaped his world. "In the kind of place where I grew up," recalls Poitier, "what's coming at you is the sound of the sea and the smell of the wind and momma's voice and the voice of your dad and the craziness of your brothers and sisters...and that's it." Without television, radio, and material distractions to obscure what matters most, he could enjoy the simple things, endure the long commitments, and find true meaning in his life.

Poitier was uncompromising as he pursued a personal and public life that would honor his upbringing and the invaluable legacy of his parents. Just a few years after his introduction to indoor plumbing and the automobile, Poitier broke racial barrier after racial barrier to launch a pioneering acting career. Committed to the notion that what one does for a living articulates to who one is, Poitier played only forceful and affecting characters who said something positive, useful, and lasting about the human condition.

Here is Poitier's own introspective look at what has informed his performances and his life. Poitier explores the nature of sacrifice and commitment, price and humility, rage and forgiveness, and paying the price for artistic integrity. What emerges is a picture of a man in the face of limits—his own and the world's. A triumph of the spirit, The Measure of a Man captures the essential Poitier.

Another buddy review with me and Marg from Reading Adventures. Marg is in black and I am in blue.

My journey toward blogging pretty much started with joining Oprah's Book Club, and that is where I originally 'met' Kailana, and so it is somewhat apt that we do a joint review of this book, which was an Oprah pick earlier this year. It took a while for me to read this book because I am not really of the generation which was a big Sidney Poitier fan, so I read it because I have read most of the Oprah books over the years. It was also fitting to final buddy review an Oprah book with Marg.

I will start off by saying that Sidney Poitier stars in one of my favourite movies ever, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner....yes, the original version, not the Ashton Kutcher version, but other than the fact that he was generally regarded as one of the major Hollywood stars during the 60s I didn't really know all that much about him. I had heard of Sidney Poitier before, but I have never seen any of his movies before. One of these days I will have to because I have of course heard of his movies before. Most of my knowledge of him comes from my grandmother and mother who both were happy to see me reading his memoir.

In some ways this book wasn't actually what I expected. I think I expected more of a traditional autobiography following a chronological order, but instead this book was more a series of reflections on some of the issues that people face in life. One of the major focusses of the book was racism, and the discrimination that Poitier faced throughout his career, and also the opposition that he faced as a man who was seen to be typecast as a good guy, and not necessarily someone who fought against the racist Hollywood system. I thought it was interesting to hear what Poitier went through to get where he is. It is really an amazing story, even if we know that it would have had to been hard considering the time that he grew up in. Growing up in a white, middle-class home, it is always helpful to see other sides of the picture and to know what other people had to get through to become the people that they are today.

Along the way there was also reflections on the current generation of kids who need everything now, particularly material goods, and on near death experiences that he had.
In terms of the writing style, there were occasions throughout this book where I could just hear the voice of Sidney Poitier, with his distinct accent, coming through on the pages. It wasn't however consistent, and there were definitely other times when that voice was indistinct. I was interested to see how he sees the society today, though. We are from very different generations and from different societies, so it is always interesting to see what society is like from a different point of view. I do think that I would have liked this book more if I really knew who Poitier is, because while I have heard him talk, it is not enough that I heard his accent in my head while reading it. I did reflect on how he talks about his education and how he went for years with little education and yet was able to write such a reflective book.

After reading books like this, I am reminded that I really should read more non fiction....one of these days! I have actually been reading a resonable amount of non-fiction lately, so this just adds to the ranks.

Rating 4/5
3.5/5