MIDDLESEX: Jeffrey Eugenides proves that he is no fluke

When Jeffrey Eugenides dazzled us with his first novel `The Virgin Suicides’ in 1993, we didn’t know what expect next. Would he be able to produce another novel as lyrical and dreamy as his debut? Or was he another fluke, a one-book wirter?

It took almost ten years, but it was worth waiting. His follow up is as good as `Virgins’, if not even better. `Middlesex’ is many things but an ordinary story. At first level it is the story of a hermaphrodite discovering his/her body and trying to cope with it. The novel is also a vast panorama of the story of the XX Century, showing events such as the genocide in Greece, the first days of Ford Motors, the Prohibition era and the 1967 race riots –not forgetting to mention life in the pos-wall Berlin.

History epic aside, `Middlesex’ is also a personal journey of a human being trying to figure out what he is doing in the world, what life means, where we are being led to. Callie –and Cal later on– has many questions, and no answers, and she is not even aware where to find them. She knows she is different, but she doesn’t know that extension of that.

The first person narrative brings power to the novel. Callie’s voice is beautiful and said at the same time. Her family –with no surprise– is what brings her together. Even when she is not with them. At a certain point, one must run away from his/her family in order to understand his/her origins. And this is exactly what happens to Callie/Cal. In a level this book is a coming-of-age tale –a very very different one, but still a novel about becoming an adult, and leaving behind all you used to believe as a child.

Somehow, this is an extension to what he worked with in `Virgin’. We will never forget that dialogue between a shrink and one of the girls, when he asks why she tried to kill herself, she didn’t even know how hard life can be. And her smart answer is that he had never been a 13 year-old girl.

Eugenides make no concessions. The novel has a sad tone –despite some funny parts. The lesson we learn is `life is no easy’. And we have to struggle to survive. Not many writers have the courage to write like that. With `Middlesex’ he proves he is not a fluke, that `The Virgin Suicides’ is indeed a work of genius and that his Pulitzer is more than deserved.