Middlesex

Unabridged
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Narrator: Kristoffer Tabori
Genres: Fiction, Literature
Publisher: Audio Renaissance
Date: January 2004
Length: 21 hours
Ratings:
Formats:
  • CD

Overview

In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school, Grosse Pointe, MI, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry-blonde classmate 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. 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, 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.

Sprawling across eight decades - and one unusually awkward adolescence - Jeffrey Eugenide'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.

Reviews (40)

Fantastic

Written by Nikkie on December 18th, 2009

  • Book Rating: 5/5

Hysterically funny and at times shocking. Kristoffer Tabori did a fantastic job as the reader. I recommended this book to my friends, but at the same time I suggested that if at all possible, they should get the audio version with Tabori as a reader. As good as this story is, Tabori makes it even more special.

Middlesex (Part 1)

Written by Jo on October 7th, 2009

  • Book Rating: 5/5

This book has taken a very unusual subject and presented it within a family history, funny, and real, if you grew up from an ethnic background you can't help but love this book! Jo

Middlesex

Written by Anonymous from Athens, AL on September 24th, 2009

  • Book Rating: 5/5

The reader was very good and the story was addictive to listen to.

Kept me wanting more

Written by Anonymous on August 24th, 2009

  • Book Rating: 4/5

I really enjoyed this book. The reader was great and the story had me looking forward to my drive to and from work! The story was bizarre but the author made it sound so real. I really enjoyed it.

Very entertaining

Written by Luci on August 18th, 2009

  • Book Rating: 5/5

I found this book entrancing. The characters were beautifully developed. The story was captivating, and the reader did a marvelous job! I loved his intonations and the way he characterized each of the players in the story. I am not into the second set CDs and don't want the story to end!

Middlesex (Part 1)

Written by gabby on August 13th, 2009

  • Book Rating: 4/5

It was a little long but I found it very interesting.

Tasteless and Superfluous

Written by Adonia on July 28th, 2009

  • Book Rating: 1/5

This is simply the worst piece of "literature" that I have encountered in years. If the production of the audio wasn't done so well, I wouldn't have made it to the end. While the writer has an impressive vocabulary, the writing itself is superfluous. The story line tries to cover in too much detail of too many facts across too many generations. Additionally, I felt that many of the detailed descriptions of young girls in a sexual context were highly inappropriate and in bad taste.

Oprah Strikes Out

Written by Peggy Stortz on June 7th, 2009

  • Book Rating: 1/5

I tried. I really tried to get into this book. I listened to the first 2 CD's which was nearly 3 hours, but I found myself daydreaming--making grocery lists in my head. Since the book is 18 CDs, I decided there are too many outstanding audios for me to waste more time on this one. The summary sounds fascinating, but it takes forever to get to the story.

A Must Read!!

Written by Julie on April 14th, 2009

  • Book Rating: 5/5

I very much enjoyed this book, and would highly recommend it. The book was well written and the narration was excellent.

Middlesex

Written by Anonymous on March 5th, 2009

  • Book Rating: 5/5

This is a very entertaining book. Very well written. The descriptions of the characters really bring them to life. I love the narrator and his ability to help me see male and female characters in full 3D. I highly recommend this book.

Author Details

Author Details

Eugenides, Jeffrey

Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1960. He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, and received an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Stanford University in 1986. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published to acclaim in 1993. It has been translated into fifteen languages and made into a feature film. 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." In 2003, Jeffrey Eugenides received The Pulitzer Prize for his novel Middlesex (2002).

Eugenides is the recipient of many awards, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Whiting Writers' Award, and the Henry D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In the past few years he has been a Fellow of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm of the DAAD and of the American Academy in Berlin. After spending some time in Berlin, Eugenides now lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter where he is on the faculty of Princeton University's Program in Creative Writing. In January 2008 he published an anthology, My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro, the proceeds of which will go directly to fund the free youth writing programs offered by 826 Chicago which is part of the network of seven writing centers across the United States affiliated with 826 National, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.