Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides is one of the worst books I’ve read in a long time. It’s part of Oprah’s book club, and was recommended by my mom and her husband. This is not a book I would normally have picked up for myself from the bookstore, but it was close enough to the type of books that I like, so I thought I’d give it a try.
The story is a first person narrative by the character Calliope who was born (and raised) as a girl, but as a teenager learns that due to a chromosomal mutation, she is actually genetically male and a hermaphrodite. This fact was conveniently missed at birth, and thus the story ensues.
Normally, I can finish a good book within a week, and a long book in 2-3 weeks. This book felt like it took months to read. After every few pages, I’d check the clock because it felt like I’d been reading for hours. Even in 10 minute increments, this book felt long, dry, and difficult. Difficult not because it was literarily challenging, or challenging in any way other than the story was completely boring and the progress of the narrative was so slow.
The narrative starts in the first person, but quickly changes to Calliope telling the story of her grandparents and then her parents, intermixed with not nearly enough about Calliope’s own life. It is not until the end of the novel that it dives into Calliope’s life and transformation from girl to hermaphroditic male.
Calliope’s brother also has a role in the story, and he is referenced as only “Chapter Eleven”, which bugged me from the beginning because I knew that couldn’t actually be his name but reference and it’s source is not revealed until the very end of the book. I found this to detract rather than add to the story.
All in all, I felt this book was a huge waste of time, and in the future I think I am going to be less likely to pick a up book based on the “Oprah’s Book Club” sticker on the front. This is the second disappointing selection, the first being Love in the Time of Cholera, which I found to be almost as terrible as Middlesex.