MiddlesexLefty and Desdemona must flee the Turks who are invading their crumbling city in the Ottoman Empire, and decide to head for America. What this unusual brother and sister do not realise is that a rare genetic mutation is following them. It secretly travels with them first to Detroit, and then to suburbia, through prohibition and the race riots of 1967. And in the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry-blonde classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that develops between them leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. Through eight decades - and one unusually awkward adolescence - Jeffrey Eugenides’ long-awaited second novel is a breathtaking vision of the American Dream and a modern fable of crossed bloodlines, immigration, the intricacies of gender, and deep, untidy desire. |
Contents
The Silver Spoon | 3 |
Matchmaking | 19 |
An Immodest Proposal | 40 |
The Silk Road | 63 |
Henry Fords EnglishLanguage Melting Pot | 79 |
Minotaurs | 106 |
Marriage on Ice | 126 |
Tricknology | 149 |
The Wolverette | 291 |
Waxing Lyrical | 307 |
The Obscure Object | 319 |
Tiresias in Love | 340 |
Flesh and Blood | 361 |
The Gun on the Wall | 377 |
The Oracular Vulva | 401 |
Looking Myself Up in Websters | 424 |
Clarinet Serenade | 166 |
News of the World | 183 |
Ex Ovo Omnia | 198 |
Home Movies | 215 |
Opa | 232 |
Middlesex | 252 |
The Mediterranean Diet | 271 |
Go West Young Man | 440 |
Gender Dysphoria in San Francisco | 459 |
Hermaphroditus | 478 |
AirRide | 497 |
The Last Stop | 513 |
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Common terms and phrases
5-alpha-reductase deficiency arms asked baby bedroom began body brassiere brother Bursa Cadillac Callie Calliope Chapter Eleven church clarinet climbed cousin dark demona Desdemona Detroit didn’t door dress everything eyes face Fard Father Mike feel felt front girl grandfather grandmother grandparents Greek Greektown Grosse Pointe hair hand happened head hermaphrodite hot dogs inside Jeffrey Eugenides Jerome Jimmy knew laughed Lefty legs light Lina lips looked Luce married Middlesex Milton morning mother moved movie never night nose Obscure Object Okay parents Philobosian play pulled rebetika rum-running shouted silk silkworm smell smiling smoke Smyrna Sourmelina Stephanides stood stopped street tell Tessie thing told took trying turned voice waiting watched wearing wedding crown window women worry yia yia Zebra Room Zizmo Zoë Zora