Middlesex: A Novel"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver’s license...records my first name simply as Cal." So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic. |
Contents
The Silver Spoon | 3 |
Matchmaking | 19 |
An Immodest Proposal | 40 |
The Silk Road | 63 |
BOOK TWO | 77 |
Henry Fords EnglishLanguage Melting Pot | 79 |
Minotaurs | 106 |
Marriage on Ice | 126 |
The Mediterranean Diet | 271 |
The Wolverette | 291 |
Waxing Lyrical | 307 |
The Obscure Object | 319 |
Tiresias in Love | 340 |
Flesh and Blood | 361 |
The Gun on the Wall | 377 |
BOOK FOUR | 399 |
Tricknology | 149 |
Clarinet Serenade | 166 |
News of the World | 183 |
Ex Ovo Omnia | 198 |
BOOK THREE | 213 |
Home Movies | 215 |
Opa | 232 |
Middlesex | 252 |
The Oracular Vulva | 401 |
Looking Myself Up in Websters | 424 |
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 door dress everything eyes face Fard Father Mike feel felt front gender identity girl grandfather grandmother grandparents Greek Greektown Grosse Pointe hair hand happened head hermaphrodite hot dogs inside Jerome Jimmy knew laughed Lefty Lefty's legs light Lina lips living 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 Tessie's thing told took trying turned voice waiting watched wearing wedding crown window women worry yia yia Zebra Room Zizmo Zoë Zora