![]() ![]() The novel engages with themes of rebirth, ethnic identity, gender, hybridity, monstrosity, free will and destiny, and classical Greek motifs, while experimenting with narrative structure and narrative voice. Along the way, they encounter racism, difficulty, poverty, wealth, rebellion, and tragedy. The Stephanides' journey mirrors that of the American Dream, of immigrants who move to America for freedom and opportunity. Middlesex anchors itself to many specific historic ideas and events, including the Balkan Wars, the Nation of Islam, and the Detroit race riots. The novel moves beyond Cal's life, however, and tells the story of the whole family: from the flight of Cal's grandparents, Lefty and Desdemona, from the Turkish Army to America to the courtship of his parents, Milton and Tessie, during World War II to Cal's own childhood growing up in Detroit in the 1960s and 70s. Thanks to a recessive gene passed down by his inbred family, Cal suffers from 5-alpha-reductase deficiency syndrome, a condition that suppresses masculine hormones in the womb, but not at puberty. Middlesex, published in 2002 by Jeffrey Eugenides, is the story of Cal Stephanides, an intersex person born in 1960 to a Greek-American family living in a wealthy suburb of Detroit. ![]()
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