Middlesex (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
- First Published: 2002
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 1922-2001
- Setting: Detroit
- Principal Characters: Calliope Stephanides, Desdemona Stephanides, Eleutherios Stephanides, Milton Stephanides, Theodora Stephanides, Sourmelina Zizmo, Jimmy Zizmo, Michael Antoniou
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Girls, United States or Americans, Mythology or myths, Sex or sexuality, Twentieth century, Twenty-first century, Incest, Immigration or emigration, Grandparents or grandchildren, Michigan, Genetics, Greece or Greek people
- Locales: Detroit, MI, Asia Minor, Smyrna
Middlesex, the long-awaited and Pulitzer Prize-winning second novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, unfolds like a Greek drama, with a sense of inevitability and of underlying purpose in what might be seen as random and coincidental occurrences. Characters suffer from flaws that the reader knows will somehow be their undoing but act according to their seemingly free will, even when taking actions that they suspect will prove ruinous. The moral lessons, barring an admonition against incest, are not as obvious as in Greek drama, but the reader leaves the book feeling that the gods do in fact...
[The entire page is 1939 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
