Scooter Chronicles

This morning I finished “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides. It was the audio version as read by Kristoffer Tabori. The book itself won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Here is the description from amazon.com about the book:

“I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.” And so begins Middlesex, the mesmerizing saga of a near-mythic Greek American family and the “roller-coaster ride of a single gene through time.” The odd but utterly believable story of Cal Stephanides, and how this 41-year-old hermaphrodite was raised as Calliope, is at the tender heart of this long-awaited second novel from Jeffrey Eugenides, whose elegant and haunting 1993 debut, “The Virgin Suicides”, remains one of the finest first novels of recent memory.

Eugenides weaves together a kaleidoscopic narrative spanning 80 years of a stained family history, from a fateful incestuous union in a small town in early 1920s Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit; from the early days of Ford Motors to the heated 1967 race riots; from the tony suburbs of Grosse Pointe and a confusing, aching adolescent love story to modern-day Berlin. Eugenides’s command of the narrative is astonishing. He balances Cal/Callie’s shifting voices convincingly, spinning this strange and often unsettling story with intelligence, insight, and generous amounts of humor.

I am not sure if it was the fact that being audio there was more to the characters, but this was an incredible story. I was totally brought in at the start. It was suggested to me by a fellow co-worker of mine. Glad I took the idea. Before Marcia and I headed out to Detroit, I went to the library to get a few audio books. I thought it would pass the time better. It did, and luckily I came across “Middlesex” in the bunch.

Obviously even without the audio, I probably would have enjoyed it. Their is so much to the story that draws you in. So much emotion from all the characters. It is easy to quickly get attached to them and care about them. And along with the amazing secrets that you the reader are let in to, it is exciting to see how things play out. At times Eugenides used foreshadowing that commanded you to keep reading/listening to find out all the facts.

A note on Kristoffer Tabori’s handling of the story. This is my first audio book, but I think he did an amazing job bringing out the characters. Giving each person their own voice. Though at times they did change a bit to better differentiate when certain characters were talking to each other. But some of the voices he did really gave you the impression that it was someone else voicing those characters. He brought forth a lot of the emotion and appropriate times. Had the appropriate pauses of characters when needed and not in the narrative of the text. The gasps or other noises that the characters might have made. It was all very well done. And from what I have seen on amazon.com, this is not the only book Tabori had narrated, and he has even won a couple of awards for his work in audio books. (Not sure if “Middlesex” was one or not.)

I know that the subject matter, or some of the things that the characters do or actually are might repel people from reading this book. But if you enjoy reading, and can get by those items, or don’t find them that disturbing, do yourself a favor and read this when you can. It is a very compelling story. And I think you will find yourself really caring for the Stephanides (ste-fon-a-deez) family like I did and excepting their faults as you would the ones that you love.