Middlesex

Cal, as a narrator, captivates like Tristram Shandy, Ishmael, and Holden Caulfield combined, offering a compelling depiction of a family's chaotic journey through the 20th century American landscape, as highlighted by The New York Times. The New York Times Book Review describes this work as expansive and quintessentially American, while the Los Angeles Times Book Review praises Eugenides as the distinguished American writer many anticipated he would be. The Boston Globe regards the novel as audacious and delightful, venturing into uncharted narrative territories with lyrical elegance. People magazine calls it an epic, thrilling in its imaginative breadth and unexpectedly tender. The San Francisco Chronicle Book Review emphasizes its unique American tale: an immigrant's son finding love despite feeling out of place. Men's Journal likens the novel's treatment of a hermaphrodite to Thomas Wolfe's portrayal of adolescence in "Look Homeward, Angel," encapsulating themes of fate, family, identity, and America itself. USA Today commends its wild inventiveness, often delivering humor and warmth.