Björn recenserade Middlesex av Jeffrey Eugenides
None
4 stjärnor
(Originally reviewed 2006)
One thing I loved about this book was the running theme of... call it "neither/nor". The protagonists, over several generations, keep falling between the cracks in a society hell-bent on either/or. (Of course, there's the title too - MIDDLEsex.) Cal is neither man nor woman. His/her family is neither European nor Asian, since they come from a part of Europe that has since become Turkish. (Take for instance the part where Cal's grandmother is accepted to work for Muslims, since she can be assumed to be at least part Muslims, as much as that irks her...) His/Her grandparents are siblings, and a married couple - two states which contradict each other, so they can't quite be either. They move to America and become neither Europeans nor Americans, working in the most typical businesses (cars, bars, booze) but never becoming completely assimilated. Too black to be white, too …
(Originally reviewed 2006)
One thing I loved about this book was the running theme of... call it "neither/nor". The protagonists, over several generations, keep falling between the cracks in a society hell-bent on either/or. (Of course, there's the title too - MIDDLEsex.) Cal is neither man nor woman. His/her family is neither European nor Asian, since they come from a part of Europe that has since become Turkish. (Take for instance the part where Cal's grandmother is accepted to work for Muslims, since she can be assumed to be at least part Muslims, as much as that irks her...) His/Her grandparents are siblings, and a married couple - two states which contradict each other, so they can't quite be either. They move to America and become neither Europeans nor Americans, working in the most typical businesses (cars, bars, booze) but never becoming completely assimilated. Too black to be white, too white to be black, too well-to-do to be poor, to non-WASP to be your typical suburbans. Everyone is constantly both and neither.
You've got the scene in which Cal's grandmother dangles a spoon over her daughter's belly, swinging back and forth to determine the sex of her baby. The whole book is a pendulum, going back and forth and never quite stopping.
