Middlesex
Jeffrey Eugenides · b. 1960 · United States
Why it matters
A Greek-American intersex narrator traces three generations of family history from a Smyrna catastrophe to 1970s Detroit. A Pulitzer-winning epic of genetics, immigration, and identity.
At a glance
family sagabildungsroman
Difficulty 6/10medium pace529 pagesSweeping multigenerational scope narrated by a genre-bending narrator.
Deep dive
A single recessive gene, married into the family by its own founders, takes three generations and a war to finally express itself — and the whole epic turns out to be that gene's biography.
Where to go next
Jeffrey Eugenides · 1993The Virgin SuicidesLvl 5Medium pace
Jonathan Franzen · 2001The CorrectionsLvl 6Medium pace
Jhumpa Lahiri · 1999Interpreter of MaladiesLvl 3Medium pace
Junot Díaz · 2007The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WaoLvl 7Fast paced
Elena Ferrante · 2011My Brilliant FriendLvl 3Fast paced
D. H. Lawrence · 1913Sons and LoversLvl 5Medium pace