Middlesex by Jeffrey Engenides

Meeting date: September 24, 2009
Discussion Questions

1. What made you want to read this book? After finishing it, what about it has stuck with you the most?

2.  Middlesex is so much more than a coming of age story. What makes this story different than books like The Catcher in the Rye, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, aside from Cal’s obvious transformation?
3.  Describing his own conception, Cal writes: "The timing of the thing had to be just so in order for me to become the person I am. Delay the act by an hour and you change the gene selection" (p. 11). Is Cal's condition a result of chance or of fate? Which of these forces governs the world as Cal sees it?

4.  The title Middlesex doesn’t just refer to the street in Grosse Point; discuss some of the other meanings or interpretations that come to mind.

5.  There are many pairs of characters in this novel. How do their lives parallel and differ from one another: Desdemona and Lefty, Tessie and Milton, Callie and Cal?

6.  Which of the supporting characters in the novel stand out to you the most? Jimmy Zizmo, Father Mike, The Obscure Object, etc and what role did they have in the story. Were there too many characters?
7.  Calliope is the name of the classical Greek muse of eloquence and epic poetry. What elements of Greek mythology figure in Cal’s story? Is this novel meant to be a new/modern “myth”?

8.  Middlesex is set against the backdrop of several historical events: the war between Greece and Turkey, the rise of the Nation of Islam, World War II, and the Detroit riots. How does history shape the lives of the characters in the novel?
9.  What does America represent for Desdemona? For Milton? For Cal? To what extent do you think these characters’ different visions of America correspond to their status as first-, second-, and third-generation Greek Americans?
10.  How are Cal’s early sexual experiences similar to those of any adolescent? How are they different? Are the differences more significant than the similarities?

*Questions developed by Darlene Hellenberg and borrowed from Reading Group Guides