49. Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex

This is the story of Cal (born Calliope) Stephanides, who finds out when she was a teenager that she is actually a hermaphrodite. Written when the Cal is 41-years old, he tells the story of how the mutant gene carrying his fateful destiny was passed on through the generations. More of a family history than a biography, the story covers the family's expansions, marriage, and turmoils covering an 80-year period. It first starts out with a brother and sister living in a small village in Asia Minor declare their love for each other and marry on their way to America escaping the advancing Turks. Once the couple landed in Detroit, the family expanded and set up shop in 1920's America with first Prohibition and then a decade later the Depression. Then, Cal's mother and father, who are second cousins, marry and pass along the mutated gene even further along. The story continues to follow the family along through the Depression and the Post-War years. Then in 1960 Calliope is born, a supposedly healthy baby, and the story includes her development through childhood and into the terribly years of puberty with her struggles of not developing like the rest of the girls and with her crushes on other girls. After an accident, doctors realize that she is actually a hermaphrodite with XY chromosomes.

The only reason why I read this book was because a neighbor had lent it to me. At first it didn't seem like my sort of book (I read mostly fantasy and mystery), but I ended up really enjoying this book. It wasn't so much the story of Cal that interested me, but the family history that Eugenides added to the story and the passing of that mutant gene. I got sucked up into the whole story and felt myself becoming a part of the family, happy in times of excess and sad in times of tragedy. I would definitely recommend this book.