Book Club Guide

Middlesex

by Jeffrey Eugenides · 2002 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

The intersex body as both biological fact and cultural construction
Three generations of Greek-American assimilation — and its limits
Identity as something discovered, not chosen

About this book

Three generations of a Greek-American family and a story of identity that crosses borders and bodies.

Published in 2002, Middlesex won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. Eugenides spent nine years writing it, extensively researching intersex conditions, Greek history, and the history of Detroit.

Discussion questions

Cal is both the narrator of his own story and a kind of archaeologist of his family history. How does Eugenides manage this dual perspective — and what does it say about the relationship between personal identity and inherited history?
The novel covers three generations of the Stephanides family, from Smyrna to Detroit. What does this broad historical canvas add to what might otherwise be a more intimate story?
Cal chooses to live as male. How does the novel treat this choice — as the only authentic option, as one among several, or as something more ambiguous?
The novel engages with both genetics and culture in shaping identity. Does it resolve the nature/nurture question — or complicate it in ways that resist resolution?
Middlesex won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. What do you think the prize recognised — and does the novel earn its prestige as literature rather than as a document of intersex experience?