![]() For the person with intersex, there is often a disconnect between inhabiting a body that feels fine to its owner, yet elicits horrified responses and drastic measures from others. He also is clear about the confusion this can create. Throughout, Eugenides depicts the shame of being used as a scientific specimen and being made to display one's genitals to endless interns and specialists. ![]() In short, her penis/clitoris starts growing.Įugenides won me over from the opening paragraph of the novel, in which Cal lists his appearances in medical journals as a naked body with a black box covering his eyes. Cal is raised as a girl named Calliope, and her condition isn't discovered until puberty, when her body develops differently than expected. ![]() A person with an intersex condition is one who is born with reproductive anatomy that someone decided isn't standard for male or female. The protagonist, a man named Cal Stephanides, tells us he has a rare genetic condition called 5-alpha reductase deficiency syndrome, an intersex condition. What's got everyone all abuzz is that the main character is a "hermaphrodite." Or, more accurately put, the main character is someone with an intersex condition. Reviews of Jeffrey Eugenides' latest book, IVliddlesex, and interviews with the author make it clear that no one is all that interested in the fact that the novel is a sweeping saga that spans three generations of a Greek family and follows them through eight decades of wars, immigrations, race riots and murderous feuding. ![]()
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