Jeffrey Eugenides

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I have no idea who he is, i just found out about him browsing on the internet. I can understand he is a Greek fellow, or, at least, he must have Greek roots, and i am quite happy someone from my country has reached such a level of respect within the authol circle.

>>By STAV   (Saturday, 25 Jan 2003 19:36)



I was intrigued by this new book . I heard an absolutely incredible rumour that it was based on his own experience . I he a hermaphrodite ? What's going on ? IS it autobiographical , or what ?

>>By Marie   (Saturday, 25 Jan 2003 19:36)



that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard

>>By Bellamy   (Saturday, 25 Jan 2003 19:36)



Jeffrey Eugenides is an amazing writer of Greek-American descent. The Virgin Suicides is a poignant portrayal of love and loss, of the vast significance in our everyday activities, the terrible waste of suicide, and the decay of industry, of the environment, of innocence, of the American dream. Middlesex, his second novel, is a sweeping epic tale of one family's emigration to American from Greece, and the hermaphroditic element, in my opinion, was a metaphor for being an outsider, trapped between two worlds, between two economic realities. I do not think that Jeffrey Eugenides is actually a hermaphrodite, although at times I had to flip back and check the biography on the back cover to make sure. It says that, although his picture matches the description of the main character in the book, and both live in Berlin and grew up in Grosse Pointe, Eugenides in real life has a wife and children. He chooses an interesting way of blending fiction and reality, though.

>>By Matt   (Saturday, 25 Jan 2003 19:36)



If I loved "The Virgin Suicides", "Middlesex" absolutely blew me away. I found it hard to stop reading and was so sorry when I got to the last page. Beautiful story writer with great psychological insight. I hope his next novel won't keep us waiting as long.

>>By Kitten   (Saturday, 25 Jan 2003 19:36)



book good

>>By jm   (Tuesday, 8 Apr 2003 21:46)



The only thing I can say about Jeffrey is that he is totaly SWEET and cool guy.. I had a chance to meet him and be by his side for a few days.. and he broke my heart by his honesty and tender eyes.. I loved The Virgin Suicides and havenĀ“t read Middlesex yet..

>>By NaMe   (Friday, 11 Apr 2003 21:55)



Goodness, people, no. I've read numerous reviews between Jeffrey Eugenides and reliable sources, and he is not a hermaphrodite. He went through more than enough stages writing each chapter of Middlesex, because the history of hermaphrodites and other cultures had to be studied in order to be accurate enough to portray in such a book. I suppose you could say that Eugenides created a masterpiece if Middlesex was convincing enough to persuade many of you to believe or even consider that he is a hermaphrodite. He is a stoically beautiful writer- he is poetry in all essence.

>>By Loryn   (Tuesday, 13 May 2003 00:23)



He is so great his books touch my heart i can related to them all

>>By vanessa perez   (Thursday, 12 Jun 2003 18:30)



I've not read The Virgin Suicides, but Middlesex was amazing. The pain and difficulty of Calliope (Cal) were so believable, and I would highly recommend this book to anyone at all. I know very little about the Pulitzer prize, or how the winners are selected, but it doesn't surprise me at all that this book won such a major award. Truly beautiful.

>>By Caenis   (Wednesday, 6 Aug 2003 05:08)



I think he might be a distant cousin of mine. We Eugenides come from Asia Minor and not the area where Greece is located today.
Asia Minor Greeks are decendents from Phoenecians conquered by Alexander the Great and later enslaved by the Romans. That area of Turkey is the cradle of where Christianity developed in the waning centuries of the Roman Empire. It's the heart of where the Eastern Orthodox church thrives even though it is now called Instanbul, Turkey.

The name Eugenides basically means in Greek "a person of noble lineage"... "Eu" means "good" and the "gen" means family or lineage (genetics, genesis, genes etc.)
The name Eugene comes from this same source, and of course the word Eugenics.

The story of the Eugenides name is that it was a name created by the church in the early 1800's. It was awarded to a man by a high official in the Orthodox Church for his charitable works. This man had four sons who eventually emmigrated to the United States. Apparently all people named Eugenides are decendents from one of these 4 sons. My ancestors also came to America by way of Michigan like Jeffrey Eugenides but I believe he's a decendent of one of the other brothers.
Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s I was living in Manhattan and occasionally would get a phone call meant for Jeffrey (who was living in Brooklyn) because of the similarity of our names. Little did I know then that he would be a Pulitzer Prize winning author. My dream is that he will one day be famous enough that I wont have to constantly pronounce my name for people.

>>By Jason Eugenides   (Tuesday, 30 Sep 2003 17:11)



I've read both of his novels. What I love the most about him is his beautiful flow of words, and his great sensitivity. The way he can suggest without being too obvious. It wasn't easy to write a saga such as Middlesex, but still, he manages to make you feel you're there, alongside Calliope. The sense of details, the accuracy of characterization. Many books have been written about, let's say, the 30's. But for me, it's like black and white reading. Just like an old film, or an old photograph. History.
Not for Middlesex. Eugenides has this rare ability to make it really alive.

>>By aaken   (Saturday, 10 Apr 2004 12:39)



I belong to a reading group and we have just read Middlesex. Out of 14 of us only myself and another person really didn't enjoy this novel. Whilst I found most of Cal's story sad and interesting, I hated the "knowing asides" in the first part of the novel, the potted social history of the US (which I knew about already) and the implausible parts of the story. An OK book bit really don't see what all the fuss is about!

>>By cervalan   (Sunday, 11 Apr 2004 17:19)



I love him. He's my favourite modern writer. Middlesex was so screwed up book that I couldn't stop reading... the last page came too fast.

>>By Catri   (Friday, 24 Sep 2004 18:06)



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