Finished "Middlesex"

I've been very busy (family travel, work), so I'm a bit late making this entry. This is from my April 15 paper journal.

Finished "Middlesex". Loved reading it, but I have a couple of deep misgivings.

The omniscient first person narrator. How can Callie write about her parents as if she were a third person narrator? It implies an aloofness and detachment from her subject that belies the actual narrator and character we come to know. Plus -- it's impossible. She writes about her parents and grandparents from a first person perspective -- we have to accept that Callie's inventing the stories, yet she doesn't acknowledge or own up to them as inventions. Instead, she splices the stories into the reel, as if they had the same weight as lived recollections. But this is impossible. If Callie invents stories about her parents and grandparents, and implies that these are true recollections, then she undercuts the narrative of her own life -- how do we know she isn't inventing those stories as well?

I know, even autobiography is invention. And I'm not saying the narrator can't invent stories about her relatives before she was born. But the reader trusts the narrator in autobiography (or at least, in successful autobiography). Here, I like Callie, but I'm confused.

It's a tribute to Eugenides that he can make us forget this impossibility while we read him.

There are a few clunky oddities in the book, such as the ludicrous idea that Father Nick, the shlumpy brother-in-law priest, turns extortionist (he makes sadistic phone calls to Milton while the liturgy is going on in the background -- give us a break). This ridiculous part nearly sank the last part of the book.

But overall, how can you not love Callie and the book, flaws and all? Eugenides describes what happens when impossible characteristics are united. The union, man and woman in one being, forever divided. Where does this soul find a home, a lover, peace?

There's an interesting Salon interview with Eugenides at this link: http://archive.salon.com/books/int/2002/10/08/eugenides/index.html

Now hooked on Middlesex

I've gotten hooked on Middlesex, despite my misgivings. Two thirds of the way through. Now that I've gotten into the narrator's more recent history -- describing events and people the narrator actually knew -- it's becomes a readable, interesting family history. And Greeks almost have to be described this way -- through their family lives.

About Lisa Kron's play "Well"

We saw Lisa Kron’s play “Well” last Saturday at the Huntington. Left with mixed feelings. This is a situation for a play that never quite coalesces into a play. There are plenty of good elements, and the expected themes of “wellness”, “integration”, and the mother-daughter tensions are sporadically kicked around the stage. There are a few poignant and mildly funny moments, mostly dealing with characters from Lisa’s childhood and the allergy clinic she was checked into while she was in college. For a few moments the characters are flesh and blood.

Otherwise, I found the characters to be stock and cartoonlike – each character says and does just what we’d expect them to say and do throughout. From the instant we see Lisa’s mother sleeping onstage, we know we’re going to find her loveable and wise with a few old fogey annoyances (which serve, of course, to make her more lovable). From the moment we see Lisa herself, we know she’s going to be appealing, self-deprecating, self-absorbed in a self-aware way, and ultimately she’ll tell us What It’s All About. And yes, she’ll tell us – rather than showing us.

The young black girl who inserts herself into the scenes is the single character who stands out. She occasionally saved us from Lisa’s monologues. Her aggressive behavior and speech was detailed and concise as a punch -- none of the other characters got close to her. Kron finally undermines her by showing how lovable she is, in fact, when Lisa’s mother, Ann, reduces her to a meek puppy when she tells her to “scoot”. I didn’t believe that, and any of Ann’s other bland nostrums, for a second.

I didn’t mind Kron’s moving about and touching erratically on different scenes from her life. I did sense that she was trying to fit the scenes into a dramatic picture. But the different scenes didn’t necessarily give us any new information about the characters and their situations. We statically moved from one to another. After Lisa’s introductory remarks, we could have jumped to any point in the play. We could have finished the play twenty minutes sooner – would it have mattered? The creaky play within a play concept only served to highlight a kind of tiredness in the playwright, that she couldn’t quite piece the elements together and breathe life into them.

I’m interested in why the NY Times and Boston Globe critics praised the play so much. Louise Kennedy, in the Globe, way overpraised it, I thought. Maybe I was in a cranky mood and didn’t see all the wit and joys in the play. Or maybe I’ve become basically a crank. I was surprised by the laughter and hooting from the audience – the lines just didn’t strike me as funny. Occasionally they were mildly amusing (again, with Lisa’s re-enacted scenes from teenage years), but the outright laughing mystified me. I wondered if Kron appealed to a particular audience that understood her better than I did, or with whom she shared a common language.

Have been reading Jeffrey Eugenides's book, "Middlesex". It's a passable read. He's got a nice, light touch, and the pages go by quickly. Can't help but feel that the characters are sort of wooden, spokespeople for different qualities or characteristics of the narrator. I don't buy the depiction of brother-sister incest. The two group up in a village house, in intimate quarters as brother and sister. I don't see the romantic, erotic connection between them at all, aside from the normal sexual curiosity of young people.

The other thing that bothers me is that the story of their departure from Asia Minor, and their decision to marry sounds familiar. I can't help but feel that I've read it before. I wondered if Kazan's "America, America" didn't have some of those same elements.

First entries

Hello, my name is John Melithoniotes. My wife Marilyn and I live in Watertown, Massachusetts. I'm not yet sure how I'll use this blog, but I thought I'd give it a try.