Midwest Monday: Jeffrey Eugenides

Jeffrey Eugenides is an author familiar to many on the blogosphere as a result of the success of his 1993 novel, The Virgin Suicides.  I haven't read it, but earlier this year I was able to read The Marriage Plot. While I didn't fall in love with it, I do think that his writing style was really interesting, and I've thought about the book a few times since reading it (reflected upon it...?) and have been thinking about reading it again maybe next year or something.

Despite my complete ignorance about Eugenides's work, one thing that I did notice during my initial Eugenides research (conducted while reading The Marriage Plot via Wikipedia) was that each of his novels involved - in one way or another - the Detroit area. And while The Marriage Plot's connection to Detroit is relatively weak, Eugenides did take the time to reflect on the city's slow decline. As Eugenides noted in an interview with The Paris Review, "My entire childhood coincided with the demise of Detroit.... It imbued my sense of the world with a strong elegiac quality - a direct experience of the fragility and evanescence of the material world."

In examining the decay of Detroit, Eugenides also examined the effects of the white flight from the city, and the creation of the surrounding suburbs. Acutely aware of class distinctions, he considered himself to be a person with connections to society while not necessarily being part of it himself. This sentiment was portrayed most recently by Mitchell in The Marriage Plot; Mitchell, in love with the novel's protagonist Madeleine, is at odds with her wealthy WASP background. Also a descendant of Greek immigrants, Mitchell spends time post-graduation working as a taxi driver in Detroit and working in a Greek restaurant. During this time, he observes the disconnect between himself and his heritage as well as the decay of the city and the fact that he "doesn't belong" in Madeleine's world.

Of course, it is impossible to mention Eugenides and Detroit without mentioning his famous novel Middlesex; its Detroit setting reflects both class and urban decay, and the Detroit riots results in a cold parallel between the world of the protagonist, Cal, and that of his family, in Smyrna.

While I'm still pretty unfamiliar with Eugenides's work (I don't count reading one of his novels and one interview as "familiar"), I am more interested in reading his novels as a result of doing this research. Before writing about him, I didn't think that I would be interested in his connection to the Midwest, but now that I am aware, I think that I could attain a richer understanding of his work. I look forward to reading more of his novels in the future!