“Reading a novel after reading semiotic theory was like jogging empty-handed after jogging with hand weights. What exquisite guilt she felt, wickedly enjoying narrative! Madeleine felt safe with a nineteenth century novel. There were going to be people in it. Something was going to happen to them in a place resembling the world. Then too there were lots of weddings in Wharton and Austen. There were all kinds of irresistible gloomy men.”

American author

Jeffrey Eugenides is an American author. He is known for fiction that has reached a wide audience, especially his novels The Virgin Suicides, Middlesex, and The Marriage Plot. Born in 1960, he has also written short stories and essays. His best-known novel, The Virgin Suicides, was adapted into a film in 1999. Middlesex brought him the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International Dublin Literary Award, and France’s Prix Médicis. His work is often read for its close attention to identity, family, and the pressures of modern life.