Middlesex
by Jeffrey Eugenides
★ Top 25 book of 2002 · #12 on Best Books of 2002
A coming of age story whose narrator wrestles with gender identity, yet whose real subject is the confusion everyone feels while becoming who they are meant to be. Readers praise its honest prose and its sense of shared human experience.
Best for: Readers who enjoy candid, symbolic coming of age stories about identity
Middlesex is #12 on BookWard's Best Books of 2002, out of 32 2002 books that cleared our data bar.
What Middlesex is about
Cal Stephanides tells the story of a family and of a body, starting well before birth. In 1922, two siblings in a village in Asia Minor flee war and marry aboard a ship bound for America. They settle in Detroit, where Lefty finds work at Ford and later opens a bar called the Zebra Room.
Born Calliope, Cal grows up in a house on Middlesex Boulevard in Grosse Pointe, a girl who slowly realizes she is not like other girls. Eugenides, who is not himself intersex, wrote the novel after reading a memoir from 1980. What emerges is a coming-of-age story and family saga, with wit and warmth. It will suit readers who like a big, humane narrative about identity, immigration and inheritance.
Middlesex on the Best Books of 2002
Middlesex came out in 2002. Of the 32 books first published in 2002 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #12 on our Best Books of 2002 list.
Why it made the list: 260 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (52 ratings). The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2002 list
- Tithe Holly Black, #10
- Dragon Ball Z; Thank You 鳥山 明 [Akira Toriyama], #11
- Night Watch Terry Pratchett, #13
- Understanding Power Noam Chomsky, #14
See all Best Books of 2002 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2001 Best Books of 2003.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 193 want to read it, 4 are reading it now and 63 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.2 out of 5 from 52 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 59 | 55% |
| Reader love | 84 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 16 | 20% |
Questions about Middlesex
When was Middlesex published?
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides was first published in 2002.
Was Middlesex one of the best books of 2002?
Middlesex is #12 on BookWard's Best Books of 2002, out of 32 2002 books that cleared our data bar. 260 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (52 ratings).
Why is Middlesex on the Best Books of 2002 list?
260 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (52 ratings).
More of the best books of 2002
- Romancing Mister Bridgerton Julia Quinn, #1
- Coraline Neil Gaiman, #2
- Room on the Broom Julia Donaldson, #3
- Why Does He Do That? Lundy Bancroft, #4
- Everything's Eventual. 14 Dark Tales Stephen King, #5
- Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang, #6
See the full Best Books of 2002, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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