Middlesex

The narrator interrupts his account of his grandparents’ history to note that he can never have children. Most “hermaphrodites”—as he self-identifies—are unable to conceive. He then briefly touches on the Berlin timeline: He meets the bicyclist he glimpsed on the train. Her name is Julie Kikuchi; she is another American transplant to Berlin. He asks her out on a date, but his expectations are low.

Returning to his grandparents’ story, the narrator notes that the pregnancies began on the same evening, after the two couples had attended a play, The Minotaur. The play’s erotic undertones led them to engage in intimate relations afterward. During the pregnancies, the women struggle through side effects and the men worry about money.

Jimmy decides to help Lefty. He owns a minor rum-running enterprise (during the years of Prohibition in the US) and takes Lefty into the business. They go out during the night several times a week to intercept boats from Canada carrying liquor and then distribute it to speakeasies. It’s dangerous but lucrative work.

Meanwhile, Desdemona and Sourmelina endure their pregnancies. Dr. Philobosian pays a visit to the house, remarking on his good timing, and enjoys a dinner with the family. When he starts telling folktales about strange pregnancies, like the mythological one that engendered the minotaur, Desdemona becomes agitated. He reassures her that nothing like that actually happens and that most birth defects are caused by intermarriage. This frightens Desdemona even more, but she keeps her secret quiet.

The synchronized pregnancies diverge when Sourmelina delivers her baby girl early; the baby must stay in an incubator at the hospital for a time. When Desdemona finally enters labor, her husband and Jimmy are out on the ice, presumably picking up their wares. However, Jimmy has become irrationally jealous of Sourmelina, convinced that she has been having affairs—possibly with Lefty. Lefty may even be the father of Jimmy’s premature daughter, he convinces himself. He begins to drive the car as fast as he can across the ice. Lefty hurls himself out of the car just before it hits a crack in the surface and sinks underwater.

Meanwhile, Desdemona gives birth to a healthy baby boy. He’ll be called Milton, though his given name is Miltiades. Sourmelina’s daughter is named Theodora, though she too acquires a nickname later in life.

The family holds a funeral for Jimmy, though a body is never found. Sourmelina grieves for him much more deeply than she ever loved him. Lefty and Desdemona grow apart after the birth of their son: Desdemona is convinced that their union is sinful, so she refuses to have another child. Their intimate relations all but cease. Lefty, disappointed and hurt, lashes out by alternately dominating her and retreating from her.

He opens a speakeasy, the Zebra Room, which keeps him away from the house most nights. During the days, he translates classic Greek works into English. Sourmelina isn’t entirely comfortable as a mother, so Desdemona takes the lead in raising Theodora along with Milton, almost as if they’re brother and sister. Ultimately, Desdemona breaks her vow and conceives another child. Milton now has a younger sister, Zoe. Sourmelina and Theodora move out, though they live close by.

The stock-market crash is followed by the Great Depression, and the Zebra Room loses its customers. Lefty insists that Desdemona also work. An ad for “Silk worker” in the paper takes her to the predominantly Black part of Detroit (138): The newly influential Nation of Islam, under the direction of Minister Fard, needs someone skilled in raising silkworms. The people will provide for themselves, he preaches, rather than rely on white-owned industry.

Desdemona helps the sisters at Temple No. 1 “convert the outhouse into a cocoonery” (151). While working at the temple, Desdemona accidentally overhears the sermons of Minister Fard, also known as the Prophet. White people aren’t allowed into the congregation, but Desdemona hears his voice through the ducts while working in the Silk Room. He preaches an unorthodox version of history that suggests that white people are the imperfect and mutated progeny of Black people. White people have learned to dominate Black people by using what he calls “tricknology.” Listening to his sermons only compounds the guilt that Desdemona feels over her unnatural marriage to Lefty. She’s convinced that some tragedy awaits them and refuses to have sex with him altogether.

Lefty adapts to the lean times and makes some money on the side by selling partially nude photographs of young women. He finds the girls, while a partner takes the pictures. He begins to save money.

Under the influence of the Prophet’s sermons, Desdemona visits Dr. Philobosian for a consult. Shortly thereafter, Minister Fard is arrested; someone has committed murder under the auspices of Fard’s ideas. Some have also suggested that Fard is committing fraud, taking money from congregants for his personal use. Before the police take him away, Fard encounters Desdemona. When she gets a clear look at him, she’s astonished: The Prophet is Jimmy Zizmo. He reveals that he knows all the family secrets, including the truth about Sourmelina’s sexual orientation and Desdemona’s marriage. He disappears and is “never seen again in Detroit” (165). Desdemona decides to undergo a surgical procedure to avoid additional pregnancies.

In the Berlin timeline, Cal goes on a date with Julie Kikuchi. The two seem very compatible, and the narrator confesses that he likes her. He wonders how to tell her about himself.

The family story recommences in 1944 Detroit: Theodora, now nicknamed Tessie, is being wooed by Milton, who plays the clarinet for her at his window overlooking her room next door. Prohibition has ended, and the Zebra Room becomes a legitimate bar and grill, patronized mostly by the local auto workers. World War II continues, though it’s nearly at an end, but Milton hasn’t been accepted by the Army. Desdemona notices the growing attraction between her son and Sourmelina’s daughter with alarm. She decides to intervene.

Meanwhile, the courtship unfolds. First, Milton and Tessie tease each other like cousins. Then they notice each other’s attractive qualities—particularly Tessie’s physical beauty. Milton begins playing his clarinet for her more seductively, pressing the instrument against various places on her body, and she responds.

However, Desdemona has other ideas. She decides to play matchmaker and invites Mike Antoniou over to dinner. Mike is in seminary, studying to become an Orthodox priest. Tessie begins to date him. He’s a stable young man and in many respects very different from Milton. When he proposes, she accepts. Milton, angry and hurt, enlists in the Navy—even though he can’t swim.

In the Berlin timeline, Cal calls Julie again, and she invites him to her studio. She takes pictures of factories, which resonates with him, having grown up in Detroit. Julie mentions that she at first thought Cal was gay. He responds by kissing her.

The novel returns to the Detroit timeline. Milton’s stint in the Navy is marked by fear and distress. He knows he has made a mistake. The war hasn’t at all erased the memory of his ardor for Tessie. Tessie, in the interim, spends much of her time at the movies while Mike prepares for church duties. She takes in the newsreels that introduce the movies with great interest, “looking for Milton’s face” (188). When she finally believes she catches a glimpse of him in one of the newsreels, she resolves to jilt Father Mike and wait for Milton.

Milton writes home in stilted Greek, while Desdemona prays for his safety. She promises to send Milton back to Bithynios to restore the church if God will protect him. Milton receives orders that he’s to be the signalman on their next mission; the signalman sits at the front of the invading boat, holding a lantern, and is almost always shot within seconds of a launch. Milton writes to his family that this letter will almost surely be his last. Desdemona, in despair, gives Tessie her blessing to marry Milton if he survives.

However, Milton never serves as the signalman: A letter comes from Washington. He has passed the admissions test for the Naval Academy. His scores are so high that they want him back immediately. Once he’s home, Desdemona tells him he must repair the church in Bithynios, and Tessie tells him of her decision. They marry in 1946, and Milton later graduates from the academy and serves in the Korean War. At their wedding, Father Mike asks Milton’s sister, Zoe, to dance.

The narrator continues to tell his parents’ story, a sentient creature biding his time in Tessie’s womb behind his older brother, Chapter Eleven. Milton, after his time in the Navy, wants to return home and pursue a long-held dream of opening a restaurant. The narrator hints that his chain, Hercules Hot Dogs, will eventually become a lucrative venture, but he starts at the old Zebra Room, turning it into a diner. As Milton takes over, Lefty has little to do with the daily operations, but he’s still a vital man of 54. He remembers his proclivity for gambling, and by the time Desdemona discovers what he has been up to, Lefty has lost all of their money. They’re forced to move in with Milton and Tessie.

The years roll by, and Chapter Eleven is born in 1954. In the spring of 1959, the narrator is conceived. Tessie speaks to her unborn baby girl.