Middlesex: Book 1: Matchmaking Summary & Analysis

Cal was inspired to write a memoir after reading about other intersex people in history. His case is fascinating for the medical community because he has a “male brain,” but was raised as a girl, making him a perfect example for exploring questions of “nature versus nurture.” However, in order to tell his story properly, Cal must rewind to before his own birth, before his grandparents even arrived in America. The story really begins in summer 1922. Desdemona is sitting in her silkworm cocoonery on Mount Olympus in Asia Minor, and feels her heart skip a beat.

Below Mount Olympus lies the Ottoman city of Bursa, home of the silk trade. Desdemona’s heart palpitation was caused by grief over the recent death of her parents in the conflict between the Greeks and the Turks during World War I. For the first time, Desdemona and the others in her village, Bithynios, are living under Greek rule. Desdemona tries to distract herself from her torment by focusing on the silkworms. When she was a child, her mother, Euphrosyne, told her that the silkworms could tell if a woman was impure, and that it would show up on the silk.

Desdemona’s brother Eleutherios, nicknamed Lefty, is singing a song in English without being able to understand the words. Just before Euphrosyne died, she made Desdemona promise to look after Lefty and “find him a wife.” Desdemona is 21 and beautiful, with a curvaceous body that embarrasses her. Lefty, meanwhile, has a “softness” about him that shows that he is a somewhat spoiled young man. He is one year older than Desdemona, and the isolation of their rural existence means they have always been inseparable, almost like one person.

However, recently Lefty has been going to Bursa often, sometimes staying overnight. He has been learning French and has picked up “affected” gestures. Desdemona interrogates Lefty about what he does in Bursa, and although he at first resists, he eventually tells her that he “want[s] a woman.” Desdemona is shocked. She is still completely naïve when it comes to sexuality. She is angry, and probably “a little jealous” and resentful. Shouting, she demands to know why Lefty doesn’t want a woman from their village, but Lefty (accurately) points out that there are no young women for him in Bithynios.

Bithynios’s already small population has dwindled in recent years. Desdemona and Lefty’s cousin Sourmelina recently moved to “a place called Detroit” in America. Of the hundred people still living in Bithynios, there are only two single young women aside from Desdemona herself: Lucille Kafkalis and Victoria Pappas. However, when Desdemona brings them up, Lefty says that Lucille smells while Victoria is ugly. After Lefty leaves in a huff, Desdemona gets out the worry beads that have been in her family for generations and counts them until she feels better.

Lefty, meanwhile, goes down to the market where he reluctantly tries to sell the silkworm cocoons. He doesn’t enjoy participating in “the family business,” but women aren’t allowed at the market and thus he has to do it. He has come late in the date, which means he will have to accept a discounted price. After completing the sale, he goes to into a church and prays, begging for help and absolution for the desires he feels. He then buys coffee, cigarettes, and ouzo, and plays backgammon. Lately he has been racking up gambling debt from these games.

At midnight, Lefty goes to a brothel and chooses a girl who has braids and sad eyes like Desdemona, although he doesn’t consciously notice the similarity until they are walking to the bedroom together. He smokes a hookah filled with hashish, and while he and the woman have sex he calls Desdemona’s name. The next morning, hungover and without any money, Lefty returns home. While he was gone, Desdemona invited Lucille and Victoria over; she told Lucille to wash more regularly and Victoria to get her mustache waxed. Later that week, she teaches them about lingerie, instructs them to wear different clothes and jewelry, and encourages them to adopt more feminine body language and gestures. She tells them to walk past the spot where Lefty likes to sit and read.

Lefty tells Desdemona that he’s noticed that Lucille smells better and that Victoria’s mustache is gone, indicating that he has changed his mind about marrying a girl from the village. They stand close together, and Desdemona has a feeling that Dr. Luce describes as “periphescence,” the state of intense erotic attachment that comes early on in a relationship. However, she then tells Lefty that he should begin preparing to officially court Lucille and Victoria. On the next evening, Lefty goes to Victoria’s house, an event that causes a great stir in Bithynios. Everyone is riveted, desperate to find out which girl he will pick.

Desdemona has done Victoria’s hair and makeup and taught her how to hold herself. However, before Lefty even gets to the house, he turns around. Back at home, Desdemona puts on the white silk corset Euphrosyne gave her for her wedding night. She looks in the mirror and feels despair over her certainty that she will never get married. Meanwhile, Lefty goes to Lucille’s house, but almost as soon as he’s walked in the door he leaves again. Lefty is familiar with the lingerie catalogue that Desdemona used as inspiration for styling Victoria and Lucille; all he can think is how far these women fall from any kind of ideal.

Desdemona, meanwhile, takes off the corset, lies on the bed, and cries herself to sleep. She dreams about Lefty. Cal wonders what drew them together, pondering if it was the “gene,” but then says he prefers not to think of everything as being biologically determined. Hearing Lefty reenter the house, Desdemona hastily gets dressed. He tells her that he doesn’t want to marry either Victoria or Lucille. They play the Greek version of rock, paper, scissors (rock, ax, snake) to help decide.

Lefty wins, and tells Desdemona he wants to marry her, saying that they are not just siblings but third cousins, and third cousins can marry. They share a long hug, which gets increasingly sensual, and then start waltzing. In Bithynios, it is common for cousins to marry; “everyone [is] somehow related.” While they dance, the Greek Army goes into retreat.