Middlesex: Book 3: Middlesex Summary & Analysis

In the end, the riots are “the best thing that ever happened” to the Stephanides family. The insurance payout from the Zebra Room allows them to buy a 1967 Cadillac Fleetwood, which to Callie resembles a “spaceship.” This is only the first of many Cadillacs the family will own. Meanwhile, following the riots the family also decide to move to the suburbs, a common trend among white residents of Detroit, and set their sights on Grosse Pointe, which is the wealthy neighborhood where the “auto magnates” live. Finding a house is difficult, and the realtor informs Milton that a strange, “modern” house is the best she will be able to do for him.

During that time, realtors in Grosse Pointe use a “point system” to evaluate the desirability of prospective buyers. As people of Southern Mediterranean descent who are Greek Orthodox don’t work in the “right” professions, and will have grandparents living with them, the Stephanides family score low within this system. Although Milton doesn’t particularly like the house on offer, he is impressed by the realtor mentioning the name of the architect who designed it, and also likes the guest house and bathhouse outside, despite their dilapidated condition. He agrees to take the house, paying in cash.

On the day the family are driving to move into the new house, Callie points out that the Boston Tea Party was a “riot,” indicating that Milton should be less disapproving of the race riots. Fuming, Milton argues that Callie is wrong and that she has been taught nonsense in school. They drive onto Middlesex Boulevard, their new street. It is covered in enormous trees. The house itself, which Callie calls Middlesex, is extremely bizarre, “futuristic and outdated at the same time.” The house’s design is creative and rather nonsensical. Almost immediately, Callie gets her head stuck inside a pneumatic door.

The family slowly get used to living in the house. There is an intercom system that doesn’t work very well, so that it is hard to predict where in the house one’s voice will end up emerging. Although there are certain problems with the house that she never gets over, Tessie comes to like the enormous glass walls, which Lefty takes it upon himself to clean. Callie and Chapter Eleven love it because there are so many opportunities for climbing.

As a child, Callie is very close to Lefty. She finds his lack of speech “dignified,” and feels that they understand each other without needing to speak. A few weeks after they move to Middlesex, Lefty and Callie go on a walk together. When they get to the curb, Callie walks, but Lefty doesn’t. He freezes, and Callie notices that there is a terrible look of fear in his eyes. The truth is that Lefty had another stroke the previous week, and is now having significant trouble orienting himself. The effect of this second stroke has led him to conclude that, although he always believed in the existence of the soul, the truth is that people are purely biological beings. After their brains stops working, there is nothing left of them.

Callie desperately wants friends in her new neighborhood, and one day sees a possible candidate in the form of a girl with white-blonde hair who lives in the house behind Callie’s. Her name is Clementine Stark; she is pale and allergic to a range of “hard-to-avoid items” like grass and dust. Because of this, she has to spend a lot of time inside, which she starts doing with Callie. The first time Callie comes over, Clementine shows Callie her freckles and asks if she wants to “practice kissing.” Without waiting for Callie to answer, Clementine puts her arms around her and leans in to kiss her. Clementine moves her head like actresses do in movies, but when Callie tries to copy her, Clementine stops her, saying, “You’re the man.”

That evening, Callie happily tells Tessie that she has made a new friend, and asks to invite her over. Tessie is pleased that Callie is settling into the neighborhood. A week later, Callie and Clementine have a bath together, and play a game where they wrap their legs around each other, giggling as they slip and fall. Suddenly, Callie is shocked to see Lefty looking at them. Clementine immediately claims that she and Callie were only playing “water ballet,” but Callie soon realizes Lefty can’t hear her. She screams into the intercom, telling everyone who can hear that “something’s wrong with papou.” That night, Callie feels extraordinary guilt, certain that Lefty’s stroke was caused by him seeing her and Clementine in the bath together.

Around this same time, Clementine’s father dies of a heart attack. She and her mother leave the neighborhood, and Callie never sees her again. Lefty comes home from the hospital, but over the next three years his mind slowly unravels. At first he forgets little things, but then fails to remember whole sections of his life, and moves backward in time so he thinks it is the 1960s, then the ‘50s, and so on. In order to humor him, Desdemona pretends that the kitchen is the Zebra Room, and even invites her friends from church to pretend to be patrons.

When Lefty gets back to the 1930s, his English becomes bad again, and Desdemona suddenly fears that his mind is inevitably going to travel back to the moment when they are no longer husband and wife, but brother and sister. She prays that Lefty dies before he reaches this moment, but these prayers go unanswered. One morning, he greets her by writing in Greek, “Good morning, sis.” Horrified, Desdemona tries to stop Lefty writing, but is unable to do so. However, when other people notice him calling her his sister, they dismiss it as a strange and funny delusion. This stage of Lefty’s deterioration doesn’t last long; he soon reaches a point of total physical helplessness, and three months later he dies.

By the time of Lefty’s death, Callie has an innate ability to understand both genders, which gives her a special insight into the thoughts and feelings of everyone around her. The only person whose emotions remain a mystery to Callie is Desdemona. On the way back from the funeral, the hydraulic system within the Cadillac malfunctions, and Desdemona is briefly sucked inside her seat. When they get back home, Desdemona gets into her nightgown and looks briefly at her silkworm box. She gets into bed, and stays there for 10 years, leaving only for a weekly bath.