Middlesex: Book 1: An Immodest Proposal Summary & Analysis

In the present, Cal lives in Schöneberg, a neighborhood in Berlin. He takes the U-Bahn to work at Amerika Haus by the Zoologischer Garten stop. One morning, while reading a newspaper on the train, he notices a woman get onboard with her bike. She is Asian, and is carrying a camera bag in the basket of her bike. Cal has a feeling that she is American. They briefly catch each other’s eyes, but the woman then gets out of the train again. At his own stop, Cal stumbles out of the train and smokes a cigar to calm himself down. 

Cal explains that he is not androgynous; he passes as a man, although he always uses the stalls in the bathroom, never the urinals. Overall, he is accustomed to behaving in a conventionally “male” manner, but sometimes Calliope’s gestures jump out unexpectedly, taking him by surprise. However, then Cal says that it’s time to return to the story of his grandparents.

As the Greek Army retreats, it sets fire to everything it passes. Lefty says they can’t be in Bithynios when the Turks come back and seek “revenge.” He says they’ll go to America to join their cousin Sourmelina, taking the route via Smyrna, which is said to be the safest. Initially reluctant, Desdemona hesitantly agrees, saying she’ll bring her silkworm box and some eggs even though, as Lefty points out, people in America don’t farm silk. They leave on August 31 along with the rest of the villagers, most of whom are also headed to America. Before leaving the village, she says goodbye to everything, and puts a single silkworm cocoon in her pocket. 

A week later, General Hajienestis, the Commander in Chief of the Greek Army, is informed that the Turkish army is encroaching on Smyrna. However, he can only focus on his own physical weakness and approaching death. The people of Smyrna are reassured by the sight of Western European merchant ships in the harbor. Dr. Nishan Philobosian kisses his family goodbye and leaves the house for the first time in days. Walking along, he spots a refugee picking through garbage, and is then startled to see it is a young man in a nice suit. On hearing that the young man hasn’t eaten in three days, Dr. Philobosian tells him to come along with him. In his office, Dr. Philobosian treats the young man’s thumb, from which the nail is missing, and gives him some money.

The young man asks if Dr. Philobosian is Armenian; the doctor replies he is, but explains that he is not planning to leave Smyrna because the city is his “home.” After sending the man on his way, Dr. Philobosian retrieves a letter testifying that he treated Mustafa Kemal Pasha for diverticulitis three years ago; the letter offers assurance of Kemal Pasha’s protection. Meanwhile, Lefty Stephanides—the refugee Philobosian just treated—smiles as he buys chureki from the bakery, feeling hopeful. In Smyrna, he and Desdemona have been able to explore their feelings for each other without anyone around who knows that they are actually brother and sister.

However, when Lefty brings Desdemona the chureki and she flinches, moving away from him while they eat, he walks off in a huff. He is annoyed at her, but also understands why she is resistant to their physical intimacy, which makes him even more annoyed. Lefty washes his face in a fountain. Cal interjects into the narration to quote a stanza from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, which describes a merchant from Smyrna named Mr. Eugenides. Before its permanent destruction in 1922, Smyrna was prosperous and “cosmopolitan,” with an extraordinarily rich cultural history. Lefty walks into a gambling club which is mostly abandoned except for a small huddle of refugees playing poker. He joins them.

Lefty has never played poker before and at first he keeps losing. However, eventually he gets the hang of it, and wins a huge amount of money. He tries to leave, but the other players force him to stay; he starts losing, and eventually leaves only after he has no money left. However, he has secretly stashed some in his sock, and when he returns to Desdemona he tells her that they have enough for the ship now, claiming he found the cash on the ground. Meanwhile, on a British ship docked on the harbor, two officers drink cognac, smoke cigars, and discuss the imminent fall of Smyrna. They will not be saving anyone (or anything) except British subjects.

By September 7, every Greek man in Smyrna (including Lefty) wears a fez, hoping to “pass as a Turk.” Lefty attempts to buy a ticket to Athens, but the price has gone up since the day before, and. he no longer has enough money. General Hajienestis orders to the Greek ships to pull out of Smyrna, and Lefty and Desdemona watch them go. The whole Greek population of the city realizes with despair that they have been abandoned, and now lie before the Turks unprotected. Soon after, Mustafa Kemal Pasha is driven into the city.

On September 13, with Turkish troops setting fires all over the city, Dr. Philobosian sits in his house with his family, with the shutters closed. Amongst the sounds of crashing and screaming from outside, he hears his neighbor singing, and rushes out against his wife’s protests. Meanwhile, Lefty and Desdemona watch as the fires begin rolling toward them. They are surrounded by people too ill, hungry, or weak to stand. Cal notes that even in her old age, Desdemona never got over her fear of fire. Dr. Philobosian, meanwhile, finds the neighbor he heard singing dead; her apartment has been ransacked. With others, Lefty and Desdemona run to the shore. People are praying or jumping in the water to drown.

Desdemona says they are going to die, but Lefty replies that they will survive, and then get married. Suddenly, well-dressed people emerge from the French consulate, and there is an announcement that French citizens alone will imminently be evacuated. At the Philobosians’ house, there is a knock at the door, which they assume is Nishan. However, it is actually soldiers, who immediately shoot everyone inside. Lefty asks Desdemona if she’ll marry him if they survive. She is certain they are about to die, but nods. The British officers aboard the ship debate whether to rescue a 10- or 11-year-old girl drowning in the water. The captain eventually indicates that if the officers rescue any refugees before sunrise, he will turn a blind eye. 

Dr. Philobosian returns hope to find that his wife and all his children have been slaughtered. His daughters are naked, with their breasts cut off. Lefty, using the French he’s learned, approaches the French officials and tells them he was born in Paris, as was his wife. He claims that his papers were destroyed in the fire. When he returns to Desdemona with visas in hand, she is standing with a man who she just stopped from jumping in the water. The man shouts, “They were illiterate! […] They couldn’t read my letter.” Lefty recognizes him. Lefty returns to the officials with Dr. Philobosian, announcing in terrible French that the doctor is his cousin. The officials grant him a visa, too. Before long, the “three new French citizens” pull away from the burning city on a ship.