Middlesex: #2: B

“As far as the doctor re concerned, I’m better than Gottlieb… I’ve got a male brain.” (19) In this section of Middlesex we learn about how her hermaphrodite self came to be. The author brought the readers all the way back to the Greek and Turkish war with her Grandmother Desdemona and Lefty. “You’re not only my sister. You’re my third cousin, too. Third cousins can marry,” “You’re crazy, Lefty.” “This way will be easier. We won’t have to rearrange the house.” (39) Lefty after many adventures with other women had only found one love in his life, and that was Desdemona, his sister. But once after a peaceful period, when their town was under control by the Greeks, the Turkish soldiers had returned once again to take over. In evacuation, the family fled to the port city. When scrounging for food, Lefty met Dr. Nishan Philobosian. He patched up Lefty’s new wound. Lefty and his sister barely made it by through the times before the Turkish soldiers arrived. The army closed in the city and started sacking home and burning them. When Dr. P, heard a neighbor’s scream, he rushed over leaving his family in his home. After trying to save his neighbor’s life, but her murderer had done her in, he rushed back to find his family murdered. His two daughters both raped and decapitated. Meanwhile, the French boat came to the island to free all French citizens. Once Desdemona agreed to marry her brother he lied to the man to get his wife, the suicide doctor, and himself on the boat.