Middlesex

Lefty and Desdemona arrive in Detroit, where their cousin Sourmelina Zizmo and her husband, Jimmy, will host them. They have only one more hurdle: to convince Sourmelina not to reveal their secret, that they’re brother and sister. They entrust her with the secret since she harbors a secret of her own: She is a lesbian. This is why she was sent to the US to marry Jimmy Zizmo; he’s unaware of the rumors that swirled around Sourmelina back home.

Desdemona is suspicious of Jimmy; he appears to be Arab. Her experiences in Turkey left her with prejudice. Jimmy dabbles in a wide variety of professions and engages in numerous deals, not all of them strictly legal. He has very clear ideas about the segregation of the sexes—the men relax in the den while the women work in the kitchen—and the purpose of marriage: “Marriage is for housekeeping and children,” he says (91). Despite his pronouncement and Sourmelina’s youth, their marriage has yet to produce any children after five years.

Jimmy procures a job for Lefty at the Ford Motor Company. While he works hard and improves his English, he still comes under suspicion as an immigrant. Representatives for the company come to the house to question Lefty and his family.