Mortality Quotes in Middlesex

Desdemona welcomes death because she thinks it will reunite her with her husband. This is quite the contrast with her husband's view. Before he died, he believed that was it—no afterlife, no nothing.

We don't see many people die on-page, as it were, in Middlesex. Maxine stands out because we're introduced to her around page 338 and she croaks on page 339. What gives? Why bring this girl into the narrative only to kill her off a page later? Why are you so cruel, Eugenides?

Why do you think Cal refers to his father as "Milton" here? Is it shock over his death? Or is it because they weren't all that close in life?