Francesca Marciano

In 1993 I went to Africa. Near Cape Agulhas I met a White South African man who was exactly my age, whose life had run a course parallel to mine. In Windhoek I met a black Namibian, also exactly my age, whose life had run a course parallel to mine. Mostly, the coincidences could be summed up with -- average/ordinary childhoods, rebellious teens, political twenties, politically disappointed early thirties, with a present desire for middle class conformity. With such simple parameters, I could have found hundreds, if not thousands, of soul mates.

I wish I could draw the same comparison with Francesca Marciano.

After living in the US for a while, I believe she might have gone to Kenya a bit before I traveled to the southern cone of the continent. But she stayed longer, and also wrote and published her first book, "Rules of the Wild," mature, elegant, feminine, romantic, deeply rooted in Kenya and a great success. I wrote, in sophomoric style, the story of my trip, called it "At A Great Distance," and couldn't get it published either as a whole or as individual travel stories. Not a great loss.

I have spoken earlier about other attempts at writing that didn't go anywhere (other than against a wall--scroll down if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

After "Rules of the Wild," Ms. Marciano published "Casa Rosa" and "The End of Manners." And has recently finished a collection of stories, "The Other Language," mostly about people living in a language not their own.

On April 15, our "parallel" lives intersected at a literary luncheon at Book Passage, in Corte Madera. I was placed directly to her left.

I didn't tell her any of the above. We chatted. No idea what about. I can tell you she is very kind and generous of her time and stories.

I'd signed up for the lunch on the strength of her first book, which I read when it came out and still remember vividly. After the lunch I read, rather, I devoured her second, "Casa Rosa." This could be the story of the woman in "Rules of the Wild" before Africa. The narrative spans from the second world war and the woman's grand parents, to her parents, later to end with two sisters that could have been my contemporaries, in a story full of the personal and political upheavals that anyone of my generation, in Europe, will recognize with a touch of nostalgia and regret.

Parallels again? I have no idea whether "Casa Rosa" is autobiographical. But I can't help going there. Perhaps because it gives me ideas. Perhaps because it reinforces my desire to see myself as an author.

But, since I've been keeping score from the moment I started this blog, lets point out that Francesca Marciano has written 4 books, all in English, and a number of screen plays, all in Italian. I, who was born in Spain, not far from Italy and not many years after her, who, like her, have traveled to Africa, and live in the US and pretend to write in English, I have 0 published books to my name, 0 screen plays.

I can't wait to change the score.