This, That, The Other

Fiction that straddles conventional boundaries is often very interesting, but can also disappoint because it’s neither this nor that.  When it succeeds we know that it stands on its own two feet, but it’s also a little of this and a little of that and a bit of the other.  Francesa Marciano’s story collection The Other Language does indeed straddle, but thankfully it does so gracefully and rewards us with a satisfying and gracious reading experience. We get to interact with a broad range of settings, characters, and situations.  We can sample, savor, and move on.  Each story seems that it could be expanded into a full-length novel.  But that’s what a good short story feels like.  It’s a self-contained and satisfying world unto itself, and who can blame the reader for wanting more? That tapas plate was terrific.  I wonder if they offer that as a main?

These stories take place in locations (some exotic) around the world, and the sense of place in each of them is very strong.  Just as in most of Paul Theroux’s fiction, the place is maybe the most important character.  We get a sense of geography and a stronger sense of culture.  We humans have built peculiar social structures that drastically differ from place to place. And when those structures are juxtaposed (usually by a person from one place visiting or moving to another) the contrasts can be fascinating. And those moves afford Marciano's characters the opportunity to forge a new start, or even a new identity.  That contrast among past, present, and future is important in all of the stories.  Marciano is especially strong in delineating the fine lines of difference and of commonality.  These stories are part travelogues, part character studies, part cultural portraits.

Outwardly very traditional.  No meta-gimmicks here, no preoccupation with self, no experimental structures, no characters in extremis. The language is pleasing if not gorgeous. Just well-told stories that reveal insights into the human condition of the ordinary individual and his cultural context.  The small details are well chosen and telling, even if the writing doesn’t push the boundaries into new territory.  This is a bit old-fashioned, but that’s fine with me.

And the exotic locales and diverse cultural viewpoints makes the reader seem cosmopolitan, wise, a bit jaded. Been there, done that … even though of course we haven’t.  Not even remotely. But we’ve been offered glimpses at people and places that do make us more aware (especially of what we don’t know, even about our own small world), maybe even a little smarter.  Or so it seems.  Well done.