The Other Language(90)
… golden light shines on your pillow,
Botticelli hair covers your face,
you are killing me even when asleep,
kill me, kill me
I saw you
My Renaissance queen
running toward me
calling me, calling my name
across the Ponte Sisto
I have loved you in Rome
Yes I have
Loved you loved you
In Rome
So many years later, in the gigantic auditorium, the melody of “Roman Romance” came as a revelation, as if her heart, throat and lungs had been plugged into a light switch and her brain had lit up. Yes, they were all connected: Barker, Elsa, the tens of thousands, the leggy Texan art student in the song, Artemisia beheading Holofernes, her past and present. They were all one big dot-to-dot constellation like those lights quivering in the dark.
Did it matter that it wasn’t her in the song? And what difference did it make now? The song was no longer about anybody. It was just this beautiful thing that Barker had created nearly twenty years ago that would survive all of them. Really, she thought, what a waste of time. To have kept her distance, to have waited so long to see him in his full splendor. Why not rejoice and accept his greatness, his fabulous talent, and just love it, like everyone else?
Anyway, even the girl from Texas must be over forty by now, and maybe she, too, had gained weight and chopped off her Botticelli hair.
The gorgeous dark-haired actress was coming toward her. She spoke directly to Elsa, ignoring Sandro.
“We are having a small party at my place after the concert. Please join us, I’d love to talk to you.”
Elsa nodded, almost condescendingly. Sandro held her closer to him as if to exhibit her as his private property.
“Are you going to go backstage afterward?” he asked, somewhat nervously.
Elsa was lost for a moment, then she regained control.
“It gets too crowded backstage,” she said. “I’m going to see him tomorrow for lunch at his hotel. We always do that when he comes back. It’s our little ritual.”
Sandro looked at her with admiration and awe. He pressed his body harder against her, testing if he could still dare claim her after this last statement.
“How does it feel to listen to this song among so many people?” he asked.
He must have been waiting to ask this question since the day they’d met at the café by the Palazzo Farnese.
“It always feels sweet,” Elsa said. She turned to him, feeling tall, mysterious. She smiled.
“Music is such a miracle,” she said.
He leaned toward her and kissed her. His mouth was soft and his kiss had a delicious taste.
· ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ·
The writing of this book would not have been possible without the support of the M Literary Residency. My gratitude to Michelle Garnaut, Arshia Sattar and DW Gibson for the opportunity they’ve given me to write at Sangam House, to Lynne and June Fernandez, Bijayini Satpathy and Surupa Sen for their warm hospitality at Nrityagam, and to Jordan Pavlin for the poem. My deepest thanks go as always to my editor at Pantheon, Robin Desser, for her encouragement, enthusiasm and invaluable help, to Jennifer Kurdyla, and to my literary agent, Toby Eady.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Francesca Marciano is also the author of the novels Rules of the Wild, Casa Rossa, and The End of Manners. She lives in Rome.
About This Guide
The questions, discussion topics, and other material that follow are intended to enhance your group’s conversation about The Other Language, a breakthrough, transporting collection of stories from internationally acclaimed author Francesca Marciano.
About This Book
Hailed by The New York Times as “a natural-born storyteller,” the much-admired author of Rules of the Wild gives us nine incandescently smart stories, funny, elegant, and poignant by turns, that explore the power of change—in relationships, geographies, and across cultures—to reveal unexpected aspects of ourselves.
Taking us to Venice during film festival season, where a woman buys a Chanel dress she can barely afford; a sun-drenched Greek village at the height of summer holidays, where a teenager encounters the shocks of first love; and a classical dance community in southern India, where a couple gives in to the urge to wander, these remarkable stories bring to life characters stepping outside their boundaries into new passions and destinies. Enlivened by Marciano’s wit, clear eye, and stunning evocations of people and places, The Other Language is an enthralling tour de force rich with many pleasures.
Question and Answer
1. How does the very first, and title, story of the collection explore the chasms and common ground that can be found between different cultures through language? Consider Emma’s observation of how her brother Luca and Nadia relate—“They no longer needed a common language to get along”—and her own almost magical, unconscious assimilation of English (this page). What happens to people when they are forced to speak a language not their own—do they stay the same or become someone else?
2. In “The Other Language,” the three siblings who lose their mother at a very young age assume that “death must be an impolite subject to bring up in conversation, a disgrace to be hidden, to be put behind” (this page). How does this belief affect Emma’s developing relationships with her brother and sister; her father, David; and later, Jack? What are the other characters’ relationships to loss and to death?