The End of Manners by Francesca Marciano | Fiction | DONNE TEMPO
The End of Manners by Francesca Marciano
August/25/08 10:39 PM Filed in: Fiction
By Cecei O’Bryon
England
Maria Galante, the heroine of Francesca Marciano’s novel, The End of Manners, (Pantheon for Random House. ISBN-10: 0375425101. $16.29) is a food photographer made famous by a chance photograph.
She
is also recovering from a traumatic break up.
Maria is invited to join the famed gonzo journalist Imo Glass on a journey that takes them into Afghanistan in search of a story. The two very different women set off on an adventure in search of Afghani women who have attempted suicide as a way to avoid marriage to older men.
Maria’s job is to photograph these women who live in a society that guards its female faces from all but the closest male relatives.
Maria and Imo find themselves encountering mercenaries, spies, and a bevy of armed guards as they seek out their story. Maria must find herself and her own strength in extreme circumstances.
Imo is the over-blown woman. A character that is loud, expressive, and assertive, Maria is an Italian woman who has retired from risk only to find herself risking her own life in order to fully live.
The characters are engaging, the portrayal of Kabul and the Pashtun villages both real and enlightening. Marciano’s writing conveys the true issues of freedom and choice as she allows the readers access to the worlds of two very different women traveling in the world, and the men and women they encounter on their trip.
Marciano is adept in the way she conveys the Afghani perspective on western women. She is also adept at revealing the variety of Pashtun village women’s perspectives.
I the villages there are those women that are willing to risk being photographed so the world will see them as well as hear their story. There are those that cannot take the risk, and those that simply do not believe that it is right.
The depth of perspective here mirrors the smaller choices Maria must make in her own life, just as the perspectives of the Afghani leaders call western readers to consider their own ideas of personal value and freedoms.
The End of Manners is an engaging and enlightening trip for the reader.
Maria Galante, the heroine of Francesca Marciano’s novel, The End of Manners, (Pantheon for Random House. ISBN-10: 0375425101. $16.29) is a food photographer made famous by a chance photograph.
Maria is invited to join the famed gonzo journalist Imo Glass on a journey that takes them into Afghanistan in search of a story. The two very different women set off on an adventure in search of Afghani women who have attempted suicide as a way to avoid marriage to older men.
Maria’s job is to photograph these women who live in a society that guards its female faces from all but the closest male relatives.
Maria and Imo find themselves encountering mercenaries, spies, and a bevy of armed guards as they seek out their story. Maria must find herself and her own strength in extreme circumstances.
Imo is the over-blown woman. A character that is loud, expressive, and assertive, Maria is an Italian woman who has retired from risk only to find herself risking her own life in order to fully live.
The characters are engaging, the portrayal of Kabul and the Pashtun villages both real and enlightening. Marciano’s writing conveys the true issues of freedom and choice as she allows the readers access to the worlds of two very different women traveling in the world, and the men and women they encounter on their trip.
Marciano is adept in the way she conveys the Afghani perspective on western women. She is also adept at revealing the variety of Pashtun village women’s perspectives.
I the villages there are those women that are willing to risk being photographed so the world will see them as well as hear their story. There are those that cannot take the risk, and those that simply do not believe that it is right.
The depth of perspective here mirrors the smaller choices Maria must make in her own life, just as the perspectives of the Afghani leaders call western readers to consider their own ideas of personal value and freedoms.
The End of Manners is an engaging and enlightening trip for the reader.