How to Be Both

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and gender discrimination.

Francescho fades into consciousness as an intangible spirit watching an unnamed figure—George, from the first part of the novel—in an art gallery. His memories are hazy, and he cannot remember how he died, but he assumes this is some kind of “purgatorium” since he can’t interact with any people or surroundings and can only observe the unfamiliar modern world. George is looking intently at a painting that Francescho suddenly recognizes to be his own, and he feels triumphant that although there are three times as many paintings by Cosmo in the room, it is his painting that has drawn the attention of George (whom he assumes to be a boy). As Francescho watches, George sees a woman also paying attention to Francescho’s painting. George follows the unnamed woman—Lisa Goliard—out of the gallery with an intensity of focus that Francescho misconstrues as romantic passion. Francescho is irate and forlorn to find himself tethered to George, forced to leave the gallery and travel with George through Cambridge and to Lisa’s house. He mentally composes a letter of complaint to the powers that be, but dismisses it. When Lisa shuts the door behind her, Francescho pities George, whom he thinks to be lovelorn. George sits on a poorly made wall opposite the house and takes a photo of it on her camera. Francescho is awed by the technology that makes a picture appear on a tablet in an instant, though he notes that George doesn’t seem to have an artist’s temperament capable of taking in the beauty of the world around her.

As he watches George, Francescho remembers scenes and moments from his life. These do not come all at once or in chronological order, and some details remain unclear. Francescho was born a girl, though her birth name is not specified. Francescho’s father was a brickmaker, and all her brothers grew up to work in the trade. As a very young child, she was first upset, then confused by the ripples that broke the surface of a puddle of horse urine when sycamore seeds landed in it. She learned to throw stones in order to upset the family’s chickens without harming them, and was amazed when her mother chipped an old brick into the shape of a horse. She impressed her mother and offended her father by drawing impressive caricatures of her father’s face in the dirt. Her mother died young, and in her grief, Francescho would walk around the house dressed in her clothes despite the sorrow it caused her father. Her father, recognizing his daughter’s talent and realizing that in his society, there will be no opportunities for a girl to develop such talent, promises Francescho that if she agrees to stop wearing her mother’s clothes, instead donning her brothers’ clothes and pretend to be a boy, her father will see that she gets a good education and an apprenticeship to learn how to be an artist. Francescho eagerly agrees, and chooses her own masculine name. From here on, he/him pronouns are used to refer to him. He studies under his father well into his twenties, only leaving his father’s tutelage three years before the man dies. The adult Francescho recalls approaching a scholar known as the Falcon to ask for a job working on the fresco at the Piazza Schifanoia for the Duke Borso d’Este. To prove his skill, Francescho quickly sketched a young torchbearer running by, and the impressed Falcon gave him the job.

Francescho’s parents often told him stories. His father was particularly fond of stories involving Saint Vincent Ferra, who could make himself heard and understood across great distances even by people who did not speak his language. His mother told him Greek myths, including the story of the satyr Marsyas, who was skinned by the God Appollo after losing to him in a music competition. She also told him the story of a boy who sacrificed both his eyes in order to see the Virgin Mary, who rewarded his faith by mending his sight. Francescho did not get on well with his brothers, who were jealous that he didn’t have to do manual labor as they did. He had a close bond with his horse Mattone, who was so spirited that no one else dared ride him. Francescho recalls the first time he met his lifelong best friend Barto while coming home from fishing. Barto was the heir to a noble family, and greeted Francescho from atop a high wall. He and Francescho bantered and teased each other, evenly matched in wits and getting along well despite their difference in status.