Rules of the Wild: A Novel of Africa

By Francesca Marciano and Marciano Francesca

Book Overview

A mesmerizing novel of love and nostalgia set in the vast spaces of contemporary East Africa. Romantic, often resonantly ironic, moving and wise, Rules of the Wild transports us to a landscape of unsurpassed beauty even as it gives us a sharp-eyed portrait of a closely knit tribe of cultural outsiders: the expatriates living in Kenya today. Challenged by race, by class, and by a longing for home, here are "safari boys" and samaritans, reporters bent on their own fame, travelers who care deeply about elephants but not at all about the people of Africa. They all know each other. They meet at dinner parties, they sleep with each other, they argue about politics and the best way to negotiate their existence in a place where they don't really belong. At the center is Esmé, a beautiful young woman of dazzling ironies and introspections, who tells us her story in a voice both passionate and self-deprecating. Against a paradoxical backdrop of limitless physical freedom and escalating civil unrest, Esmé struggles to make sense of her own place in Africa and of her feelings for the two men there whom she loves--Adam, a second-generation Kenyan who is the first to show her the wonders of her adopted land, and Hunter, a British journalist sickened by its horrors. Rules of the Wild evokes the worlds of Isak Dinesen, Beryl Markham, and Ernest Hemingway. It explores unforgettably our infinite desire for a perfect elsewhere, for love and a place to call home. It is an astonishing literary debut.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375703438
• ISBN13: 9780375703430
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

True to Life

As an expatriate American who was born and raised in Kenya and attended the British boarding schools in Kenya, I can honestly say that I saw the people I grew up in this book. I first read it in 1998, when it came out; I was in the States for the first time and homesick for Kenya. When I read this book, it was as though I was home again. Esme's descriptions of Kenya evoke memories of home; once you fall in love with Africa, nothing else will ever seem quite good enough.

Fluid prose, vivid characters, spectacular imagery ...

Esme meets Africa for the first time largely by fluke. She finds much to love and hate, but in time, her lover settles under her skin. In this crisp, fluid novel, Marciano brings us into the lives and hearts of the contemporary white community in Kenya. She offers an accurate, if cynical, lens into its comforts, conflicts and uneasy contact with the larger community. Through her deft use of metaphor and down-to-earth dialogue, Marciano evokes a rare intimacy with her superficial, self-absorbed but earnestly-portrayed characters. She also uses vivid imagery in describing the landscape of Kenya and strong specificity in her setting - from Yaya shopping center to the midnight BA flight and Omo detergent - and comes across as one who really knows Esme's Kenya.

Starts off poorly, but turns beautiful

Marciano has given us a spare, beautiful book about people. While much time can and should be spent discussing the main character, Esme, and her relationship with Africa, I found the most intriguing and forceful element of the book to be the people and tight-knit, highly cliquish society described. I found myself both horrified and excited by the dangerous relationships, the way sexual partners are often changing hands, the way friends love each other and leave each other. The book is worth reading for an exploration of these relationships, as well as the prose and the imagery of the Kenyan wilderness. I recommend it with a disclaimer to be forwarned that the reader may not enjoy the character of Esme at all.

Kenya is painted in its beauty and invaluable otherness.

Francesca shares the awesome beauty of Kenya in a way that the reader can smell,feel and taste. Her description of the gulf between cultures of Africa and the West is the essence of the book. Oh, this is a land and a people that won't let itself be swallowed by western culture. We will in fact be deeply affected by this land and these people. I would love to see Marciano's documentaries.