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.