Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
My rating: 4/5 cats
“I was born seventeen years ago,” I tell him. “Do you think people have noticed that I’m around?”
“I notice when you’re not. Does that count?”
seriously – that is barf-in-your-mouth sweet (in a good way) and part of why i love this marchetta gal. she writes boys you wish you had dated when you were sixteen. not now – now i would see through a line like that in a heartbeat, but at sixteen? hook line and sinker, man. put the apple schnapps away, boy, you will not be needing it tonight.
(full disclosure – this is a post-goodreads-party DBR.)
(just a little D, but enough to make my syntax awkward, is the excuse)
yeah, i can understand the melina marchetta hype now. i can see why all the ladies are loving all over her. and while i think jellicoe road is a much more profound and moving book, just because the scope of it is about four times bigger than this one, this book has got some moves all its own. and i am officially hooked and will read every last word of hers. soon.
marchetta’s strength is in her characters. they are never one-dimensional, even if they are only background players. she writes with a depth that eludes a lot of contemporary authors, even those whose audience is intended to be older and more discriminating. she shines a light on all the nooks and crannies that make up a personality, but nothing ever seems forced, everything is “just so.” she is a dream-writer, what i have been looking for.
can i just be human here?? not a book “reviewer??” eeerrrrggghgghhhh. that is how she makes me feel. and that’s in response to all of it: why can’t i write like her? why can’t i have friends like this?? why is my life full of shit i can’t handle but her characters overcome sensibly and with an excellent support system? why? why? why? because it is all wholly realistic and attainable, i just don’t have it. and i am full of envy, even though these characters kind of go through some shitty times. i want to be capable like abby lockhart. instead i am short of temper and i just shut down into silent distant mode. there is a lot i could learn from these books.
she doesn’t write the ideal – these aren’t brady bunch characters, but they are just that much better than me. they have reserves of strength that i maybe used to have but lost along with my youthful metabolism.
wow – when i am D, my reviews become more about me than usual. i should probably conclude this before i start sobbing on your shoulder about the one that got away and the stuffed animals they burned when i had smallpox or whatever.
this is a huge “should have” book for me and now it would be wiser if i went to lie down and stop typing before i get too ‘motional.
