Author: Melina Marchetta
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult, Coming of Age
Rating: 5 stars
"Left alone with a dial tone....excuse me, operator, why is no one listening?"
I reinvented my blog last night to suite my tastes and personality. With the layout to my pleasing, it seemed necessary to refresh my content to project my personality and who I am. My blog can not fully represent me without having Saving Francesca somewhere. Reading is a huge part of my life but at times it does become monotonous and uninspiring and this summer I NEEDED a novel to PUSH me. Saving Francesca did just that and after months from my reading, I am still musing over it.
"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?"
People may read this novel and come back and say "Diana, nothing much really happened..." and I will tell them "you missed the point". Saving Francesca is not a novel involving a vast physical plot or action; it is pretty stagnant in that department. And yet, I loved it as much as I loved Heir of Fire or the Grisha Series. Why am I praising this novel so much? It is because it does something MAGICAL by touching everyone. It takes a small middle class family and projects our needs, wants and fear in life. Saving Francesca is characteristically normal and common and because of this, Melina Marchetta creates a universal work. Saving Francesca is truly a story about enduring life; it is a journey to self-discovery and acceptance. It is a shout to society saying "NO, this is ME, I am who I am, and I love myself for that".
“It's a weird smile, but it reaches his eyes and I bottle it. And I put it in my ammo pack that's kept right next to my soul and Justine's spirit and Siobhan's hope and Tara's passions. Because if I'm going to wake up one morning and not be able to get out of bed, I'm going to need everything I've got to fight this disease that could be sleeping inside of me.”
Francesca wakes up one morning going from a world of music, of life, to a world of silence. She wakes up to this stillness that makes someone's heart stop. Her energetic and charismatic mother does not get up. This once vicarious and lively woman is bedridden from a sickness that leaves a ghost of herself. Without Francesca's mother telling her who to be, she is lost, confused and in a state of turmoil. The big question is who is Francesca? Who is she truly, away from society's expectations?
I want to go around the neighbourhood saying, “We’re depressed.” If my mum can’t get out of bed in the morning, all of us feel the same. Her silence has become ours, and it’s eating us alive.
Her journey of self discovery begins in a reformed all boys school, St. Sebastian. Here, Francesca stumbles upon her misfit group of friends that makes her come to terms with the person she became. Her home situation slowly deteriorates as depression takes hold of her mother. Francesca is forced to accept her mothers depression and the facade she has been living under. Once the lies have been revealed, it becomes difficult to hide under the facade of a perfect family. The ultimate fall out is ugly, brutal, raw and shockingly beautiful.
Just ask how I'm feeling, I want to say. Just ask and I may tell you.... No one does.
Melina Marchetta creates a true and authentic depiction of the effect of an illness upon a family. Not only that, she shows how everything can change from a single moment.The novel is soft spoken and delivers a clear message through Francesca's narration. She is funny, sarcastic, intelligent and critical of the life around her. It is refreshing yet poignant. There is something heartbreakingly beautiful about the day to day struggles and what it makes of a person.
I want to be an adjective again. But I'm a noun. A nothing. A nobody. A no one.
Melina Marchetta crafts a work that is vital and universal to any demographic. By the end, you begin to appreciate the beauty and struggle around you because it means YOU are LIVING.
Tara Finke nudges me. "Fascism at its best here. They train them young."
No comments:
Post a Comment