Saving Francesca

Rating:
Summary: Saving Francesca
Review:
This story provides a realistic portrayal of 16 year old Francesca as a teenager trying to find her place in a new school with a new group of friends. At the same time, though, it explores Francesca's difficulties at home with her mother's depression and what her mother's sickness does to break down and build up her relationship with her parents. I felt like this book did a good job examining Francesca's authentic teenager dilemmas, having to do with peer pressure, teen love, and breaking away from her parents. While Francesca struggles to break away from her family, she learns to see her parents as people with weaknesses and she learns to appreciate herself for who she is. From the point of view of a teenager, I felt like this was very accurate.
However, one problem I had with this book was the "love/hate" relationship Francesca has with Will. I felt like their relationship was slightly unrealistic, just by how much the two seemed to hate each other at the beginning of the book. Also, it was a bit awkward to get used to in the beginning as it is set in British culture.
I would certainly recommend this book to any teenager and also to any adult trying to understand teenagers and how complicated their lives can be.


Rating:
Summary: Saving Francesca
Review: Saving Francesca is the story of a girl with so much on her mind, but without the right words to say it. At the beginning of the book, Francesca speaks of how irritated she is with her mother. She is sickened by her always be positive attitude, and her dramatic behavior. She is upset at her for making her attend St. Sebastian's, a school with 750 boys and only 30 girls. Francesca finds it difficult to be the social butterfly she was at her old school, and blames it all on her mother. She knows something is wrong when her mother begins sleeping late rather than waking Francesca up in the morning with uplifting music, but she figures that she is just sick. After several weeks of waking up to silence, Francesca is worried. She learns that her mother is suffering from depression, and she has a hard time understanding how this could happen to such an optimistic woman. She no longer looks at her mother as the woman who ruined her life, but as the woman who's life she ruined. She wishes that her mother would go back to normal, so that she could live the happy life she lived before the first day she awoke to silence.

I enjoyed every last minute of Francesca's battles to get back to a life of normalcy. She was incredibly easy to relate to, and easy to feel for. Melina Marchetta brilliantly created a character that any teenage girl would want to read about. She goes through many of the same problems that normal girls go through, such as boy and friend problems, but also goes through so much more. The things that she goes through that could not be compared to normal every-day life, such as her mother's depression, are the things I enjoyed the most about this novel. It makes the little problems in our lives seem so small. It also gives you the desire to meet new people, and to really analyze the relationships that are existent in your life. Francesca wanted desperately to stay away from a certain group of girls at her school, but by the end of the novel realized that they were the girls that she needed the most. The girls that she once thought she needed the most were the girls who ended up needing her the least.

Not only was this novel incredibly interesting and easy to relate to, it was also beautifully written. Many novels are written in the same format, but Melina Marchetta goes beyond that format and simply puts her words onto paper. She does not always pay attention to grammar and sentence structure, as we have been taught to do. It is this that makes many of her passages from the novel so easy to relate to. A run-on sentence that may have been marked to death by any english teacher may make it the easiest to understand the thoughts going through Francesca's head. If those thoughts had been broken up into smaller sentences, the desperation in Francesca's mind would never have been noticed. Marchetta brilliantly created grammatically incorrect but emotionally perfect sentences throughout this novel.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for something to become a part of for a few hours. I am not the type of person to sit down and read a book for several hours in one sitting until I am done, but with Saving Francesca, I could not help myself. I could not put it down. If you are looking for a book to read over the course of a few days, this is not the book for you. Every time I put it down, I found myself with the desire to pick it right back up and finish, and you will too.



Rating:
Summary: Saving Francesca
Review: "I don't remember the last time anyone used my name...I don't remember the last time anyone looked me in the eye to speak to me. I'm frightened to look at myself in the mirror because maybe nothing's there...I want to be an adjective again. But I'm a noun. A nothing. A nobody. A no one..."

From the best selling and award winning author of Looking for Alibrandi, comes Melina Marchetta's second novel - Saving Francesca, a memorable story, told with much compassion, joy and love. A story that revisits adolescent pain with an Italian heritage, but with a new cast of characters we come to care deeply about.

For as long as Francesca Spinelli can remember, she has relied on other people to tell her who she is. Her mother, Mia, never let a day pass when she would not comment on Francesca's laziness, or talent, or passion. Her friend's at Stella's would compliment on her sweet and non-threatening nature. But in year eleven, Francesca has found herself St. Sebastian's - an all boys school that has recently started accepting girls. Forced out of her contented niche at St. Stella's, she fears she is invisible, believes she is silent and comes to the startling realisation that her identity may well be gone forever. The fact that her manipulative and over-bearing, but deeply relied upon and loved mother, has taken to her bed with depression, adds to Francesca's worries. It appears that life could not get any worse, and Francesca sets out on a turbulent journey to retrieve her identity and survive her mother's illness.

Saving Francesca takes place in terms two and three of Francesca's eleventh year at school. It is the winter of Mia's breakdown, and it explores the tumultuous life of Francesca as she strives to find herself, cope with her demanding load at school and the complex and totally debilitated Mia. Her journey is a tough one, but Francesca has not counted on the ferocious loyalty of her extraordinary new friends, or falling in love, or discovering that it is within her power to hold her family together.

Saving Francesca involves many secondary characters which support and sometimes hamper Francesca on her way. Mia, with her insistent manner, contributes very little to her daughter's life throughout the novel, however she is the narrative cogency behind Francesca's journey. Francesca initially resents her father Rob, as she blames him for her mother's illness as she tries to come to terms with Mia's nervous breakdown. She and her beloved younger brother Luca share a special union, and together they experience many confronting incidents which occur during the time of Mia's suffering. As well as Francesca's immediate family, there is her extended Italian family, her former girlfriends at St. Stella's, and her new friends and teachers at St. Sebastian's - with whom, almost reluctantly, she is forming unexpected but strong friendships. And finally, there is Will Trombal, with whom - despite her better instincts - she falls in love. Put with the contradictive themes the novel possesses, the contrasting cast of characters make Saving Francesca a motivating and inspiring novel.

Author Melina Marchetta quickly establishes Francesca's dry, unassuming and sardonic tone and uses it to dexterously narrate the many issues of reality Francesca is facing. Popular culture, as well as flashbacks and humour, are devices Marchetta uses to a strong sense of place and three-dimensional characters. She employs a clever use of the central character's memories to explore Francesca's flexible understanding of herself and of her family and friendships. Identity, friendship, family and depression are thematically the novel's focus, however as with her last novel, these `teen' themes are introduced naturally.

Saving Francesca is a genuinely uplifting novel, and the work of a mature writer. At the heart of Francesca's deeply moving and satisfying story, is the long and enduring discovery of the self she abandoned long ago. Suffering from a sense of adolescent helplessness that is all too real, Francesca's challenges at school are played out against a downwardly spiralling family situation. Saving Francesca is humorous, insightful and written in a language and style accessible to ages fourteen and above.

Highly recommended.


Rating:
Summary: Great novel filled with humor, romance, and rich characters
Review: Francesca Spinelli goes to St. Sebastian's, a former boys-only school that recently opened its doors to females. Unfortunately, none of Francesca's friends from St. Stella's, her old school, are going there. So she has to hang out with the Sebastian boys, Thomas Mackee and Will Trombal, and the "psycho girls" ---Tara Finke, Siobhan Sullivan and Justine Kalinsky. Francesca begs her parents to let her go to Pius, where all the other ex-Stella girls go, but this is to no avail.

One day, Francesca's mother Mia won't get out of bed. Francesca, her brother Luca, and her father aren't sure what to do when she remains in bed day after day, suffering from acute depression. Francesca finds herself dealing with her problems without guidance from her once vivacious mother.

As Francesca finds unlikely friends in the Sebastian boys and "psycho girls," she learns more about herself and her mother. She and the new Sebastian girls stage protests and write petitions to the teachers asking for more girl-boy equality. She also finds an unlikely friend (or maybe more!) in the annoying Will Trombal.

The supporting cast is full of charm, and you'll find members of your own high school in this group of fictional Australian students. Everyone knows Justine Kalinsky, the sweet but dorky accordionist who has a crush on a boy on her bus, known only as Tuba Boy. We've all met a Will Trombal, who seems to be a horrible cad until we really get to know him. All the characters are completely loveable and fun.

SAVING FRANCESCA is a great novel. Personally, I think it is better than Melina Marchetta's first novel, LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI. Filled with funny and rich characters, and just enough romance, SAVING FRANCESCA is a real winner.

--- Reviewed by Hannah Gomez ([e-mail])


Rating:
Summary: A good read.
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It was fun, humerous, sad, and touching. It's probably one of my favorite realistic fiction books. If you liked this try Jaquelyn Moriarty and Sarah Dessen (especially 'The Truth About Forever')

Rating:
Summary: Saving Francesca, Melina Marchetta
Review: Saving Francesca is the much awaited second novel by the bestselling author Melina Marchetta. Marchetta's first novel was the award winning cross-over fiction Looking For Alibrandi and readers have been hungry for a second novel from this admired author. Finally Marchetta has produced a novel that satisfies expectations; Saving Francesca. This novel deals with many similar issues as her first novel; multiculturalism, Catholic education and the search for one's identity at a very significant time in life. The style of Melina Marchetta's writing has matured and she has once again produced a compelling read.

Francesca's mother, Mia, is a very motivated and vivacious Communications Lecturer, who plays a huge role in the Spinelli family. Mia insists on sending Francesca to St Sebastian's, an all boy's school which has just started accepting girls. At St Stella's, Francesca's former school, she had belonged to the "cool group," the group that every girl dreams of being in. St Stella's only caters for students up until grade 10 (the majority of the students continued their education at Pius Senior College). Mia believes that Pius Senior College limits students and does not want this for Francesca. Much to Francesca's dismay she is bombarded with testosterone and forced to move away from her comfort zone to associate with three other girls from St Stella's; Siobhan the `slut', Tara the `fanatic' and Justine the `loser'.

The students of St Sebastian's are thoroughly against sharing their school with females. They hate change and especially hate those who cause the change. They cannot deal with girls having an opinion and if faced with an opinionated female, label them a "lesbian". This does not cause Francesca any grief as she is a self described "go with the flow type" and much to Mia's apprehension, is reluctant to speak out. Francesca believes that Mia won't accept her for who she is and instead wants Francesca to be more like her.

When the lively and passionate Mia, turns into a depressed bedridden mother, Francesca's family loses the key link in their lives and are close to break down. Francesca realises that without Mia's motivation and high spirits she is unsure who her mother is, and even more unsure who she is. So the journey begins. However; instead of Josie Alibrandi it is Francesca Spinelli who is on the road to self discovery. She begins to realise that her "hip," "down to earth" friends from St Stella's who saved her from befriending the "losers," were actually preventing her from showing her true colours. St Sebastian's guides Francesca on this journey of self discovery and on the way Francesca forms strong friendships, is faced with romance and realises that she is more like Mia than she thinks.

Like Marchetta's first novel, Saving Francesca creates a powerful story in the period of one school year. This novel is relevant to teens in our society as it relates to many key issues; a major one being depression. This issue is portrayed through Mia and is explored in a very realistic manner. This theme is dealt with clear-eyed compassion and this novel implies that there is no quick fix. Belonging is another key issue and is explored through the central character, Francesca. I believe that the characters within this novel are likeable by the audience and are extremely realistic and believable. I recommend Saving Francesca for a wide range of readers, between 13 years to adults.