Title: Looking for Alibrandi
Author: Melina Marchetta
Pages: 261
Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Romance
Published: October 5th 1992 by Puffin/Penguin Australia
Source: Library Book
Synopsis:
'And what's this about you and your friends driving around Bondi Junction half-dressed last week?'
'Who told you that?'
'Signora Formosa saw you. She said you and your friends almost ran her over. She rang Zia Patrizia's next-door neighborhood and it got back to Nonna.'
Telecom would go broke if it weren't for the Italians.
Josephine Alibrandi is seventeen, illegitimate, and in her final year at a wealthy Catholic school. This is the year her father comes back into her life, the year she falls in love, the year she discovers the secrets of her family's past and the year she sets herself free.
I'll run one day. Run from my life. To be free and think for myself. Not as an Australia and not as an Italian and not as an in between. I'll run to be emancipated.
Looking for Alibrandi, is the second Melina Marchetta book that I've read. After On the Jellicoe Road, I hoped this book would be just as an amazing read.
And I loved this book, just no where near as much as I thought I would.
It is a wonderful story filled with anger, sadness, happiness, and the awkwardness of growing up.
The story follows Josie (Josephine) Alibrandi, and a year of her life.
During this year, she meets her father, completes school, loses a dear friend, and loses her first love (not too sure if she loved him or not but oh well).
Bad
Jacob was a prick. He was rude, he pressured Josie. Plus he totally broke her heart :(
Josie's father, was an interesting character. He was rude, he told Josie that he initially would never love her. But he came around, and he was supportive. And I really liked him. (So really he is also apart of the good section haha)
John committing suicide. It was sad. It hurt Josie, and I felt personally sad too. He had so much going for him. But he just wanted to be free, and this was the only way he saw he could be free.
Josie's Nona. She was rude, and a bloody hypocrite. How could she call Josie a curse when what she did was worse!
Good
Josie. Josie and her moods. She was such a teenager. She could be nice, and then horrible a moment later. I loved her awkwardness. I loved how she was stern with her father. But it saddened me to see her hurt her mother. I think Josie is a relatable character.
Josie's mother. She just deserves to be happy. That is all there is to it.
I liked Jacob and Josie together. It was awkward and different, and I think they were good for each other, for that short time period. They widened each others views. And changed each other. And I believe that was good for both of their characters. I really liked them together, no matter how much of a prick Jacob was, because really Josie also dished it out too.
I liked how Josie was an Australian Italian. I liked that. As an Australian, it is great to see a different cultural side of Australia that I didn't know much about.
Really I just liked the whole novel.
Rating: ★★★ 3.5
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