Book Report: Saving Francesca

 Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

I reviewed Melina Marchetta's most famous book, Jellicoe Road, last year. I liked it a lot, but now that I've read Saving Francesca, I have to say Melina Marchetta is one of my favorite YA writers. Her writing isn't lusciously poetic like Laini Taylor or Francesca Lia Block, but her characters always make me wish I could be their friends too.

Saving Francesca is about a 17-year-old girl of Italian heritage at a private Catholic, former all-boys' school that recently opened its doors to girls. Instead of the typical trope that paints this situation like a teenage girl's paradise, Francesca ends up dealing with a bunch of stinky, gross, sexist boys and hangs out with the few other girls that she doesn't really get along with. Meanwhile, her mother has suddenly succumbed to a bout of acute depression, and her family struggles with this situation as her mother seems to get worse and worse. 

This book reminded me of Megan McCaffrey's Sloppy Firsts, in the sense that it's focused on realistic, everyday life. Some people might find this boring, but I usually don't have any problems with slice-of-life stories--especially if the narrators are as hilarious as Sloppy Firsts' Jessica Darling or Francesca Spinelli. (I'll admit I laughed out loud multiple times in this book.) The plot of Saving Francesca isn't wildly dramatic, but all of the characters are wildly interesting. Francesca was sarcastically funny (if sometimes boneheaded, like your typical teenager), but her friends and family members were also great. I liked most of these side characters, but my favorite was definitely Jimmy Hallier, one of the crude boys that Francesca meets in detention. He is a riot.

"We get to Annandale and he takes out a cigarette and offers one to me.

'I try not to indulge. It's a filthy habit,' I tell him.

'I love that word filthy. I love the way you force it out of your mouth like it's some kind of vermin you want to get rid of.'

'You've had vermin in your mouth?'"

Besides the characters, I also really liked how the Italian cultural aspects were woven into the story. One of my complaints about Eleanor and Park was that I felt that there was too much of an emphasis on Park's race and so much untapped potential in exploring Park's culture, especially in a dual-heritage home. There's a brief part in the book where Francesca stays at her nonna's house and her nonna hosts the Rosary. There's a little backstory about how William Trombal (Francesca's love interest)'s grandmother stole her nonna's famous S biscuit recipe, and they've been fighting ever since. William Trombal's grandmother brings a batch of those S biscuits, and so Francesca decides to take action:

"So during the Glorious Mysteries, I put them in the bin, wrap up the garbage bag, and take it outside. I know the Virgin Mary will understand. The Jews are a lot like the Italians, so I'm sure there were jealousy issues between her and the other women of Nazareth."

I wasn't a big fan of Will Trombal--he wasn't as interesting as Jimmy or Thomas Mackee, the other boy that ends up playing a role in this story. So the romance part didn't really do much for me, but if you're at all interested in YA contemporary and have patience for naive and stubborn heroines (who will eventually learn her lesson, obviously), this book is worth checking out.

And now, I'll end with a final quote related to the gross but kind of endearing Thomas Mackee:

"For a moment I can't help thinking how decent he is--that there's some hope for him beyond the obnoxious image he displays. Maybe deep down he is a sensitive guy, who sees us as real people with real issues. I want to say something nice. Some kind of thanks. I stand there, rehearsing it in my mind.

'Oh my God,' he says, 'Did you see that girl's tits?"

Maybe not today."