{NIN} Review of Looking for Alibrandi

After reading Jellicoe Road, I immediately put all of Melina Marchetta’s other US-available books (b/c The Piper’s Son is out in Australia but not coming to The States until 2011 – arrrgh!!!) on hold at the library. Again, I hardly had to wait for her books, and I ended up getting Looking for Alibrandi, Saving Francesca, and Finnikin of the Rock all in one pop! Awesome…

So being anile for order, I started with MM’s first book, Looking for Alibrandi. Yeah, yeah, Jellicoe Road was #3, but too late…so better late than never.

Looking for Alibrandi revolves around 17-year old Italian-Australian Josephine Alibrandi, born of wed-lock and too smart-mouthed for her own good. She has never met her father and hasn’t really cared…until he unexpectedly re-enters her life. Additionally, Josie has her HSC (High School Certificate) exams to worry about (which apparently determines your destiny for the rest of your life - in Australia), 2 polar opposite boys to juggle, and a mother and grandmother to fight and make peace with.

This book was very different from Jellicoe Road. It focused a lot of the modern Italian-Australian experience and the (surprisingly) discrimination they sometimes face from “old” Australians, or however they term themselves. I’m not too up-and-up on Australian society and slang, so parts of this book just made me scratch my head in confusion.

What I enjoyed about the book was that it was light-hearted. I’ve been reading a lot of “heavy on the emotional roller coaster” type books (Before I Fall, anyone?) and it was a nice change to have a funny book to read. It did have its “growing older, growing wiser, still more to learn!” lessons in the end, but for the most part, it cracked me up.

There were quite a bit of evolving character relationships in this book: Josie and her mother, Josie and her grandmother, Josie and her father, Josie and Jacob, and more importantly, as the title suggests, Josie with herself.

I really enjoyed seeing Josie and her father’s relationship grow, from the first angry, “stay out of my life!” encounter to him happening upon her as she wandered down the street after a disastrous first date with one of her boys. Their relationship progresses in a nice and believable manner as she gets used to the idea of a father figure in her life and he learns what it’s like to have a daughter (for example, her father calls her an “obnoxious creation.” Hilarious!)

Jacob Coote is Josie’s main love interest. Josie and Jacob have one of the funniest asking-out scenes EVER. The banter between the two is hilarious, but you just have to smile at how cute these two are together. John Barton never really is a contender for Josie’s affections in this book; rather he represents what she secretly aspires to because she has identity issues with who she is due to the discrimination she faces for being “a wog.” Now, I’m not too certain what “a wog” means/is, but from what I gather, it is a highly offensive term for “newer” Italian-Australians, e.g. those who immigrated to Australia more recently than the other Caucasians.

While Looking for Alibrandi did not enrapture me the way Jellicoe Road did, I still found it an entertaining and worthwhile read.