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Romance. Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. HTML:For as long as Josephine Alibrandi can remember, it�s just been her, her mom, and her grandmother. Now it�s her final year at a wealthy Catholic high school. The nuns couldn�t be any stricter�but that doesn�t seem to stop all kinds of men from coming into her life. Caught between the old-world values of her Italian grandmother, the nononsense wisdom of her mom, and the boys who continue to mystify her, Josephine is on the ride of her life. This will be the year she falls in love, the year she discovers the secrets of her family�s past�and the year she sets herself free. Told with unmatched depth and humor, this novel�which swept the pool of Australian literary awards and became a major motion picture�is one to laugh through and cry with, to cherish and remember.… (more)
User reviews
I’m not going to waste time (yours or mine) by giving you a plot summary. Frankly, you can read the synopsis, other reviews, or better yet, the actual book. Instead I’ll focus on sharing a few of the many things that made me love this novel.
1. My love for this book would not be complete without Josephine Alibrandi. She has such a warm heart and forgiving nature. I loved the way she welcomed her father into her life without resentment. I love that she has values and a strong sense of family.
2. Australia has been dubbed one of the friendliest countries in the world. However Marchetta has given the rest of us a glimpse of the real Australia. And while I am sure it is a country filled with smiles, rainbows, and butterflies I’ve learned that these are not its defining traits. It is a country filled with a rich history, diversity, prejudice, and some very kick ass slang. I mean, who walks around saying words like wog? And wagged? The Australians that’s who! And while most of the slang in this book went over my head it didn’t take away from the enjoyment factor (it added to it).
3. Can I just say how refreshing it was to read about ‘real’ Italians? Because it was! I am a little misled about their culture because of shows like the Jersey Shore and Jerseylicious (which I admit are my guilty pleasures). But these were far from the Gorilla Juiceheads we watch on MTV. Marcehetta showed us the gossipy neighbors, the outdated yet strong traditions, the fiery tempered and passionate Italians that are often overshadowed by their vulgar MTV counterparts.
One has to wonder what Australia is in hiding ‘down under’. Because Melina Marchetta is certainly a hidden gem.
Josephine Alibrandi is seventeen, illegitimate, and in her final year at a wealthy Catholic school. This is the year she meets her father for the first time, and allows him to come back into her life, the year she falls in love, tests friendships, the year she discovers the secrets of
I would recommend this book to both male and female 15 years old and older. Whether you have these conflicts in your personal life or not , it is good reading because I am sure you can relate to something in this story.
This is a story about relationships -- Josephine's relationships with her mother, her grandmother, her father, the boys in her life, her classmates, and even Australian society -- and that is where the book's strengths lie, especially the characterization of the grandmother-mother-daughter dynamic. And while I thought the building of the bond between Josephine and her father was well-done, I never bought into either of the love interests. I also thought the time structure of the novel was awkward. A whole year is packed into a few hundred pages, so it's almost a series of vignettes, which doesn't make for a compelling read. There's also a weird plot point near the end that changed the tone of the book and seemed like a contrived fix to bring the plot points to a certain conclusion. Overall, it was an interesting coming-of-age story, but I'm not sure how relevant it would be to American teens almost 20 years from its original publication date.
I listened to the audio version of this book, whose narrator I never fully warmed to. The narrator's accent was at times charming, but veered to annoying in bits. I'm curious what my reaction to the story would be had I read it in print. But despite some of my misgivings with the book, I'd still like to see the film based on it if I could find a copy here in the US.
Written in an almost-diary format, Josie has a compelling and authentic voice of a seventeen-year-old coming into her own. Each chapter is written in first-person past tense, but comes across as if the events she relates just happened. It's not quite a diary, however, as there are no dates heading up each chapter, and weeks can go by between pages. Almost an entire year is covered, as Josie learns about herself, her family, and her dreams. The story covers a lot of ground in terms of her relationships with friends, boys, her father, and her grandmother, but the theme holding the story together is Josie's coming of age and growing to know herself. Realistic teen fiction doesn't always age well, but this search for identity will always have currency, and the only parts that date the story are brief references to Doc Martens and a tape deck. Though not as streamlined or complicated as Jellicoe Road, this is still a book I would recommend.
I’m not going to waste time (yours or mine) by giving you a plot summary. Frankly, you can read the synopsis, other reviews, or better yet, the actual book. Instead I’ll focus on sharing a few of the many things that made me love this novel.
1. My love for this book would not be complete without Josephine Alibrandi. She has such a warm heart and forgiving nature. I loved the way she welcomed her father into her life without resentment. I love that she has values and a strong sense of family.
2. Australia has been dubbed one of the friendliest countries in the world. However Marchetta has given the rest of us a glimpse of the real Australia. And while I am sure it is a country filled with smiles, rainbows, and butterflies I’ve learned that these are not its defining traits. It is a country filled with a rich history, diversity, prejudice, and some very kick ass slang. I mean, who walks around saying words like wog? And wagged? The Australians that’s who! And while most of the slang in this book went over my head it didn’t take away from the enjoyment factor (it added to it).
3. Can I just say how refreshing it was to read about ‘real’ Italians? Because it was! I am a little misled about their culture because of shows like the Jersey Shore and Jerseylicious (which I admit are my guilty pleasures). But these were far from the Gorilla Juiceheads we watch on MTV. Marcehetta showed us the gossipy neighbors, the outdated yet strong traditions, the fiery tempered and passionate Italians that are often overshadowed by their vulgar MTV counterparts.
One has to wonder what Australia is in hiding ‘down under’. Because Melina Marchetta is certainly a hidden gem.
At long last, I’ve picked up and finished my favorite author’s debut novel, which also happens to be the last book of hers that I read. It’s fascinating—and quite odd, to tell you the truth—to read her first book last: it’s like peeking at a great author’s first draft. Nevertheless, LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI was an enjoyable, if not spectacular, contemporary read featuring a feisty main character and a discussion of ethnic discrimination in Australia.
The great maturation of Melina Marchetta’s writing style over the past 20 years shows. Much of the character development in LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI takes place in the form of dialogue: Josie’s grandmother, in particular, talks a lot about their family’s history, and Josie is often at odds with her grandmother as to where they stand regarding their position as Italian Australians in Australian society. Sometimes the character development feels choppy, for Josie will be acting like an immature brat one day, and in the next chapter, she will talk about how she feels herself changing as she learns more and more. Um, from where does this growth naturally progress? I scratch my head in confusion.
The best part of LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI is probably Josie. In a genre where all too often female protagonists will be much blander than their authors intended for them to be, Josie is loud-mouthed, mean at times, unafraid to make her thoughts heard. She is very direct with the family members she disagrees with over various issues. Because of Josie’s opinionated point of view, readers are able to be immersed in a discussion over ethnic biases that existed in Australia at the time of this book’s writing, that may still exist today. Josie is unafraid to voice her complaint about how she is treated and thought of differently by her classmates. Sometimes this feels like too much telling and not enough showing, but it’s Melina Marchetta. Which means that even not at her fullest potential, she is still worth reading.
LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI may not have claimed my heart as Saving Francesca and Jellicoe Road have, but it’s still, I think, a must-read for Marchetta fans, who will be able to appreciate just how far their beloved author has come.
It also goes into depth about her
She goes on about how she likes this guy that hangs around with the 'kn ow it all character' Ivy, and her friends and how she goes to the school dance, and the point I'm currently reading is when she gets home after riding on the motorbike with Jacob Coote.
The story is about the main character Josephine - also known as Jozzie. She has a very close relationship with her mother as she is the only person that she lives with. She has never met he father and so he has had no significant impact on her whatsoever.
This book is very hard to put down and I would reccomend it to anyone who is looking for a good Australian novel.
Im only at chapter four, and yet I am really enjoying it and I hope it carries on this way.Its a pretty good book so far!!
Josie is an Italian born and raised in Australia and just like in many other countries in the world, she experiences prejudice because of this. "You're not Australian because you
She is also illegitimate which of course pegs her as a "bad girl" since it will be like mother like daughter.
She is also a smart little gal who is, as her teacher tells her, a sheep. She could be a leader but thanks to not having to courage to go against her friend Sera who is always coming up with wild things to get into trouble.
All in all, she is every high school girl struggling with friendships, grades, family and yes Sex. But even that was handled in a way that I could have endorsed if it hadn't been for the constant swearing. Come On People! Don't you have any sense of professionalism? Do you really think that Every person on God's Green Earth has to use the F word at least once a day?
Wish it had been better--it easily could have been.