Saving Francesca Main Characters Saving Francesca takes place over the middle two terms of the year

r Francesca Spinelli is in Year 11. Shes at a new school, St Sebastians her old school St Stellas only goes to Year 10. All of Francescas Stella friends have gone to Pius Senior College and Francesca is adrift without them. Worse, Sebastians has until this year been an all boys school, and the boys (and some of the teaching staff) arent taking too kindly to the new intake of girls into the senior school. All of this is bad enough and then Francescas mother, the bossy, over-bearing, controlling but deeply loved and relied upon Mia, has taken to her bed. Mia is seriously depressed and it looks as though Francescas family and Francescas fragile sense of self may not survive her mothers illness. Macquarie Universitys Professor John Stephens claims the "abiding ideal of adolescent fiction" is "the emergence of subjectivity as a development of a central characters ability to express selfrecognition or agency" . If Stephens claim is accurate and a quick mental survey of YA fiction both recent and historical would suggest it is then Saving Francesca serves as an example par excellence of the genre. At the heart of Francescas story is her long and painful rediscovery of the self she abandoned years ago. Back in Year 7 Francesca was an extrovert, playing horsies and singing and dancing in the playground until someone pointed out to her she was a show-off. Francesca promptly dropped her best friend Siobhan and handed her personality over to a bunch of girls who rescued her from being "(tapped) on the shoulder to point out what I was doing wrong" and who spent the next four years doing precisely that. Since then, Mia has been bewailing the loss of "the little girl who sang Dancing Queen at the Year 6 Graduation Night." Mias been fighting for that little girl for years and at the same time that Francesca furiously objects to the fact that "(Mia) thinks she knows who I am because she thinks who I am is who she tells me", she has been more than willing to allow the St Stella friends to quash her personality. By the time we meet her, she doesnt even have her own taste in music. She fears shes invisible, she believes shes silent, and she has so successfully acceded to the repression of herself that when she is separated from her friends and her mother vanishes into depression, Francesca no longer has any idea who she is: I miss the Stella girls telling me what I am. That Im sweet and placid and accommodating and loyal and non-threatening and good to have around. And Mia. I want her to say, "Frankie, youre silly, youre lazy, youre talented, youre passionate, youre restrained, youre blossoming, youre contrary." I want to be an adjective again. But Im a noun. A nothing. A nobody. A no one. She is, however, a fascinating narrator. Told exclusively in the first person, Marchetta employs a clever use of flashbacks Francescas imperfect memories to explore Francescas shifting understanding of herself and of her family and friendships. It quickly becomes evident that Francescas not the most reliable of narrators but this is a reflection of her mental and emotional state rather than an attempt to evade or deceive on her part. On the one hand, Francesca considers herself invisible and ineffectual, yet her self-deprecating humour and knack at getting into clever, witty strife with the very people she ought to stay on the good side of if

she wants a quiet life, that is reveal someone quite different from the young woman so insecure she introduces herself to her friends on the phone with her full name. Her early sparring matches with House leader Will Trimbol who she will eventually fall in love with and with the despotic Mr Brolin (despite being invisible, Francesca cant seem to stay out of detention) are classic Marchetta in terms of their humour and revelation of character. Francesca may tell us shes someone with nothing to say, but she gets herself into a hell of a lot of trouble "not" saying it. Marchettas realisation of the school scenes are masterful her years teaching have given her a shrewd insight into classroom dynamics. Francesca has evidently spent all of Term 1 assiduously avoiding being friends with any of the other girls at Sebastians including her Year 7 "horsie" friend Siobhan and a handful of other Stella girls. She finds the Sebastian boys distasteful at best, and disgusting most of time. But despite her resistance and resentment and the lingering influence of her Stella friends the ones who "rescued" her Francesca finds herself building an initially tenuous, but ultimately incredibly powerful set of friendships with both boys and girls and learning about the true nature of friendship as she does. Family is also critical to Saving Francesca. In addition to Francesca and Mia theres father Rob and little brother Luca, and the posse of extended Italian relatives. The main interest here is how Mias depression affects the family and eventually changes the family dynamics for ever and for good. Francesca has had a difficult relationship with Mia and shes deeply ambivalent about her mothers depression shes angry, scared, compassionate, impatient everything youd expect a 17 year old to be. She adores younger brother Luca but develops an intense antagonism to Rob, who she comes to blame for Mias illness. The adults in Francescas life are flawed people Rob, for instance, has Francesca ring Mias work colleagues to explain her absences and illness and its largely through her own will and with the support of her new friends that Francesca learns and grows. How Francescas family will re-make itself is left open at the novels end, but theres a strong sense that their fundamental love and respect for each other and the hard lessons learned will pull them through. Marchetta employs popular culture in a most interesting way in Saving Francesca. Most YA novels that drop in references to a poster of a (real) band on a wall or a characters favourite actor threaten to date quickly. Saving Francesca has numerous references to actual popular culture punk band One Dollar Short, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", for instance but they are embedded in the meaning of the text. Rather than being one-off references to establish the novels (possibly short-lived) credibility with the readership, Marchetta uses the centrality of popular culture to young peoples lives to explore her interest in the power of family and the nature of friendship. In fact, its so important to the novel that it informs the books very design the first page of each chapter features the names of various alternate contemporary bands and musicians in greyscale behind the text. Popular culture in Saving Francesca bonds friendships (after finding out Will Trimbol has a girlfriend, Francescas new friends cheer her up with a night of Alanis Morrissette and the Colin Firth "Pride and Prejudice"), represents a characters frame of mind (Francescas misery at being sent to stay with her grandparents is made worse by them not letting her watch Buffy the vampire Slayer emotional torture!), and acts as a shorthand to exemplify a point (Francescas memories of her family singing a Whitlams song together is a powerful pointer to what theyve lost). Time will tell how these references are received by future

readers, but my sense is that their meaning and use are so clear that it will over-ride any problems of transitive popularity. Im full of admiration for Saving Francesca. Its beautifully structured and has remarkable depths that emerge on subsequent readings, its written with a mature hand and heart, its painful and moving, its funny and true. Theres also a feisty sense of social justice and a feminist sensibility underpinning this book, and its a pleasure to read forth-right, opinionated and informed teenaged characters in a time when many would like to see young people silenced. In an interview in the afore-mentioned Sydney Morning Herald (Spectrum, April 5-6, 2003), Marchetta stated "I knew, as soon as Alibrandi came out, that my competition was not going to be any other writer, it was just going to be this novel." It would be a shame indeed if Saving Francesca were viewed only in terms of its enormously successful and beloved predecessor, despite some superficial similarities. Let us hope that, like its protagonist, Saving Francesca finds its own place in the world, on its own fine, compelling and independent terms.

Saving Francesca Francesca is an ordinary 16 year old Italian girl, living in the outskirts of Sydney, whilst starting a school that have just begun to accept girls. Francesca has been thrown into the deep end and is sinking real fast. As she has just left her old all girl school - St Stella's and now is finding it difficult to go on without her friends that always guide her identity. On top of this her rock, her mother Mia is suffering from depression and is no longer telling Francesca who she should be. Francesca has always been influenced by her mother and her St. Stella friends who she is and now that the connection is lost so is Francesca and her identity. Now that she has started at St Sebastian's Francesca is free to explore who she really is and be able to be her true self. Saving Francesca is one of the most prestigious books by creative author Melina Marchetta. Francesca is always being influenced by her St. Stella friends in what she wears and who she should be. For instance in the beginning of the book it says that Francesca 'needed to be put into place, the next year I'd be told to find a place of my own, rather than letting the girls find it for me' (Ref: pg 27-28) This statement is conflicting as it is telling Francesca to do two different things that relate to who she is. More importantly Francesca is being lead to believe that she needs to be told who she is all the time by her St. Stella friends. 'I miss the Stella girls telling me what I am.' (Ref: pg 44). This quotation states that the Stella girls do impact Francesca's Identity and now that the friendship is weaker Francesca is lost and must find her identity on her own. Francesca's mother Mia is a very strong and confident person whilst Francesca is a hidden person with not much to say. '...she becomes someone with nothing to say. Someone a bit like me.' (Ref: pg 5). This statement reflects who Francesca really is. This person Francesca is trying to be is hindered by who her mother wants Francesca to be. 'She thinks she knows who I am because she thinks who Is who she tells me I am' (ref: pg 13). Mia is always tells Francesca who she is and who she should be. In the hope that Francesca will grow up to be just like her mother. Mia is Francesca's rock and therefore whatever Mia says must be right. It is true that Francesca's identity is being influenced by her mother and now that Mia is not an active figure in Francesca's life, Francesca has to find her identity by her self. Now that Francesca attends a different school and is not being influenced by her Stella friends she is enabled to find out who she gets along with by herself and is not influenced by what others say. Since the sudden illness and isolation of her mother, Francesca can not count on her mother telling her who she is but now has to find out for herself who she is. For most of Francesca's life she has been told by her Stella friends and her mother who she should be and not who she is. Now that these two links have been disconnected Francesca is on her own to find out who she really is and what her true identity is.