Looking for Alibrandi - Book Review

Looking For Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta - Book Review

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Looking for Alibrandi is a passionate story about a young girl's painful and enlightening journey into adulthood.

The story centres around Josephine Alibrandi - an agressive, disatisfied, and confused final year student of Italian extraction. She has one burning ambition: to find her place in affluent society and to break free from her embarassing, stifling italian family.

As the story progresses, Josephine discovers a vital truth through tragic circumstances. She comes to realize that the perfect world consists more than gorgeous hairstyles, rich boyfriends and social privileges.

Melina Marchetta has written a clever and srong story. She expertly uses the notion of suffering through conflict throughout the novel. This helps to instigate a positive change in Josephine's perception of herself and of the world in general.

It could be said that the book goes beyond the theme of teenage angst. It paints a vivid picture of self-knowledge and self-acceptance in the making.

A strong feature in the book is Josephine's discontent

and anger. She is unhappy with a lot of things in her life. She gets angry when they call her an 'ethnic' and a 'wog'. She is bothered by the fact that she is illegitimate and unhappy the she is a mere English Scholarship student in an exclusive girl's school. Josephine is also upset that she will never be accepted as an equal by rich school kid Ivy Loyd. She is particularly angry with her meddling grandmother (Nonna), whom she has never forgiven for abandoning her teenage pregant mum and lying about her father.

It is worth noting the formidable relationship that exists between Josephine and her grandmother. Their robust characters add sugar and spice to the text. The conflict that exists tetween the two, helps Josephine to confront and accept her feelings, in particular towards her Italian roots. One of the main pivotal points in the book, which earns her self-insight and personal freedom, is when her absent father, Michael Andretti, and her boyfriend, Jacob Coote, enter her life. The reason why it's such a crucial event is because they come into her life as 'rescuers'. Her father, who is a lawyer, 'rescues' her from a threatening legal suit. It involves the famous and affluent Mr. Bishop and his daughter, Carly (who has her nose punched by Josephine after being called a 'wog'). It's interesting to point out the symbolism used by the author to convey Josephine's social envy. Metaphorically, it shows Josephine trying to 'destroy' the thing she holds sacred but cannot have. Jacob Coote also 'rescues' her from a potential rape incident.

Even though the characterization of Michael Andretti is unsubstantial, both men act as catalysts that bring about change through conflict. For example, when her father