Looking for Alibrandi Review

Written by ANASTASIA VENTO

Book: Looking for Alibrandi
Author: Melina Marchetta

An oldie, I know, but definitely a novel that keeps its popularity. Looking for Alibrandi is written by Melina Marchetta and it hit our shelves in 1992. I hadn’t read or seen the movie and thought it was about time I did. While I held the movie in my hot little hands, I decided to put it down because we all know that books are usually better than movies. So instead, I travelled to several book stores to purchase this book.

As soon as I started reading, I didn’t want to put it down. It was all I could think about. I needed to know what would happen next. In a short amount of time, my addiction turned into an obsession with every page I turned.

Josephine, also known as Josie, is a third generation Italian-Australian girl who is completing her last year of high school. Josie lives in Sydney and is the Vice-Captain of her school at St Martha’s. Because of her Italian background, Josie reacts negatively to terms such as ‘wog’ and ‘ethnic’, and this becomes an issue for Josie throughout the novel.

Josie has spent the majority of her life without her father, allowing her to be heavily influenced by two powerful women in her life: her mother Christina and her grandmother Katia. Amidst all the anger and frustration between her grandmother and mother, Josie discovers hidden secrets and learns a thing or two about the history of her family. With the return of her father, and falling in love for the first time, Josie begins to learn what she wants in life.

The author writes a fantastic tale about life and love, and explores issues that many of us have faced, or are currently going through. I would definitely recommend this book!