(no subject)

[skygiants]

I kind of wish I'd read Melina Marchetta's Jellicoe Road BEFORE the Lumatere books like everybody else. Retroactively, having now read Jellicoe Road, I am COMPLETELY UNSURPRISED by the ludicrous amount of parental backstory trauma in Lumatere! Alas, it doesn't work in reverse because, like a fool, I assumed that the backstory of a novel set at a contemporary Australian boarding school would be at least somewhat less over-the-top than the backstory of a novel set in a Gormenghastian fantasy kingdom.

In fact, however, I'm pretty sure Melina Marchetta wrote Jellicoe Road and then was like "well, that was fun, but you know what would make it better? If I did it all over again, but with HIGH FANTASY STAGE SETS."

I mean, Jellicoe Road really is quite thematically similar to the Lumatere books: both feature angry, traumatized teenagers with terrible childhoods that start out as enemies, but reluctantly grow to understand and support about each other through the process of a.) learning about the five million tragedies that plagued the Previous Generation b.) reconciling with the survivors of the Previous Generation and the mistakes that they made and c.) hooking any estranged couples from among the survivors of the Previous Generation back up.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Jellicoe Road a lot! I like reading about angry, unlikable children reluctantly finding support and strength in each other. However, I do think that the thematic stuff she's trying to do does work slightly better for me when you upgrade the war games to real war and the backstory trauma therefore to the kind of incredibly messed-up stuff that does happen in war, as opposed to a series of unfortunate events that all just happen to happen to the same collection of nice but tragic kids in suburban Australia, including:


- a tragic, unpredictable car accident that kills all the members of two families except for three teenagers
- followed several years later by a tragic, unpredictable, completely unrelated GUN accident in which the teenager who rescued the other three teenagers from the car crash the first time around then accidentally SHOOTS AND KILLS one of them

(it is the confluence of these two tragic, unpredictable accidents that gets me -- either one of them leading to a great deal of trauma for all the survivors makes sense to me! but was it really necessary to have both???)

- anyway, this leaves the dead teenager's girlfriend, who is another one of the three survivors of the first accident, pregnant! after which she becomes a drug-addicted hooker!
- meanwhile, the kid who accidentally shot the other kid goes insane, but then becomes sane again long enough to get married and have a kid with the love of his life ...
- who then dies tragically young of CANCER!
- after which he goes insane AGAIN, becomes a hermit for several years, and then shoots himself!
- RIGHT IN FRONT of the child of the dead teenager that he shot!

Also somewhere in between all the tragedies the kids have time to accidentally start a war game that will lead to a generation's worth of bitter enmity between various factions of teenagers, but given all the rest of what's going on that's basically just incidental.

I kept thinking of that one line in Froi of the Exiles when a survivor of the Previous Generation, attempting to describe the backstory to a confused Froi, explains: "It's far more complicated and tragic than you can imagine." All right, Melina Marchetta, I understand now. It's ALWAYS far more complicated and tragic than I can imagine. I will not underestimate you again.

Comments

[allchildren]

The thing that got me about Jellicoe Road was the shroud of secrecy over everything up to and including basic parentage. It just seemed really unnecessary? I know you're all very traumatized but this... is self-perpetuating at this point....

I do think Marchetta's prose flows so much nicer in a contemporary setting than in Lumatere, though. The portentous, dramatic language of (her idea of) fantasy drags her down a bit, IMO. My favorite of hers are two you haven't read yet -- Saving Francesca and its semi-sequel, The Piper's Son. Also contemporary, but slightly less OTT and more fun. S-slightly.

[skygiants]

Yeah, I ... don't fully understand why "yes, hi, I'm legal guardian because I am your aunt" is such a difficult thing to explain to the child you're ALREADY raising. But, I mean, I'm not a traumatized Australian, what do I know?

Ha, I sort of stopped noticing the prose in Lumatere by book 2 because at that point it had already transmogrified into a Wes Anderson movie in my head. I should read her others, though!

[thistleingrey]

Okay, I am convinced. *queues Jellicoe without reading the MASSIVE SPOILERS* (I keep meaning to read the fantasy ones, but since I haven't gotten to them, hey, how about this one first.)

[sovay]

a series of unfortunate events that all just happen to happen to the same collection of nice but tragic kids in suburban Australia, including

That's like someone rolled every Lurlene McDaniel novel into the same backstory.

[allchildren]

What I could never stop noticing in Lumatere was the exclusive use of "babe" over "baby." IT'S A BABY. CALL IT A DAMN BABY!!!!

it had already transmogrified into a Wes Anderson movie in my head

L O L

[lacewood]

Oh man, I remember reading this, though for some reason, it feels a bit amorphous in my head, maybe because I found the first half of the book weirdly... confusing? Constant stream of references to unexplained past events! EVERYTHING IS OMINOUS BUT VERY VERY VAGUE. I did enjoy it a lot once things started making sense but that KIND OF TOOK A WHILE.

I did really like Searching for Alibrandi when I was much younger, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't as ominous or tragic. This reminds me I should probably re-read it and maybe check her other stuff out.

[skygiants]

I will be very curious to see what you think! :D

[skygiants]

The body count, for a town which seems to have no major crises and a fairly minimal amount of crime, is ASTOUNDINGLY high.

[skygiants]

It took me ages to start a.) piecing together the backstory and b.) remembering the names of all the children involved in it (for the LONGEST TIME I could not figure out where the fifth kid came from), but eventually it all sorted itself out! Sort of. Mostly.

I should probably also read her other, hypothetically less tragic stuff!

[obopolsk]

Jellicoe Road is basically my favorite book, tied with Marchetta's The Piper's Son, so reading this post was pretty funny -- I often wonder how/why I love her books so much when the plots are also so absurd. In general, I think the sort of ~magical realism~ vibe in Jellicoe worked for me (with the mystical connections between the generations) and made the over-the-top aspects more believable. I also like that her books still have a lighthearted feel amid all the trauma, and I'm a sucker for an intergenerational story. The emotion in her books is as over-the-top as the plots a lot of the time, and I love that, because I find a lot of American fiction so emotionally cold.

[rachelmanija]

Is that what was going on in that book? I attempted to read it, but found it completely unpenetrable. I literally had no idea what was going on, who anyone was, who was talking at any given point, whether events were happening in the present or in flashback, and whether the war was real (like post-apocalyptic or something) or a game.

[rachelmanija]

I had the same reaction only much more so. See my comment below. I don't think I've ever been so confused by a book.

[skygiants]

I mean, it definitely makes it a lot of fun to read -- the emotion is super over-the-top, but it sucks you in! I'm happy when these kids manage to overcome their drama enough to have happy feelings. Emotionally cold it SURE AIN'T.

[skygiants]

I mean, it's understandable, given that everything is played for A HUNDRED AND FIFTY PERCENT emotion. I mean, I guess teenagers do take themselves and whatever war games they happen to be playing Extremely Seriously, but it does make for a certain ... lack of grounding .....