the piper’s son

January 23, 2011 Heidi ARC, Book Review 3

the piper’s son
Author: Melina Marchetta
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication Date: March 2011
Pages: 328 (in ARC)
Companion to Saving Francesca

ARC received from I Read Banned Books book tour

About the Book:
Melina Marchetta’s brilliant, heart-wrenching new novel takes up the story of the group of friends from her best-selling, much-loved bookSaving Francesca – only this time it’s five years later and Thomas Mackee is the one who needs saving.

Thomas Mackee wants oblivion. Wants to forget parents who leave and friends he used to care about and a string of one-night stands, and favourite uncles being blown to smithereens on their way to work on the other side of the world.

But when his flatmates turn him out of the house, Tom moves in with his single, pregnant aunt, Georgie. And starts working at the Union pub with his former friends. And winds up living with his grieving father again. And remembers how he abandoned Tara Finke two years ago, after his uncle’s death.

And in a year when everything’s broken, Tom realizes that his family and friends need him to help put the pieces back together as much as he needs them.

My Thoughts:

Oh. My. Stars. This book. Wow. Just… wow. It was painfully beautiful. Literally painful. It hurt my heart so much that I don’t know if I can ever read it again. And yet, it was beautiful… the writing, the relationships, the healing. I want to read it again. How does Marchetta do it? The characters are so broken and the story could easily have become cliche and well…. drivel. It didn’t. It was real and at times heartbreaking and hopeful and humorous and just so incredibly emotional. I’m fairly sure that I cried for each character at some point in the novel.

The story is mainly about Tom. His life has fallen apart since we last saw him in Saving Francesca. (Note: If you’ve not read Saving Francesca you will not be lost in this book but it enhances the story. I would recommend reading it first.) Basically, at the story open, he has hit rock bottom and has no where to go. the piper’s son follows Tom and various members of his family as they try to heal and move on from tragedies and hurts. It’s told in the present as well as through memories and flashbacks. The characters are all incredibly flawed and do so many things that make you want to shake them yet you’re rooting for them throughout the book.

I spent at least the first half of this book taking one hit after another to my heart. It got to the point where I almost didn’t want to learn more about any of the characters because I loved them and knew that there was something that was going to blindside me and make me break for them. Then there were about 20 or so pages where I was laughing out loud and thinking, “Ah! Here is where it turns around.” As we used to say in the 90s… NOT!
As I reread that I realize that it makes it sounds all doom and gloom-y. It’s not. There are very funny parts. I love Tom and his crazy mixed up family and friends. They remind me of my own. Still, as I said before, Tom is at a very low point. As readers we go through that with him before the healing really starts. And the thing about healing? It can hurt too.

This was a beautiful story of life, love, healing and loyalty. Marchetta builds real, complex relationships. Not everything is tied up in a nice neat bow, but there is hope in the end.

A few of the random things I loved:
*Music… it’s important to many of the people in the story and I loved the way it was used.
*The names/insults Tom and his friends/family banter around.
*Tom’s silly side… we don’t see it all that often in the first 2/3 of the book but Tom can be very silly. Also, witty.
*The friendship between Francesca, Justine, Siobhan, and Tara.
* Seeing the crew from Saving Francesca a few years down the road. They’re no longer teenagers.
* The Australian cover: