you are familiar with award winning author Melina Marchetta you will delight in revisiting familiar characters from Saving Francesca and The Pipers Son in The Place on Dalhousie.
If you are not, you will be charmed by the characters you meet, and eager to devour Marchettas backlist when you have finished this wonderfully touching novel of home, family and friendship.
After Rosie Gennaro and Jimmy Hailler cross paths and enjoy a brief fling while travelling through Queensland, neither expect to see one another again, but fifteen months later, Jimmy learns Rosie has given birth to his son.
Rosie has reluctantly returned to the house on Dalhousie Street in Sydney, the home she once shared with her family, before her mother succumbed to cancer, before her fathers sudden death, but in which now her hated stepmother, Martha resides, to raise her son.
The house on Dalhousie is more than just a home to Rosie, it is all she has left of everything she has lost.
As far as she is concerned Martha, despite being the legal owner of the house, is an interloper with no legitimate claim, The two live together as if strangers, Marta is no more fond of her sullen stepdaughter than Rosie is of her, Marchetta explores this complicated relationship, and its progression, thoughtfully,
Rosie is an abrasive character, consumed by anger, guilt and bitterness connected to her mothers illness, her fathers remarriage, and his sudden death.
I found it difficult to like her initially, she comes across as a self involved brat, but slowly, for the sake of her son, she begins to relax her defences.
The authors development of Rosie feels authentic, the change in her is gradual, and realistically limited,
Jimmys entry into the tense and awkward situation at the Dalhousie house is a catalyst to soften the enmity between Rosie and Martha.
Having been abandoned by his own parents, Jimmy, though hesitant, is determined know his son and meet his responsibilities, I quickly grew very fond of Jimmy, who has had a difficult and far from blameless life, but who is decent and loyal, Jimmys friendships with his high school mates are his anchor, and give him support as he grapples with the uncertainty of his future,
For all the authenticity of Marchettas characters, and their stories, in The Place on Dalhousie there is the lightest touch of magical realism, a coincidence that closes a circle in a way that could have felt melodramatic, but instead felt right and true.
A beguiling story of loneliness and connection, of home, of family and friendship, of belonging, The Place on Dalhousie is a captivating novel, I was smiling so widely during the last chapter my cheeks hurt.
Be still my heart I loved this story so damn much!!! Not ready to let these characters go, Its been over a day since I finished Dalhousie and I cant let it go, This is what a book hangover feels like,
I will give this a proper review when I get my thoughts straight,
Love. love. love. The journey that began in Yearat St, Sebastian's
That took us to East Timor and London with Anabel's brother, . .
This was the final piece, the missing piece, Jimmy's piece,
All I can say is, Thank you, Melina,
Those who have read sitelinkSaving Francesca and sitelinkThe Piper's Son will recognise the group of friends in this novel, now in their mids and struggling with careers and relationships.
However, it also reads well as a stand alone as it focuses on one of the friends, Jimmy and the young woman, Rosie, who he rescues during heavy floods in Queensland.
Following a brief affair with Jimmy, Rosie heads back to Sydney after the floods have receded to the house that her much loved father built for her and her mother, now occupied by his widow and second wife Martha.
More than a year later Jimmy hears that Rosie has had his baby and discovers her living on the top floor of the house, despite her hatred of Martha.
Melina Marchetta writes so well about relationships, communities and the flaws that some people have that prevent them from making friends, Rosie is a prickly character who never got over her mother's death from cancer and hated her father's new wife, She has few friends and with her parents dead, no family to turn to when she finds herself pregnant and is unable to contact Jimmy.
But the House in Dalhousie Street in Haberfield is in the heart of the Italian community she grew up in and where she feels safe and most at home with all that is familiar around her even if her stepmother is reluctant to have her in the house.
This is a heart warming story, perhaps one that is not new but is well told and will be enjoyed by Marchetta's many fans.
God have I missed the crew and it's so good to have Jimmy back and happy after all this time Malina Marchetta is a character driven writer who shows you what family IS.
Maybe not the biological family that you are born to, although it is some of that, but the one you make for yourself on your journey to adulthood and during it.
She is fantastic at capturing humans in all of there beautiful brokenness and shows just how much the people in your life can make to broken parts better or worse.
While this could be read as a standalone I will adamantly state that it really shouldnt, Please do yourself a favor and read both sitelinkSaving Francesca and sitelinkThe Piper's Son, This will lend the backdrop to Jimmy and most of the side characters in the story plus they are wonderful and youll thank me for it later.
I fell in love with the broken Jimmy in Saving Francesca and loved seeing how his life is turning out, He is a complex person who came from a crap childhood and is making himself into something more,
“Toto sits up, holding tight to the bar and staring out at the world, He drops a new toy that came with the pram and starts crying, Jimmy picks it up and crouches, looking into his caramel eyes, Im Jimmy, he whispers, and youre the first thing Ive ever sort of owned and I dont want to get this wrong, ”
I loved seeing how he found his family and who they turned out to be, This is a heartwarming/heartwrenching tale of the things that bring people together and tare them apart, I dont want to say more since the magic is in the journey and Marchetta will make you root for the underdog, for the broken people and show you that perception is everything and everyone can be better than they believe possible when they are surrounded by family.
Another captivating and unputdownable book from Melinda Marchetta that shows just how small the world is and how we are all connected.
Welcome back, Melina!
sitelinkTell the Truth, Shame the Devil did nothing for me, but sitelinkThe Place on Dalhousie immediately got me to the emotional state I expect to be in reading a Marchetta book:
So, a big THANK YOU!
sitelinkThe Place on Dalhousie is a return to Marchetta's signature heart wrenching family drama a la sitelinkThe Piper's Son.
Once again you get a novel about building a family and healing after the past tragedies, Jimmy Hailler is at the center of this story it's about his coming home and finally making his own home, something he's never had.
But even more, it is about Rosie, the mother of his child, and Rosie's relationship with her evil stepmother, and a family house that they need to figure out how to divide.
I probably have said this many times before, but nobody writes quite like Melina Marchetta with so much empathy and heart, She doesn't just tell wonderful stories, she builds communities of wonderful people, people whom you all are guaranteed to love, And her dialog is simply THE BEST, Only her writing skill can keep me reading about the subjects I nowadays actively avoid like cancer, babies, pregnancy, PPD and come out of reading it cleansed by an obscene amount of tears.
If you've never heard of Melina Marchetta pity, start with sitelinkSaving Francesca and, hopefully, join the club!
I got my copy of sitelinkThe Place on Dalhousie on sitelink bookdepository. com/Place
P. S. It will be only fair if we get a book about Shiobhan and Justine next,
P. P. S. I keep reading about these wondrous things that people get to have in countries other than the US long service leave you are literally entitled to MONTHS of additional paid leave after you've been with a company for an extended period ofyears family centers where you can stay for days if you have trouble coping with new motherhood.
. Is this real Absolutely loved it!
Stars
These characters will always be special to me, and this book was the perfect continuation of the story from Saving Francesca and The Piper's Son.
Thank you Melina for giving us Jimmy's story and for introducing us to new characters as well, Rosie was such an awesome and gutsy character and I particularly enjoyed the storyline of her relationship with her stepmother Martha, who is a POV character along with Jimmy and Rosie.
My gang.years. MY GANGGGGGG. Marchetta always knows how to make me tear up,
Lotsa tears in lotsa chapters and even more laughs, This took me back towhen I first met Frankie and her friends, And now theyve all grown to so much more, The mems, nostalgia, reminiscing. Family, friendship, love and new beginnings, Other than Frankie, Jimmys always been my fav so Im happy we got his story, And heaps more too. Im happy and sad and content and satisfied and a little bit heartbroken this is over,
Loved the snippets of Sydney Central platform, Chinatown/trams, inner west vibes, OATLEY GOT A MENTION, Jacksons on George omg takes me back to my internship days, CQ.
. . SAHHHH GOOD. Reading this book feels like going back home,
And I haven't been to my parents house since, I think, I've seen them of course, they've visited, I just haven't been back to my hometown, I miss it. So I should know.
I am not sure new readers will appreciate this just as much as the old ones, no matter how they advertise it.
The book is infused with so much nostalgia for the past books, There's this aching for the kids they were back then, for their innocence, there's this longing for each other's presence after all those years, this happiness and this sense of belonging when they are not apart.
Everything seems to come along nicely and ties from the past are being made through this last book,
“And like always, Jimmy is amazed by the kindness of strangers, By the coincidences in life, ”
Oh, how lovely must it be for the readers who were teenagers when Francesca was published, if you come to think about it they grew up along these characters.
Then again, I watched these characters grow too, I felt their anguish, their hopes, their hearts being broken, I've seen them fall in love and make a life for themselves, always one thought away from each other.
They are part of me, like every favourite character in the bookish world,
Melina Marchetta said there won't be that much about the old pack of characters, I think it was just her lowering our expectations, because they were part of the story in each and every way, more than in any other companion novel I've ever read btw, they could finally give it a name as a series, as it dives way deeper into allbooks for this to be considered a companion.
And I absolutely loved that about it!
And then there are the new characters, . . They are just as achingly imperfect and still perfect for the story, for this ending with all the open doors,
Everything I've ever written before about Marchetta and her books could be simply copied and pasted here as they always seem to stand.
Melina Marchetta is simply put incredible! Her prose is stunning and incredibly touching, her words are raw and sincere and powerful, This story is about emotion, about flaws and second chances, about beautiful goose bumps inducing coincidences, about life and death and the messy parts in between.
You feel lonely sometimes Always, she wants to say, Worse is when she feels lonely in the company of others,
It's not the first time she writes about parenthood, but she does it in such a sincere way, it's hard for her words not to hit home at times.
Her advices went right to my heart, because I've been there feeling too young, even though I wasnt, too helpless, too unprepared, too lonely even, her observations regarding mothers and how they are seen by the others and each others are spot on.
I loved Jimmy as a kid and I loved him even more as an adult, I loved that he wanted to be there and to be better for Rosie and Toto, I understood his struggles with balancing two worlds until inevitably they clashed together, He's been looking for home all that time, now he's finally there,
Btw, did anyone else get a Froi vibe from him from time to time
Where Marchettas words take you, death follows closely from the shadows, and it's always intertwined with life and happiness and those tiny, beautiful coincidences that give hope even in the most dreadful of times.
All her stories are puzzles to be discovered, and when the pieces fit together, when the connections are made, when the last remaining cell within your heart is crushed under the weight of her words, there's nothing you can do, other than falling breathlessly in love with everyone involved.
I'll write some more about this beautiful book after I sleep on it for a while, But I oh! so loved it! It's painfully beautiful and I am so sad that it's already over and I'll have for wait for godknowshow long for a new book from this AMAZING author.
I'll never tire of praising her talent, Or her books. I always wonder, you know, . . how can she infuse her words with so much emotion sigh
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NOTE:
PREREADING THOUGHTS:
April,:
Ive been waiting for Jimmys story since he was a teenager, LOL! And still, whats left of the waiting is killing me slowly! Gimme gimme gimme!!!
:
Is it April yet!
:
Didn't I just tell you that our dreams would come true and we will end up having Jimmy's book in our trembling hands It was obvious how he wanted to be heard, how the author needed to give him a voice.
Oh, Jimmy!
Now let's just play the waiting game without losing our damn minds, because there is no date for the release and we've been all waiting for a long, long time.
Btw, I have no idea why didn't I have this book on my toread shelf, as I remember well doing a goofy happy dance when I found out all about it :D.