Feeling Sorry for Celia
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4.8 • 16 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Dear Ms Clarry,
It is with great pleasure that we invite you to join our Society.
We have just found out about your holiday. It is so impressive! You had four assignments, an English essay and a chapter of Maths to do. And you didn't do one single piece of homework! Fabulous!
Also we have a feeling that you have a History test today. And you're trying to study now? On the bus? With the Brookfield boys climbing onto each other's shoulders to get to the emergency roof exit? And with Celia about to get on the bus at any moment? And you think that's going to make a difference!!! That's really very amusing, Elizabeth. We like you for it. You're perfect for our Society and we're very excited about having you join.
Yours sincerely,
Society of People who are Definitely Going to Fail High School
(and Most Probably Life as Well!)
Life is pretty complicated for Elizabeth Clarry. Her best friend Celia has disappeared, her absent father has reappeared and her communication with her mother depends entirely on fridge notes. And now, because her English teacher wants to rekindle the Joy of the Envelope, a Complete and Utter Stranger knows more about Elizabeth than anyone else.
But Elizabeth is on the threshold of change. She is about to lose a friend, find a friend, fall in love and taste wine that smells like compost. A lot can happen in the time it takes to write a letter...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Coyly channeling teen quirkiness and enthusiasm, Moriarty captures the essence of a girl's adolescent years in her epistolary first novel. Consisting entirely of letters and notes written to and from protagonist Elizabeth Clarry, this peek into the life of an Australian teenager reads like a clandestine perusal of a very capably written diary. The daughter of divorced parents, Elizabeth is becoming reacquainted with her father, who has recently returned to Australia and wants to make up for all the time with her he's missed--this consists primarily of dragging her to expensive restaurants. Her life is further complicated by her best friend, Celia Buckley, who careens from one escapade to the next, confident someone else will bail her out. An English assignment lands Elizabeth a pen pal from a neighboring school, and she is becoming a serious long-distance runner, but Celia (and boys, of course) are serious distractions. Holding her own despite internal doubts, Elizabeth navigates the murky waters of adolescence essentially alone. Her mother is a parody of a contemporary career woman: emotionally dependent and immersed in her job at an ad agency, she leaves dizzy notes (many of which are no more than thinly veiled pleas for help with ad campaigns) around the house for Elizabeth, who is left to cook, clean and look after herself. Although adults may find the novel cloying at times, and younger readers might miss some of the humor (especially where the behavior of the adults is concerned), this teen's journey of self-discovery is a pleasant, feather-light distraction.
