Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
Mathilda Savitch
A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR BEST BOOK OF 2009
A BOOKLIST BEST BOOK OF 2009
A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK OF 2009
Fear doesn’t come naturally to Mathilda Savitch. She prefers to look right at the things nobody else canbear to mention: for example, the fact that her beloved older sister is dead, pushed in front of a train by a man still on the loose. Her grief-stricken parents ha...more
A BOOKLIST BEST BOOK OF 2009
A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK OF 2009
Fear doesn’t come naturally to Mathilda Savitch. She prefers to look right at the things nobody else canbear to mention: for example, the fact that her beloved older sister is dead, pushed in front of a train by a man still on the loose. Her grief-stricken parents ha...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
March 5th 2010
by Picador
(first published 2009)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
2,672)
Nov 15, 2012
Jennifer Wardrip
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
trt-posted-reviews
Reviewed by LadyJay for TeensReadToo.com
Mathilda Savitch believes that her sister, Helene, was murdered - pushed in front of a train by an insane man. The killer is still out there, and no one seems to be doing anything about it.
Mathilda's parents seem oblivious to anything except their own pain. Her mother suffers from bouts of depression, finding solace at the bottom of a bottle. Her father tries to maintain a sense of normalcy, but Mathilda knows it is a façade.
She decides to do some investig...more
Mathilda Savitch believes that her sister, Helene, was murdered - pushed in front of a train by an insane man. The killer is still out there, and no one seems to be doing anything about it.
Mathilda's parents seem oblivious to anything except their own pain. Her mother suffers from bouts of depression, finding solace at the bottom of a bottle. Her father tries to maintain a sense of normalcy, but Mathilda knows it is a façade.
She decides to do some investig...more
i should wait to comment. i know this...but here's what i figured. you sit down to a meal at a new restaurant. you take the first bite. the food is sublime, the taste is remarkable. that very moment is memorable in its own right. that first impression, that feeling of being introduced to something spectacular. irrelevant if you wind up hating the meal because you stumbled upon a rancid turnip six bites later or you got acid reflux three hours after paying the check. that first bite remains intac...more
It's a very good book. Mathilda is a strong character who reflects her life after her sisters death. She comes to know her sister more, even when she is dead. Mathilda finds old emails of her sisters and tries to form an image of her sister. This book has some crude language, but it is very good. I reccamend it to all.
Partiamo male.
Gia uno scrittore maschio che si addentra nei pensieri di una ragazzina appena entrata nella fase puberale, mi fa pensare male. Ma si sa alcuni scrittori sanno come non fare pesare questo aspetto. Ed infatti la prima parte del libro �� molto interessante: una sorella morta tragicamente; il suo ricordo che aleggia e pietrifica una famiglia altrimenti normale trascurando la fanciulla rimasta; le amicizie; etc.
Poi Lodato parte per la tangente ed inserisce materiale inutile per la rapp...more
Gia uno scrittore maschio che si addentra nei pensieri di una ragazzina appena entrata nella fase puberale, mi fa pensare male. Ma si sa alcuni scrittori sanno come non fare pesare questo aspetto. Ed infatti la prima parte del libro �� molto interessante: una sorella morta tragicamente; il suo ricordo che aleggia e pietrifica una famiglia altrimenti normale trascurando la fanciulla rimasta; le amicizie; etc.
Poi Lodato parte per la tangente ed inserisce materiale inutile per la rapp...more
I bought this book based on the first sentence, where Mathilda tells the audience that she has decided to be awful. The prose was poetic and wonderful at first, and I expected to luxuriate in the language of this book and savor it, but it was all downhill after the first couple of chapters. Not only does the prose become less poetic, but the story kind of sucks. I mean, I can believe that a teenage girl would think along the lines that Mathilda does, or that she would construct the inner world t...more
I debated about giving this book 2 or 3 stars, and decided to go with 3. I'm obviously not a young adult, but I find many young adult novels are both entertaining and interesting to me. I found myself not liking the characters in this story, especially Mathilda, the main character and about 16 years old. She is so self absorbed, lies constantly, disobeys, pushes her parents and her friends beyond their limits, and makes her own rules.
It's been a year since her older sister Helene died, and she...more
It's been a year since her older sister Helene died, and she...more
Mathilda Savitch, the stunning 2009 debut novel by American poet and playwright Victor Lodato, tells the story of Mathilda, an adolescent girl coming of age against the backdrop of the U.S. war on terror. The book charts the course of Mathilda’s relationships with her best friend, the slow-witted but beautiful Anna, Kevin, the blue-haired teenage boy next door, her beloved dog Luke, and especially her parents, “Ma” and “Da”, who, along with Mathilda, are struggling to cope with the death of Math...more
Mathilda Savitch is a brilliant, moving story told by a girl (approximately thirteen-years-old) whose sixteen-year-old sister died a year ago. Her parents remain numb, remote, and bereaved. The mother has taken a leave of absence and Mathilda worries that Ma drinks all day and has resumed smoking.
Mathilda's simultaneous anxiety and resentment swirl through her days. Her grief coexists with a middle-schooler's burgeoning social life, and bounces through vivid, denial-related dreams and whimsies.
H...more
Mathilda's simultaneous anxiety and resentment swirl through her days. Her grief coexists with a middle-schooler's burgeoning social life, and bounces through vivid, denial-related dreams and whimsies.
H...more
I bought this book after reading the cover flap at Mrs. Dalloway's. It said something like, "my sister is dead, did I tell you that?" I felt like I had to read it. That was two years ago. It ended up in a box. Go figure.
Mathilda Savitch is a teenage girl whose older sister, Helene, died about a year ago. Her parents, both college professors, are not dealing with the loss well. But then again, neither is Mathilda, and honestly who really does deal with such a loss well?
Mathilda is left to deal wi...more
Mathilda Savitch is a teenage girl whose older sister, Helene, died about a year ago. Her parents, both college professors, are not dealing with the loss well. But then again, neither is Mathilda, and honestly who really does deal with such a loss well?
Mathilda is left to deal wi...more
This book made my heart hurt - and not necessarily in the good way that gives you a sense of understanding and hope through the pain. It was just a whole lot of pain.
But don't let me make you think that it wasn't a good book, because it was. It was dark, terrifying, filled with horror, heartache, pain and hurt - everything a coming-of-age story seems to need to reflect the current time. It dealt with heavy issues such as terrorism, suicide, alcoholism, neglect and sexuality, all through the pers...more
But don't let me make you think that it wasn't a good book, because it was. It was dark, terrifying, filled with horror, heartache, pain and hurt - everything a coming-of-age story seems to need to reflect the current time. It dealt with heavy issues such as terrorism, suicide, alcoholism, neglect and sexuality, all through the pers...more
In this heartbreaking, darkly funny, and poignant novel, we are 'treated' to Mathilda Savitch's inner thoughts on the death of her older sister, her emotionally absent parents, and what it feels like to be trapped in that odd place between child and adulthood. Her thoughts are often fractured and dark, but then punctuated by a moment of exceptional beauty.
Mathilda wants to be awful, but all she accomplishes in showing us is just how vulnerable she truly is. She pinches the family dog, plans the...more
Mathilda wants to be awful, but all she accomplishes in showing us is just how vulnerable she truly is. She pinches the family dog, plans the...more
I wanted to love this story, especially after it had been compared to Catcher in the Rye. Like Holden, Mathilda — or "Lufwa" as she'd like to be known — has suffered the loss of a sibling, been emotionally starved by her parents, and communicates in fragments, but that's where the likeness ends.
Like many other reviewers, I felt that the voice in the first half of the book was young, precocious, and sharp but fell apart somewhere between uncovering a handful of emails belonging to her dead sister...more
Like many other reviewers, I felt that the voice in the first half of the book was young, precocious, and sharp but fell apart somewhere between uncovering a handful of emails belonging to her dead sister...more
I actually think that I would rate this book a 3.5,but, unfortunately, that opportunity isn't available. Mathilda Savitch is a young teenager whose sister,Helene age 16, died almost exactly a year before. Mathilda believes that Helene was pushed in front of a train by an unknown man who easily got away from the station. Mathilda is trying to find the truth behind her sister's death, but her parents are emotionally locked down and unavailable to her. Mathilda has two goals--to find out about her...more
Despite years of being told not to, I immediately judged Victor Lodato’s novel Mathilda Savitch by the cover. I opened it expecting to speed through a mature version of Harriet the Spy with a twist of Tim Burton’s eccentricity. The title suggested a fantastic world not unlike Coraline; however, the fantasy of Mathilda Savitch is of the saddest shade.
Young Mathilda Savitch is a teenager who introduces herself in the first line of the book by saying, “I want to be awful.” Disoriented by the sudden...more
Young Mathilda Savitch is a teenager who introduces herself in the first line of the book by saying, “I want to be awful.” Disoriented by the sudden...more
Three stars is the highest I've ever rated a book I yanked off the shelf with no previous knowledge of it. I am very bad at picking out my own books cold.
Anyhow, this one was aight. Dude definitely could have come up with a better title than the girl's name, which is kind of an unnecessarily annoying name. She also calls her parents "Ma" and "Da." Have you heard of "Da" before?? Also highly annoying unless someone can convince me this is real. Also, I loathe the term "coming-of-age story." If I...more
Anyhow, this one was aight. Dude definitely could have come up with a better title than the girl's name, which is kind of an unnecessarily annoying name. She also calls her parents "Ma" and "Da." Have you heard of "Da" before?? Also highly annoying unless someone can convince me this is real. Also, I loathe the term "coming-of-age story." If I...more
The back cover blurb uses the Catcher comparison, and I'm usually drawn in by that.
The first chapters held promise. I didn't like the character but I hoped that as I read on, I would come to love her in the same way that I love Holden. Both are confused kids who don't communicate effectively with their parents; both have suffered the loss of a sibling; both do really stupid things in an effort to deal with the loss.
However, Mathilda doesn't change. While the inner workings of her mind are fasci...more
The first chapters held promise. I didn't like the character but I hoped that as I read on, I would come to love her in the same way that I love Holden. Both are confused kids who don't communicate effectively with their parents; both have suffered the loss of a sibling; both do really stupid things in an effort to deal with the loss.
However, Mathilda doesn't change. While the inner workings of her mind are fasci...more
Mathilda Savitch tells the story of her life so far in this odd but engaging and powerful novel. Though not specifically revealed, she would seem to be around 12 or 13, the remaining daughter of parents so grief stricken at the death of their older, 16 year old daughter a year earlier that they are almost dysfunctional, sleepwalking through life and still unable to deal with their loss, and certainly doing a poor job of parenting. Mathilda, one of the most precocious kids you will ever meet betw...more
Mathilda Savitch wants to be awful. Like so many adolescent girls, she lies to her parents; steals cigarettes; coerces her friends into illicit activity; riffles through her sibling’s belongings; and ponders that great teenaged imponderable: sex.
What casts her desire to be bad in more uncertain light, however, is the calamity that has produced it: the violent death, a year prior to the novel’s opening, of her older sister, Helene. Emotionally stranded by her parents—torpor-consumed in the wake...more
What casts her desire to be bad in more uncertain light, however, is the calamity that has produced it: the violent death, a year prior to the novel’s opening, of her older sister, Helene. Emotionally stranded by her parents—torpor-consumed in the wake...more
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I can agree with some of the blurb above: it was page-turning, and at times heartbreaking. But I feel a lot of the blurb is just as misleading as Mathilda herself.
This is an interesting debut work by Lodato, whose credits include play writing and poetry. At times, the book reads like both a play and an extremely long piece of poetry. He's got a way with words, I'll give him that much. But he fails when trying to capture the voice of a 12-ye...more
This is an interesting debut work by Lodato, whose credits include play writing and poetry. At times, the book reads like both a play and an extremely long piece of poetry. He's got a way with words, I'll give him that much. But he fails when trying to capture the voice of a 12-ye...more
Mathilda Savitch only knows September 11, 2001, from movies and old television footage. In her world, terrorist attacks are frequent and “wars in deserts” ongoing. Mattie faces her life with a level of fearlessness, speaking openly about the news and practicing what she would do in case of an attack. But Mattie and her parents have been traumatized by their own tragedy - the mysterious death of Mattie’s older sister, Helene, a year ago. With no one to turn to, Mattie obsesses over letters and em...more
Mathilda Savitch is a creative and original read that brings its readers to the heart of its plot. This book was an amazing read that showed me the true depth of not only Victor Lodato's creative characterisation but also how a reader can interpret a character and see how real they are compared to our daily lives. The mind and thoughts of Mathilda Savitch are what makes this book a read unlike many others I have read before. The imagination and stream of confused yet sure thought of Mattie (Math...more
Victor Lodato's debut novel, Mathilda Savitch, is challenging to describe. Thankfully, I have plenty of experience with young teens, otherwise the stream of consciousness teen narration would have been incomprehensible.
Mathilda's older sister Helene has died in a horrible train accident. Her parents are barely surviving the loss of their eldest child. Mathilda has been lost in the shuffle. She decides the best way to get their attention is to behave badly. Mathilda is also convinced that Helene...more
Mathilda's older sister Helene has died in a horrible train accident. Her parents are barely surviving the loss of their eldest child. Mathilda has been lost in the shuffle. She decides the best way to get their attention is to behave badly. Mathilda is also convinced that Helene...more
B&N Discovery winner
At once poignant and fiercely funny, poet and playwright Victor Lodato's debut novel tells the story of a young girl determined to find the key to the death of her older sister.
From the Judges
"In an era where so many voices speak purely to make profit or sense out of life, it is a refreshing deliverance to hear the voice of Mathilda Savitch, the adolescent narrator of Victor Lodato's fine novel, who seems purely to want to make beautiful trouble for herself. Her take on t...more
At once poignant and fiercely funny, poet and playwright Victor Lodato's debut novel tells the story of a young girl determined to find the key to the death of her older sister.
From the Judges
"In an era where so many voices speak purely to make profit or sense out of life, it is a refreshing deliverance to hear the voice of Mathilda Savitch, the adolescent narrator of Victor Lodato's fine novel, who seems purely to want to make beautiful trouble for herself. Her take on t...more
Mathilda is a young teenage girl growing up in the shadow of her 16 year old sister's tragic death. Throw in some terrorist activity, teenage lust, family dysfunction, and unanswered questions about the sister's death, and you have the elements for an interesting read. The biggest problem I had was I just never liked Mathilda very much. She lies and manipulates---sometimes for no apparent reason. She tends to avoid reality by escaping into her own invented worlds and scenarios, which is understa...more
My local library thinks this would be a good pick for Jodi Picoultfans. I disagree. Mathilda Savitch doesn't have that "tough moral choice" Picoult trademark. Lodato's writing is more clever, and the backdrop of a not-too-distant future in which terrorist attacks happen routinely, lends the book a rather dystopian vibe. Instead, I think this book, with its precocious, unreliable teen narrator, would be a better fit with fans of Curious incidents of the Dog in the Night-time, Lullabies for Littl...more
Mathida's beautiful, vibrant, tempestuous older sister, Helene, died a year ago, having been pushed in front of a moving train, and no one in the Savitch family has recovered from the devastating loss. Yet, Mathilda (whose age is never explicitly stated, but whom I would guess is about thirteen) seems to be the only one willing or able to openly mourn. Conversely, her stricken mother, formerly a loving, attentive parent, is slowly disappearing into herself with the help of alcohol; her father, k...more
There's a weird contrast going on in this book: the narrator's voice is rapier sharp, tonally perfect, and highly memorable. But the events that take place seem vague, flabby, and a bit scattershot, and the central incident--the death of the narrator's sister--is handled melodramatically. Still, the keenness of Mathilda's observations and the truths she tells make this one more than worth reading.
Mathilda Savitch was a pretty unusual read. I thought it was going to be completely different from what it turned out to be. The summary in the back of the book states that Mathilda is trying to find the truth of her sister's death. It's less about her finding the truth than it is about her trying to cope with the grief brought on by her sister's death.
I've read a couple of reviews that mention that the voice of the Mathilda rang false for them. To me, Mathilda was like any other teen girl who w...more
I've read a couple of reviews that mention that the voice of the Mathilda rang false for them. To me, Mathilda was like any other teen girl who w...more
REALLY liked this one. Was an unusal read. I read that the author was a poet and I guess that is why, but the style was very stream of consciousness and was constantly sliding in and out of reality, fantasy and memory. It also felt like the narator was in a fugue state, like if you had to paint them, the image would be out of focus. No hard edges.
The title character is a bit odd, no doubt, but very sympathetic in what she is going through. Her sister died the previous year and her mother has su...more
The title character is a bit odd, no doubt, but very sympathetic in what she is going through. Her sister died the previous year and her mother has su...more
A day later, and I'm still trying to decide whether or not I enjoyed this book. I am not certain that "enjoy" is the right word to use about a book like this.
At times, it reminded me of Kazuo Ishigiro's "Never Let Me Go" - told in a first-person narrative by someone who decidedly does not have an omniscient view of the world around her, we catch the truth in glimpses and hints, sometimes putting the pieces together before our narrator. The story is not a cheerful Disney tale. Bad things happen,...more
At times, it reminded me of Kazuo Ishigiro's "Never Let Me Go" - told in a first-person narrative by someone who decidedly does not have an omniscient view of the world around her, we catch the truth in glimpses and hints, sometimes putting the pieces together before our narrator. The story is not a cheerful Disney tale. Bad things happen,...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Victor Lodato's Facebook Fan Page! | 2 | 8 | Sep 24, 2011 02:47pm |
Victor Lodato is a playwright, poet, and novelist.
More about Victor Lodato...
Share This Book
3 trivia questions
More quizzes & trivia...
“Isn't language amazing? I can't get over it. Sometimes you can just say things and its like a bomb that blows all your clothes off and suddenly there you are naked. I don't know if its disgusting or beautiful.”
—
9 people liked it
“...not everything in your heart makes it to your mouth. A lot of it gets lost on the way.”
—
7 people liked it
More quotes…
Mar 16, 2010 02:51pm