Kathleen Maher

Mathilda Savitch
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.

Her parents have retreated so far into their despair that Mathilda often wonders--and tests to see--if they're aware of her. Sometimes they are, but remotely. Mathilda usaully makes do with a word from Da and a rarer flicker of recognition from Ma.

Yet this girl doesn't accept anything docilely--Mathilda wants to be bad. Using her sister's dresses, taped singing, and email, she torments Ma, half-hoping for outrage. The most she gets is a stern, "No more of that."

We're told of Mathilda's copious weeping initially and her confusion that Ma cannot weep. With embellishments, Mathilda is preoccupied by her sister's death and yet never loses touch with her real life, school, dog, friends, and their shifting allegiances. The reader follows her as she begins to sleuth out the facts of what happened and why.

Her generosity and tolerance at the end are amazing. It's not something I could do now, let alone at thirteen. (I lost an eight-year-old sister to a drunk driver many years ago. When a writer relies on sentiment, second-hand wisdom, the famous five phases, or a belated sister's angel--I am outraged!) Lodato's story is fiction than rings truer than any first-hand report. Or living sister's memoir.

His balance of powerful emotions, an adolescent's swinging moods, and acute verisimilitude is a minor miracle. Lordato's prose displays perfect pitch--noticeable, however, only if the reader happens to be a writer wondering how he does it. The voice and dialogue are always spot-on. His writing is never showy and yet, exquisite.

Mathidla Savitch is unflinching and enjoyable. Powerful but fun-to-read. The novel creates extreme feeling tightly woven with comic flares.