Jellicoe Road: StephsNotes for the Reluctant Reader

Psst….you’ve no doubt heard of CliffsNotes. Now there’s “StephsNotes”—with just ten helpful hints, they’re even simpler than the Cliffs original!

 

 

StephsNotes to:

 JELLICOE ROAD by Melina Marchetta

 

Dear RR:

You know who you are. You’re the kid librarians and teachers are always trying to find a book for. A book that appeals to the non-reader in you, the Game Boy player, the wise cracker, the hurt in you. They’ll work through a list of Books Recommended for Reluctant Readers, trying to find just the right fit for you. You might even find yourself enjoying one or two. But I can tell you right now, the book they won’t be bringing your way is JELLICOE ROAD, or, as they call it in Australia where it was first published, ON THE JELLICOE ROAD by Melina Marchetta.

But hey, should you ever find yourself in high school English, stuck with a teacher who is in love with having her students read Printz award winners, this set of StephsNotes just might help you NOT FAIL the class. I, of course, don’t guarantee ANY results—I mean the info is, after all, FREE. That said, here goes.

 

Melina Marchetta: The Mini-Biography

Melina Marchetta lives in Sydney, Australia. She used to teach high school English to a bunch of boys, but now she just writes full-time. You can do that if you happen to write books that wind up on best seller lists and win international awards such as the Printz. Such is the case with JELLICOE ROAD (did you notice the shiny gold “P” on the cover).

Melina has brown, curly hair, was born in 1965, and probably speaks with an Australian accent.

She writes novels for teens. Her first was Looking for Alibrandi. Her second, Saving Francesca seems to be a popular choice among library thieves as it was recently voted “book most likely to be stolen from the library.” Her third novel is the one you’re not reading, titled JELLICOE ROAD. And if you’re sick of edgy teen-scene stories, she has yet another new book out. It’s a “fantasy epic” this time, called Finnikin of the Rock, which just got picked up by American publisher Candlewick.

Now, here’s a juicy bit. Wikipedia has it that Melina “left school” when she was fifteen and went to business school, where she learned typing….hmmm, handy skill for a writer. Like a lot of us “reluctant” learners, she put her smarts into action in the business world then went back to school to earn the degree she wanted. She got a job teaching so she has a lot of first-hand knowledge about the school settings in her books.

And yes, Google her so you can read most of this stuff right from the source.

We suspect she has a cat, but no sources confirm this.

 

 

Helpful Hints for Cutting Through the Literary Lingo

Read closely and you’ll hardly have to read the book at all….

 

Hint #1

Technique: The scattered italic parts are supposed to be parts of a manuscript, a story that one of the characters (Hannah/Narnie) is writing.  (Trust me, this tidbit will help a lot.) The manuscript is based on a true story—that of Hannah’s youth. Writers often say that the first chapter is the last chapter in disguise, and in the case of this book, add an ‘s’ and you’d be about right. The first couple of chapterS are the last couple of chapterS in disguise. You just don’t realize it because you haven’t read any of them—yet.

 

Hint #2

Setting: The setting may be Australia, but Marchetta writes the story in such a way that it could be almost anywhere. Dial-in on the setting, and you get to a boarding school outside of Sydney where the Townies, Cadets, and Jellicoe students converge.

Which leads to…

 

Hint #3

Setting and Situation:  The “Territory Wars” are as trivial as they seem. It’s the relationships between characters that you have to keep your eye on.

 

Hint #4

Cast of Characters: This is the most complex part of the book. Holy smokes, it takes forever to figure out who everyone is. It’s kinda like trying to catch a cartload of kangaroos.

There is one set of characters in the manuscript (the italic parts) and another in the main part of the book. A couple of characters cross over. All of them, in both stories, are connected because of a horrible car accident that took place on Jellicoe Road.

The two stories take place 22 years and a generation apart. If you’re worried that the chart below will give away too much, consider the likelihood of your actually reading the book. If the chances are slim to zip, cast your concerns to the cats. But even if you do read the book, blowing through some of Marchetta’s make-believe-mysteries will only help you follow the complicated storyline.

CHARACTER	WHERE HE/SHE FITS
Taylor Markham First-person narrator of main story	Main character; daughter of Tate and Webb, abandoned by her mother at a 7-Eleven on Jellicoe Road. She is watched over by Hannah. Taylor is a student at Jellicoe boarding school and the new Head of the Houses.
Hannah (aka “Narnie” in the manuscript) Cross-over character First-person narrator in manuscript (italic parts)	Woman who lives near the Jellicoe School and helps out there. Parents were killed in a car crash on Jellicoe Road. She and her brother Webb survived.
Raffaela (Raffy)	Taylor’s best friend; a Townie who boards at Jellicoe School.
Chaz Santangelo	Son of police chief; Head of Townies; friend-foe of Taylor’s.
Joshua Greggs	Head of Cadets; boy who is the love/hate interest of Taylor.
Ben Cassidy	Head of Clarence House at Jellicoe School; friend and ally of Taylor’s.
Richard of Murrumbidgee House	Head of his house at Jellicoe School; friend-opponent of Taylor’s.
Jessa McKenzie	Year seven student in Taylor’s house; Fitz’s (The Hermit) daughter.
Tate Cross-over character	Taylor’s mom; lost parents and sister in accident on Jellicoe Road. Loved Webb. Became a druggie after Taylor was born and Webb was accidentally killed.
Webb	Boy in tree; Taylor’s father; Hannah’s brother; parents killed in car accident; accidentally shot by Fitz.
Fitz (The Hermit in main story)	Boy who found the accident site on Jellicoe Road and who pulled Narnie, Tate, and Webb out of the cars to safety. Also pulled the dead bodies out just before the cars went up in flames.
Jude (The Brigadier in main story) Cross-over character	A “townie” who meets Narnie, Fitz, Tate, and Webb a year after the accident; falls in love with “Narnie” (Hannah). Falsely accused of being a serial killer.
Sergeant Santangelo	Santangelo’s dad; runs the police dept. He was a responder to the original accident and is a gatekeeper of important info throughout the story.

Hint #5

More on Characters: All of the main characters are tragically flawed—either by some external thing that happened to them or by something they did. I’ll just spit it out: Taylor was abandoned (to Hannah) by her druggie mother after being abused by a twisted kiddie diddler. Griggs killed his abusive father in an attempt to protect his mother. Fitz accidentally killed Webb. And the list goes on. It’d be such a boring story if these were plain old orphans.

 

Hint #6

Theme: They say 99% of all “kid/teen books” are about the child-parent relationship. JELLICOE ROAD, check, check, check. The whole story is about Taylor trying to figure out who her parents are and how her memories of them fit together. Too bad you have to wade through a hundred pages of memory and dream flickers and flashes before you have the slightest clue what’s going on.

 

Hint  #7

Weird Stuff That’s Kinda Freaky-Cool: The boy-in-the-tree dream scenes are the best parts of the book. Oh, and the house burning down and first sex and decapitation and the Mullet Brothers and the secret tunnels are all eerie-quirky bits that make a fairly boring book slightly more readable.

 

Hint #8

Getting it Done: If you’re really pressed, just start at about Chapter 11 or 12 —okay, AFTER you’ve read the Prologue (you don’t want to miss the gory bits)—and you’ll be able to figure the rest out from there. If you’re really pressed for time, just read the Prologue, Chapter 1 and then jump to Chapter 25. All the wiggly crap in the middle is just there to lead you in circles anyway. (Somebody will no doubt feed me to the dingos for saying that, but oh well. For you, RR, anything.)

 

Hint #9

Reviews: Book reviews won’t tell you much—except the three-Ls that you’ve already picked up here: The book is long, laborious, and literary. My favorite review of this book is super duper short. In fact, it’s a “Haiku Review” from the blog site www.emilyreads.com (http://www.emilyreads.com/2009/02/jellicoe-road-review-haiku.html).

Jellicoe Road: Review Haiku

 

A searing look at

loss that’s sometimes in love with

its own misery.

 

She nailed it. And there is not much more to be said. Well, except this last important hint…

 

Hint #10

Message: Despite all the times you think the book is going no where, Marchetta actually does wrap everything up in the end. But even I’ll admit that 412 pages is a long road to walk to learn this one simple thing: That despite death, life goes on. In fact, you’ll see the phrase, “And life goes on” four times in the last 6 pages. It’s as if it’s a mantra for the living—a reminder to live and “go on” despite all the bad juju that happens in life.

 

So, RR, as you’ve probably figured by now, the book is complicated and there are a lot of characters to keep track of, but I cried at the end—both for the joy of finally finishing (I’m a bit of a slow reader myself) and for the joy of a story “well-wrapped.” I don’t know if the characters change so much (as is often a writer’s goal), but they definitely begin to heal, which may be all we can really hope for. 

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