This Australian first novel by Jaclyn Moriarty is fun. Poor Elizabeth
is a teenager, but doesn’t really feel that she deserves the title
of teenager. She hasn’t even kissed a boy. Her best friend, Celia,
is wild and keeps on running away. At the start of the novel,
we find Celia’s latest escape has been to join the circus. Elizabeth’s
penpal Christina, who goes to a nearby school, is writing asking
whether she should have sex with her boyfriend. Elizabeth’s parents
are divorced, and she lives with her mother, whom she communicates
with by writing notes, because her mother is so busy with her
job and her various clubs and activities. Elizabeth doesn’t do
well at school, although she is good at writing letters to her
teachers explaining why she should not have to do her homework.

In fact, the whole book consists of letter and notes between Elizabeth
and others. We see her friendship with Celia become more and more
strained, while her friendship with Christina grows stronger.
She has a crush on one boy, but he doesn’t reciprocate. Another
boy has a crush on her, and leaves her anonymous notes.

A different set of letters that helps to convey some of Elizabeth’s
inner life are those from groups such as “Best Friends Club,”
“The Association of Teenagers,” and “The Society
of People Who Are Definitely Going to Fail High School (and Most
Probably Life as Well!)” These letters tend to be critical
of Elizabeth, telling her how she is failing and suggesting that
she give up trying. It’s odd because while the rest of the novel
seems fairly realistic, assuming that there are teenagers who
write letters, it is not plausible that a teen would even imagine
such letters from these different fantasy clubs and associations.
This makes these letters feel like a device, and they don’t fit
well with the rest of the novel. On the other hand, they are quite
funny, and they keep the tone lighter it would be if they were
replaced by earnest journal entries by Elizabeth to herself. (Of
course, if her journal entries were as funny those in Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging,
I’d be thrilled with them.)

The action is fast paced, Elizabeth is very endearing and sensible,
and the other characters are also credible. The main assumption
of the novel, that Elizabeth and her family and friends would
write all those notes and letters, is stretching it a bit, but
the result is pleasing enough that readers should be ready to
suspend their disbelief. Maybe the one aspect of the novel that
I found disappointing was that, given it is set in Australia,
there is very little in the cultural references to identify the
setting as Australian. Apart from a few references to place names,
it could equally be set in Britain, Canada or the United States.
It’s possible that some of the Australian character of the novel
has been stripped away for publication in the US — I haven’t
seen the original version, although the copyright page does say
that it was published in “slightly different form” in
Australia — and if so, that’s a shame.

So I would recommend Feeling Sorry for Celia to anyone
looking for a light novel about teenage girl angst. Elizabeth
and her friends are not typical girls, but they are quirky, resourceful,
and likable. I’m looking forward to the next installment.

© 2001 Christian Perring

Available in the UK from Amazon.co.uk.

This review first appeared online Sept 1, 2001

Categories: Fiction