Mathilda Savitch: A Novel [Hardcover]

Victor Lodato (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0374204004 | ISBN-13: 978-0374204006 | Publication Date: September 15, 2009

A fiercely funny and touching debut novel about a young girl trying to find out the truth behind her sister’s death

I have a sister who died. Did I tell you this already? I did but you don’t remember, you didn’t understand the code . . . She died a year ago, but in my mind sometimes it’s five minutes. In the morning sometimes it hasn’t even happened yet. For a second I’m confused, but then it all comes back. It happens again.

Fear doesn’t come naturally to Mathilda Savitch. She prefers to look right at the things nobody else can bring themselves 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 have basically been sleepwalking ever since, and it is Mathilda’s sworn mission to shock them back to life. Her strategy? Being bad.

Mathilda decides she’s going to figure out what lies behind the catastrophe. She starts sleuthing through her sister’s most secret possessions—e-mails, clothes, notebooks, whatever her determination and craftiness can ferret out. More troubling, she begins to apply some of her older sister’s magical charisma and powers of seduction to the unraveling situations around her. In a storyline that thrums with hints of ancient myth, Mathilda has to risk a great deal—in fact, has to leave behind everything she loves—in order to discover the truth.

Mathilda Savitch bursts with unforgettably imagined details: impossible crushes, devastating humiliations, the way you can hate and love your family at the same moment, the times when you and your best friend are so weak with laughter that you can’t breathe. Startling, funny, touching, odd, truthful, page-turning, and, in the end, heartbreaking, Mathilda Savitch is an extraordinary debut. Once you make the acquaintance of Mathilda Savitch, you will never forget her.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The first novel from poet and playwright Lodato is a stunning portrait of grief and youthful imagination. Narrator Mathilda Savitch is an adolescent girl negotiating life after the death of her older sister, Helene. Her parents, especially her alcoholic mother, are too traumatized to give her the comfort she needs, so she lives in an elaborate world of her own invented logic. Mathilda evaluates sex, religion and national tragedy in language that is constantly surprising, amusing and often heartbreaking. She speaks with the bold matter-of-factness of a child, but also reveals a deep understanding of life far beyond her years: I wondered why god would unlock a door just to show you emptiness, she says. It made me wonder if maybe he was in cahoots with infinity. Lodato chooses every word with extreme care; Mathilda's observations read like a finely crafted epic poem, whose themes and imagery paint an intricate map of her inner life. She's a metaphysical Holden Caulfield for the terrifying present day. (Sept.)
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Review

“From page one, the outrageous, pitch-perfect voice of this book grabs you up and won’t let go. A bravura performance.” —Mary Karr, author of The Liars’ Club and Cherry

“Mathilda Savitch is a hilarious, self-deprecating, and outrageously openhearted creation—an oracle struggling to under stand her own proclamations. Mathilda’s cluelessness and brilliance are captured in a language so true, it will make you feel like you are right back in the madness and squalor that is the schoolyard. And you will be forced to confront, once again, the truth that all adolescents grapple with, that the lunatics have indeed taken over the asylum.” —Heather O’Neill, author of Lullabies for Little Criminals

“The first novel from poet and playwright Lodato is a stunning portrait of grief and youthful imagination. Narrator Mathilda Savitch is an adolescent girl negotiating life after the death of her older sister, Helene. Her parents, especially her alcoholic mother, are too traumatized to give her the comfort she needs, so she lives in an elaborate world of her own invented logic. Mathilda evaluates sex, religion and national tragedy in language that is constantly surprising, amusing and often heartbreaking. She speaks with the bold matter-of-factness of a child, but also reveals a deep understanding of life far beyond her year s: ‘I wondered why god would unlock a door just to show you emptiness,’ she says. ‘It made me wonder if maybe he was in cahoots with infinity.’ Lodato chooses every word with extreme care; Mathilda’s observations read like a finely crafted epic poem, whose themes and imagery paint an intricate map of her inner life. She’s a metaphysical Holden Caulfield for the terrifying present day.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"In many ways, Mathilda is a child putting on like she's an adult, and Lodato, a poet and playwright in his fiction debut, creates in her an unforgettable voice. His Mathilda is an acerbic wit, yet is capable of great rushes of compassion; she is plainspoken, but given to the most lovely, left-field reflections. Recalling the way her parents were before Helene's death, Mathilda says, "Da gave Ma the kind of kisses that linger, and afterwards she looked like someone who'd just had a bath." The book's first passage (out of four) is its strongest: a marvel of observational acuity and lyrical phrasing." --Kimberly Jones, The Austin Chronicle

 

"As a writer, Lodato understands the true and ugly side of mourning. Trying to provoke her parents, Mathilda dresses up in her dead sister’s birthday dress. Numb, in search of deeper numbness, her mother downs the vodka, and crawls on the kitchen floor, howling, in search of another bottle.

Mathilda’s original observations carry these incidents—blending imagination, intelligence and kookily beautiful imagery. Her best friend lives in a house “that’s the kind of place that looks excellent when it snows” and has sheets that “smell like milk.” Pigeons make “sounds like dreaming dogs.” This is a narrator unafraid of shoulds and shouldn’ts, longing for a broken version of happiness. “I’d like to be a person with brain damage,” Mathilda notes, “with nothing but a whale of joy jumping around inside of me.” ... This is a delight and a devil of a book, a tale that fills you with despair and pleasure—often at the same time.--Leigh Newman, Time Out New York

 

"Mathilda is rebelling against everything and making up her own version of reality, hoping to come upon something more meaningful and less painful than the world in which she lives. Along with her parents, this intelligent and hyper-imaginative young teenager is trying to come to grips with the death of her older sister a year earlier. Presented in a first-person, present-tense onslaught of conversations, fantasies, and confrontations, the novel follows Mathilda as she begins the new school year and immediately gets into trouble with the principal. Later, she invites friends to her house for an all-night survival exercise in her basement, since this a world in which sisters incomprehensibly die and terrorists attack. Mathilda carries on a personal investigation of her sister's life, hacking into the sister's former email account and messaging a boy she figureds was involved with her sister. VERDICT Engaging and humorous yet grappling with serious issues, this novel details a girl's distorted view of events and the people around her. The treatment is mature and literary, but this title could almost be a YA novel."--Jim Coan, Library Journal

 

"A wildly precocious adolescent girl searches for the truth behind her sister's death in playwright Lodato's creative and engaging debut novel. The author crafts a singular voice that combines the disjointed confessional tone of Holden Caulfield with the ethereal sadness of Susie Salmon in The Lovely Bones. The13-year-old narrator's matter-of-fact reflections on her dysfunctional family hold the whole amazing concoction together ... The story Lodato tells, while compulsively readable, isn't the main selling point. It's the way he occupies Mathilda so completely, giving her marvelous lines like, "Sometimes I'd think I'd like to be a person with brain damage, with nothing but the whale of joy jumping around inside of me," or, "The thing is, I don't want to end up like Ma and Da. In a house with books and dust and all the love gone out of it." His portrait of a damaged but hopeful girl stands up to classics like Walter Tevis' Queen's Gambit.... Both mature adolescents and adult readers will find much to love in Lodato's remarkable creation."-- Kirkus Reviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374204004
• ISBN-13: 978-0374204006
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #869,591 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Victor Lodato is a playwright, poet, and novelist. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, as well as the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Princess Grace Foundation, The Robert Chesley Foundation, The Camargo Foundation (France), and The Bogliasco Foundation (Italy).

Victor's first novel, Mathilda Savitch, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Fall 2009). The book has been translated into eight languages, and will be published in eleven countries.

For his play, Motherhouse, he received the Weissberger Award. Other playwriting honors include a Helen Merrill Award, the John Golden Prize, and the Julie Harris Award.

His play, 3F, 4F, received its world premiere at the Magic Theatre, as did his play, The Eviction (winner of a Roger L. Stevens Award from The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays). The Eviction was subsequently produced by Theatre Na Zabradli in Prague, where it remains part of the company's permanent repertory. Other works have been produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville (Humana Festival), Contemporary American Theater Festival, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Summer Play Festival/NYC, Theater Alliance (Washington, DC), Quartieri dell'Arte Festival (Viterbo, Italy), and Teatro Colosseo (Rome). His plays have received workshops and readings at Manhattan Theatre Club, American Conservatory Theatre, The National Theatre/London, The Guthrie Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Primary Stages, The Play Company, and The Playwrights' Center. Victor has thrice developed work at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference. He has received commissions from South Coast Repertory and the Magic Theatre. An alumnus of New Dramatists, and a member of The Dramatists Guild of America.

His poetry has appeared in North American Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Southern Review, Black Warrior Review, and Northwest Review.

Victor lives in Tucson, Arizona and New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars So Much More Than I Expected, July 30, 2009

By 

Heather D. Gallay (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mathilda Savitch: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

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, kind and well-meaning, allows his wife to continue shrinking from both him and their surviving child, leaving Mathilda desperate to draw out her parents' grief simply because she, alone, seems to be drowning in it.

Although the blurb on the back of the book states that the story is about Mattie uncovering the truth about her sister's death, this novel is in no way a mystery. What it is, is a razor-sharp exploration into grief and guilt, and the various ways these oppressive, horrifying emotions manifest in the people left behind.

Writing in the first person from Mathilda's perspective, author Victor Lodato gives his protagonist a uniquely insightful voice. Mattie is incredibly observant and thoughtful, and surprisingly profound in her view of life. She's also terribly troubled, and in need of more than she's being given right now by her preoccupied parents.

Great debut by Lodato, and highly suggested by this reviewer.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars OK, but stilted and didn't like the narrative voice, February 1, 2010

By 

Kate Barr "bookworm" (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mathilda Savitch: A Novel (Hardcover)

Although the story of "Mathilda Savitch" is fairly interesting (a bright young teenager dealing with her grief following the loss of her vivacious elder sister), the titular narrator just isn't believable. No girl of 12-14 is like Mathilda - even given the themes of loss and fear that permeate the novel. Everything that she said and did was so obviously an adult man's perception of what a teenage girl might say or do. Although the story was okay (a bit predictable, but enjoyable nonetheless) and the themes and expression thereof were interesting, I had trouble finishing the book just because I found Mathilda such an utterly unrealistic, two-dimensional character. One wonders if Mr. Lodato has ever spent significant time with a teenage girl - this probably would have been beneficial as he clearly cannot draw from his own experiences.

If the book had been written from the perspective of Mathilda's father, I probably would have enjoyed it more.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not what I thought it was going to be..., August 6, 2009

By 

J. Weiss (Flushing, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mathilda Savitch: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

When I had first read the description of this book, I thought Mathilda was going to be wicked. Evil almost, in perhaps a humorous way. As I read the book however, I discovered that she is not really awful; she just needs some attention that she is not getting. After her sister dies her parents become pretty much turn off, and Mathilda is trying to deal with her own grieving but is really too young to handle it on her own. Combine that with adolescence, young love and a misunderstanding of how her sister truly died is what make Mathilda a likeable character. It is very easy to sympathize with her, and to want to help her throughout the book. She is frantically waving her arms but no one sees her, which can be frustrating but also very realistic. Sometimes it's hardest to notice the ones that need the most help.

Mathilda does have a spunky personality as well, so the book itself is not a total sob story, and it is entertaining to go through what she is going through (to a certain extent). I did enjoy reading this book, and will check out any other books this author has in the future. It was just different from what I normally read, and different in a good way. The dialogue, the characters, everything. I really enjoyed it.