Looking for Alibrandi: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Josie studies the multiple-choice question in front of her in a panic—she doesn’t want to get it wrong. Before she can decide whether answer B or answer C is correct, Sister Gregory asks what Josie is reading. (Josie vowed to be “a saint” this year, but she’s always known she’d fail—just not on the first day.) Sister Gregory asks Josie to read it out loud. From Hot Pants magazine, Josie reads her test question: if a friend’s boyfriend “tries to make a pass” at a party, what do you do? Sister Gregory asks what this has to do with her religion class.

Josie sputters for a moment and then says this has a lot to do with how today’s influences “affect our Christian lives.” The magazine is “rubbish” that insults’ teens intelligence—and Josie wants to talk about how the magazine exploits its teen readers. Sister Gregory takes the magazine just before the bell rings. On the way out of class, Josie’s friend Sera reminds Josie that she owes her a new magazine now, and another friend, Lee, wonders which answer she’d choose. Josie tells herself again to try to be a saint.

Josie introduces herself: her full name is Josephine Alibrandi and she recently turned 17. She attends St. Martha’s, lives in a Sydney suburb called Glebe, and as this is her final year in school, she’s gearing up for the HSC (High School Certificate) tests. The HSC determines whether students will be successful or not. But for Josie, the HSC isn’t her biggest problem. She has lots of problems, but Mama naively tells her not to worry. She and Mama live in the lower-class part of Glebe, in a two-story house that Mama owns. Josie and Mama have a good relationship; one minute they’re fine and the next they’re screaming at each other.

Mama works as a secretary and translator for doctors’ offices, which means that Josie has to go to her Nonna’s house after school. Mama is strict and Nonna is too, but Mama and Nonna fight constantly—and if Josie joins in, the fights get heated. Josie doesn’t get to go out a lot, which is a huge problem. Even worse, though, is the fact that she attends school with mostly rich students, many of whom are Anglo-Saxon Australians. They don’t have any problems. There are also rich Europeans, who save the money they make as laborers or grocers to send their kids to fancy schools.

Josie, though, is on a scholarship. She’s always felt disadvantaged, maybe because she didn’t go to the same primary school as her new classmates. Her old friends were Italian and Greek and knew about having strict parents. Everything is worse because Mama was born here, while Nonna was born in Italy, so Josie isn’t really Australian or Italian. Mama is also unmarried; she slept with a boy when she was 16 and he promptly moved to Adelaide and became a barrister (lawyer). Everything got worse at St. Martha’s, because Josie finally understood what it meant to be illegitimate—and there are no other girls like Josie. Josie is certain that people still talk about her not having a father.

After school, Josie gets her magazine from Sister Louise, the principal of St. Martha’s, and then takes the bus home instead of to Nonna’s. The HSC is going to be a great excuse to not have to see Nonna this year. It’s scorching hot, so Josie changes into comfortable clothes to do homework. Mama comes home later, looking worried. They exchange good-natured insults and when Mama asks, Josie wails that she’s studying and couldn’t make dinner. Josie accuses Mama of having visited Nonna; she’s always in a bad mood after she visits Nonna. Mama heard about what happened last week—someone saw Josie and her friends driving around in skimpy clothes, something that Josie isn’t supposed to do. Mama growls for Josie to set the table.

Mama and Josie eat dinner quietly until Josie asks what else Nonna had to say today. Mama says Nonna had guests, but asks Josie about her day instead of elaborating. Then, she asks Josie if she’d like to go on vacation for Easter. This must mean something is wrong—Josie asks to go on vacation every year, but they never do. Josie shouts that she doesn’t want to go. Later that night, Josie leaps out of bed, bursts into Mama’s room, and yells that Mama must have cancer. Mama assures Josie that she doesn’t have cancer and pats the bed. Josie sits next to Mama and asks why she’s been acting weird all evening.

Mama reveals that Nonna’s guest earlier was Michael Andretti—Josie’s father. This is “mind-boggling” for Josie, because her father seems like a myth most of the time. Mama explains that he’s going to be in Sydney for a year, and Nonna will make herself “his surrogate mother.” Josie insists it’ll be fine, but Mama says Josie won’t be able to handle seeing him. Then, Mama says when she and Michael spoke privately, they both said they had no regrets—but he also doesn’t know about Josie. When he said he’d like to have kids someday, Mama wanted to spit at him. Josie suggests they avoid him by never going back to Nonna’s, but Mama insists Josie has to continue seeing Nonna. She says that she’s never been close to Nonna for reasons she doesn’t understand, but Nonna wants to be close to Josie.