#Stella Prize 2019 shortlist Enza Gandolfo

 

• Well, here is my next shortlist: Stella Prize 2019
• I won’t have much time to read them all because
• the prize will be announced on 09 April 2019.
• But I will give it ‘the old college try’
• …is it only to make an informed decision
• …as to which book I THINK should win!

 

Shortlisted books: 1/6   

• Author: Enza Gandolfo  (1973)
• Title: The Bridge
  
• Published: 2018
• Trivia: shortlisted  2019 Stella Prize ($ 50.000 prize!)
• List of Challenges 2019
• Monthly plan
• #StellaPrize
• #AWW2019 
• @AusWomenWriters

 

Quickscan:

1. Backdrop: On October 15, 1970, while it was under construction
2. …the West Gate Bridge collapsed, killing 35 workers.
3. It was Victoria’s worst ever workplace accident.
4. Main plot is driven by Jo Nielson (19 yr)
5. She is racked with guilt after the car she drove
6. crashed against the basr of the bridge.
7. Her BFF Ashleigh was killed.
8. Subplot: Nello (bridge rigger) Ash’s grandfather
9. …is suffering PTSS
10. He survived the bridge collpase and his friends died.
11. Now he is haunted…the bridge takes another victim.
12. Nello’s  world and Jo’s world
13. …come crashing down on them.

 

Timeline:

1. 1970 – Ch 1-3  Dramatic description of bridge collapse.
2. 39 yrs later…
3. 2009  – Ch 4-23  Friendship Jo and Ashleigh, car accident, funeral, Jo’s depression
4. 2010  – Ch 24-30  Jo’s day in court.

Conclusion:

 

Weak point:  too many  narratives to follow

1. This weakens the drive of the story.
2. I felt the novel never came alive
3. …it just dragged on and on.
4. The large cast of characters
5. ..gives the book that TV soap opera feel.
6. I don’t mean that as a criticism.
7. But there is just too much in a book of 384 pages!
8. It is a maze of…
9. teenagers – parents, teachers,
10. grandparents, great-grandparents,
11. lawyer – lawyer’s best friend Ada
12. …in-laws , ex-husbands
13. old friends who worked on the bridge,
14. …their wives, children or miscarriages!
15. A series of connected stories
16. …that revolve around the collapsed bridge.
17. The death of Ashleigh (major character) feels like
18. ..another one of the stories going on, rather than the main plot.

 

Weak point: too much backstory:

1. We all want to know about a character’s past.
2. Gandolfo should decide whose story she’s telling.
3. You can’t tell everything.
4. I’m overwhelmed byall the flashbacks
5. dream sequences and the
6. …memories that keep surging and spilling
7. every time Jo (main character) touches the fabric of a dress,
8. …hears a song
9. or opens a pink ballerina journal.

 

Weak point:  book needs editing!

1. The author is often the one least able to see what need to be removed!
2. Ask a reader!  Ask an editor!
3. Gandolfo needs someone to tell her
4. …which scenes are unnecessary or should be shortened.
   
5. Here are a few things that I noticed:
6. Bridge collapse:
7. I did not need…
8. technical specifics about the bridge.
9. Ch 1-3
10. felt like Wikipedia with some dialogue,
11. moaning of iron girders, crashing slabs of concrete
12. ..bolts snapping and explosions.
13. This information could have been concise
14. …and compact in one short exposition chapter.
15. Sarah the lawyer:
16. I did not need…
17. to know her weight problems and
18. the haunting death of her BFF Ada (jumped from the bridge).
19. I think the lawyer’s backstory was ‘filling’ to evoke emotions.
20. Ch 17 Funeral
21. I did not need…
22. to know every detail of funeral service
23. …..who attended, style of  the mourning clothes on family members,
24. the color of coffin and flowers and
25. rosary beads wound around gandmother’s fingers.
26. I think this could have been written in a few sentences
27. Establish somber mood with a description of the weather. (rain?)
28. Remember the service while riding home from church.
29. Cherish the tearful hug given by parents or friends. Done!
    

 

Weak point:  dialogue.

1. Feels static, heavy and does not  shines off the page.

 

Weak point:  Gandolfo is killing her novel with details!

1. Pages of details that slow the pace and aren’t interesting or relevant.
2. Example ch 15 – Ash’s journal is found and Jo places in Grandpa’s safe.
3. Wonderful!
4. But don’t go on to tell me the history of the safe
5. …that is was a bargain and
6. …grandma’s precious pearls that are kept there.
7. I don’t care!
8. Often what you don’t say is just as important as what you do.
9. Few things will turn readers off
10. ..quicker than pages of trivia!

 

Last thoughts:

1. Unfortunately I could not find any strong points
2. …about this book.  Believe me, I tried.
3. It is  impossible to grasp fully that this book
4. would be considered for the Stella Prize.
5. Where is the jury’s report?
6. I’d like to read it!
7. Did you read this book?
8. #HonestOpinion