How difficult did you find it to redeem Froi from the way he was introduced? It was an incredibly dark place to bring him back from, and yet by the end of Quintana I think a lot of readers will have completely fallen for him.
Well, I gave myself 3 rules. When I knew that Froi was going to be a novel, my 3 rules were that I, as the writer, would never forget what Froi did; Froi, as a character, would never forget what he did, and the reader would never forget what Froi did. It was a very tricky situation, and I know that people won’t pick up the book because of what Froi did in Finnikin, because they believe that there is no way out of that.
I never try to justify it. I read a lot of bad reviews where people who haven’t read the novel will comment about the fact that I have created the ‘rapist hero,’ the ‘good looking rapist hero who can do whatever he wants.’ First of all, I don’t think Froi is good looking, and the second thing is I just want to say “Can you read my novels before you write a commentary on my novels, or link them to what someone else has done in their work”?
It was a very hard decision and what I had to make sure is that he wasn’t one of those characters who all of a sudden saw the light and was perfect. He was flawed until the very end. I didn’t even want to say, “Okay everyone, Froi is the way he is now because of what happened to him when he was young,” but I also had to say, “It is part of why he is the way he is.” And obviously he was raped himself, he was taught that power was everything, and it was the survival of the fittest.
I just wanted to work with that. If I came across a story of a would-be rapist or a rapist, I don’t know if I would feel anything but revulsion for that person in the here and now, but I suppose it is the beauty of fantasy that you can go, “What if? What if everyone is redeemable to a certain degree?” Every page was important with never, ever, ever making excuses for him, but just showing rather than telling the audience, “just go on this journey with him and make your decision at the end.”
Froi’s journey is about identity, as is Finnikin’s and Quintana’s. I would argue that this is a theme in all of your novels, about the characters discovering their own identity in the world. Why do you think this is such a focus for you?
If I had to say the theme of every single one of my novels ever since Alibrandi, I’d say it’s identity. I suppose it’s something I’m curious about. I always say that with my work, I always, always, always take something away from the character. In Alibrandi, I took away her suburb, and I sent her on the other side of Sydney to go to school, and a result it opened up all these wonderful dilemmas. In Francesca, I take away her mum to a certain degree and her best friends from her previous school.
In Jellicoe, I take everything away from her, it’s just the cruelest thing, I dump her on the Jellicoe road when she is eleven. In Finnikin, I take away his country, I take away his father. The Piper’s Son, I take away his family – that family is absolutely decimated in the first chapter, and so on and so forth. I think that by removing that identity, it’s then important for me to see how these characters, and how we, ourselves, work out who we are in our world. I hope that never does leave the novels. I don’t think there is a set answer about “This is who I am.”
You have previously mentioned writing a third Francesca novel, this time focusing on Jimmy Hailler. Will that be your next project?
It’s not really his novel, it’s a four-hander. I was asked last year to write a short story for an anthology, and it’s basically about what happens when female friendships fall apart. I wrote a short story about a character called Matilda, who’s pretty much my age (so she’s in her 40s), and from that it’s interesting how things happen. She is one of the narrators of the novel that I want to write, and Jimmy Hailler is another one.
This is the hard thing about the Francesca lot, I have to get them older, and I’m pretty sure that they are about 24/25. The other thing that I’m sure of is that this is an adult novel. The hard thing is that when you say that you are going to write a Jimmy Hailler story, you know that there will be that disappointment of someone reading and thinking, “Well where are all those characters?” Those characters are still there in the background, but even more of a background than in The Piper’s Son.
But it’s not their story, it’s Jimmy’s story and it’s Rosie’s story and it’s Maddy’s story and it’s Mick’s story. So Jimmy’s there, he’s there as one of the main characters of this story, but it’s hard because you’re trying to working out who is this person at the age of 24/25. So I know what happens at the beginning, I know what happens at the end, I just don’t know what happens in the middle.
Do you have an approximate timeline for when it might be published?
I would like to write that this year. I’d love to think that I’d get first draft finished this year, and in saying that, maybe there’s a book out there next year. So hopefully.
More about Melina Marchetta:
You can follow Melina on Facebook, and on Twitter at @MMarchetta1. You can find more information and contact her through her website.
Quintana of Charyn was released in America on April 23.
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