The Lam
bert family needs an intervention quickly. Deanna Lambert, the narrator of this contemporary realistic novel, has just finished her sophomore year at Terra Nova High School in the small town of Pacifica, just outside of San Francisco. (The young people have nicknamed it “Pathetica.”) Her classmates refer to her as a “slut” or a “nympho,” and on a good day, her father ignores her. On a bad day, he is hostile. Three years before, he caught her in engaging in a sexual act in Tommy Webber’s Buick. To complicate life in the Lambert household even further, Deanna’s brother, Darren, lives in the basement with Stacy and their daughter, April. Darren and Stacy work at the local Safeway, and Stacy, like Deanna, does not get along with Mr. Lambert.As if the family dynamics are not enough, Deanna needs a summer job. She gets one at Picasso’s, a local pizza parlor. Unfortunately, Tommy works there, but she takes the job anyway, since her goal is to save enough money so that she, Darren, Stacy and April can escape from the house and find their own place to live. As for her friends, Lee is the person she trusts, but she has feelings for Lee’s boyfriend, Jason. This is a novel about forgiveness, understanding and family, not only for Deanna but for those around her.
Analysis:
Human relationships drive the plot and characterization in this novel about the power of forgiveness. Deanna’s physical relationship with Tommy has caused her father to cut her off completely. While this causes understandable turmoil in Deanna’s life, along the way readers learn more about the father as Zarr is very sympathetic toward his character. He has never been much of a talker. According to Deanna, he has not spoken with her since finding her and Tommy barely clothed in the car, and one of her mother’s favorite phrases is “Your father just isn’t very expressive” (12).
Zarr could have stopped there, and readers would have seen only one dimension of the father, but she later shows his resentment for getting laid off from his job at National Paper and his disappointment in his children. Neither Deanna nor Darren has fulfilled his expectations. This sympathetic portrait becomes more complete when the father watches Deanna play with April and says, “I used to do that with you” (106). He is not a terrible person. Instead, he seems to be emotionally stifled, and this drives the plot until the resolution of the novel.
Tommy is an additional antagonist for Deanna. The coincidence of their working together and the inevitable scenes involving overt animosity and the gradual thaw in their interactions are all plot elements. Before Deanna explains what had happened with Tommy three years before, readers were left guessing about her character. Why had she done it? What kind of young woman is she? When she met him, she remembers a curiosity and a feeling of belonging, as if “someone else thought about me for more than one second” (65). At this latter point in her life, he repulses her, even if they do almost get together once again in his car. After all, he was the one who blabbed about their relationship to his friends who broadcast it to the school. He betrayed her, making her school life as miserable as her life at home.
Until their confrontation in the car, Tommy wanted sex, preferably with Deanna. He even attempted to get Lee’s phone number after seeing her in Picasso’s. Michael, the middle-aged manager of the restaurant, is the counterpoint for Tommy. He infuses a sense of calm into a tumultuous story and gives Deanna someone who will listen. In the scene where Tommy gets her into the car again, it is only fitting that Michael could not have given her a ride home. Deanna has to confront Tommy, and when she does, she seems to have learned from Michael. She asks him why he had to tell everyone and later tells him she forgives him. From him, the forgiveness means “I don’t have to feel like a piece of s*** every time you look at me” (181).
Deanna’s list of “What ifs?” and her personal story she tells throughout (in bold italic type in short segments interspersed in the narrative, complete with editing at times) tell the story of a girl in difficulty. Her last “What if?” is really the theme of her story: What if everyone got another chance after making a big mistake? (71)” She makes a mistake with Lee and gets another chance at friendship, she gets another chance with her father, and, in what could be considered the climax of the story, convinces Darren to give Stacy another chance after she has disappeared. Deanna has felt the sting of her father’s inability to forgive and doesn’t want her brother to fall into the same pattern. In her own writing, she speaks a lot of remembering and forgetting, in addition to confronting the truth. She does so, and ends up better for it.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (High School and up)
Review Excerpts:
Although the loose ends are tied up at the end, readers may find Deanna's character somewhat contradictory. But Zarr convincingly creates a teen trapped by small-minded people in a small town. (Publishers Weekly, January 29, 2007)
Zarr's story ends on a hopeful but realistic note with everyone taking baby steps toward something approaching normalcy. This involving, touching first novel will resonate with those who have made mistakes and those who have not. (Kirkus Reviews)
This is a heartbreaking look at how a teenager can be defined by one mistake, and how it shapes her sense of self-worth. This is realistic fiction at its best. Zarr's storytelling is excellent; Deanna's reactions to the painful things said to her will resonate with any reader who has felt like an outsider. It is an emotionally charged story, with language appropriate to the intensity of the feelings. Story of a Girl is recommended for both teens and the adults who live and work with them. (School Library Journal, January 1, 2007)
Characters are well drawn, especially Deanna, whose complicated, deeply felt emotions turn the story… Though nothing is miraculously fixed by the close, everyone's perspective has changed for the better. (Booklist, March 1, 2007)
This first-person narrative is unusually sensitive and perceptive. Zarr explores Deanna's emotional life convincingly, and her portrait of young parents working opposite shifts and living with parents to make ends meet is realistic…This highly recommended novel will find a niche with older, more mature readers because of frank references to sex and some x-rated language. (Voice of Youth Advocates, February 1, 2007)
Awards & Recognition:
National Book Award Finalist, 2007
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