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Life itself is a series of justifications.
I remember, as far as in elementary school, every fucked up kid was alone. Now, the ones undergoing tragedy in their lives, whether it was the loss of a family member or just a first dramatic heartbreak, were always surrounded with people looking for an opportunity to feel better about themselves, but every kid who suffered bad parenting, abuse or living with something that time wouldn't heal were always alone. They were in a situation that required a level of involvement nobody was prepared to give them. I thought about that a lot, while reading C.J Anderson's debut novel GINA FRENCH IS NOT A WASTE OF ROOFIES. It's a powerful little gem of nihilism that doesn't necessarily condemns humanity, but that highlights the alienation, the hypocrisy and the existential loneliness of humans with such a razor sharp precision, it's difficult not to love it. It's possible you hate it for the same reasons, too. It'll be one of the other, none of that in-between bullshit.
Gina French is a single mother, working as a prison guard. She was sexually assaulted by several inmates during a riot and one of them, named Kevin Conner, managed to escape the penitentiary. The people around her seem too busy with their own lives to help her through this horrific ordeal though, so Gina takes her own path to redemption and starts chasing Conner, who would've kidnapped a baby to insure his safe-being. Gina has every reason in the world to go after him: a life is at stake, she's afraid for her job, she's fighting for the custody of her daughter, the reward offered is great, but deep down she has a burning desire of taking control of what's happening to her since the assault. Gina French has something to prove and what happened to her just triggered the urge to let her darkness within take over.
The first half of GINA FRENCH IS NOT A WASTE OF ROOFIES hit me in the face like a concrete shovel. I've read it in one sitting during which I forgot to eat or go to the bathroom. Author C.J Anderson really nailed the essence of victimization. Usually, I can't root for a character which his author wants me to feel sorry for, but the approach Anderson is using is subtle and clever. He uses the same strategy Laurie Halse Anderson used in SPEAK and begins the novel only after the traumatic event. Also, he doesn't obviously pile things up on Gina French. Her distress is caused by something way more realistic: the uncomfortable indifference (which I discuss in my intro) juxtaposed to the problem Gina already had in her life creates such a powerful aura of distress around his character that hit me in the gut and dug up some of my own buried memories. I can't think of a higher praise to give to a book than that.
Yesterday she was a caterpillar.
Today she was a butterfly.
There was no doubt in her mind - no second thoughts - it would all play out in a matter of hours, then she would be free.
Free of her old life.
Free of her old habits.
Gina's mind was no longer a fractured collage of horrible events.
The bills were gone.
The job was gone.
The custody battle was over.
The failed relationships were gone.
The judging family was gone.
The rape attempt was gone.
The only thing that finally punctured her newfound outlook was the news report she caught on a tiny television in the motel office during checkout.
Now, the second half of GINA FRENCH IS NOT A WASTE OF ROOFIES is a different animal altogether. It patiently deconstructs what the first half built so well, by switching to three other characters' point of view and observing Gina's actions (and their consequences) through their perspective. I get it, I understand why C.J Anderson made that choice. If you're going to write a nihilistic novel, might as well paint the entire cast the same shade of black. It gives the novel another, unexpected dimension, but I thought it was a missed opportunity to capitalize on the glorious me-against-the-world atmosphere he created in the first half, which is nihilistic too. I would've loved to see the darker side of Gina through her own point of view, filtered through her own justifications. I might be asking for the impossible here and the second half of the novel was satisfying enough (except for the point of view of Conner, which I thought was over-the-top), but the first half so gloriously good, it gave me unrealistic expectations.
The only major problem I have with this novel is that the author used sound effects. It's a strange decision and it doesn't work very well. For example, in one scene the thunder is roaring outside and the action is punctuated by the word KRAKOOOOOOOOOOM. I thought it was a missed opportunity to use repetition in order to heighten the gothic atmosphere of the novel. GINA FRENCH IS NOT A WASTE OF ROOFIES was powerful enough that I was able to disregard it without much trouble. It's not a novel for everybody. I don't think it was meant for everybody. It's a dark, emotionally intense novel that has a profound understanding of all that is ugly about the human condition. It defends ideas that will never be accepted by the masses. GINA FRENCH IS NOT A WASTE OF ROOFIES has clarity of purpose, though. It's a cult novel that understand its nature and that will forever haunt its readers.