Title: The Sweetheart Author: Angelina Mirabella
Published: January 20, 2015
Genre(s): Historical Fiction
Page Count: 352
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:It's 1953 and seventeen-year-old Leonie Putzkammer is cartoonishly tall and curvaceous, destined to spend the rest of her life waiting tables and living with her widowed father, Franz, in their Philadelphia row house. Until the day legendary wrestling promoter Salvatore Costantini walks into the local diner and offers her the chance of a lifetime.
Leonie sets off for Florida to train at Joe Pospisil's School for Lady Grappling. There, she transforms into Gorgeous Gwen Davies, tag-team partner of legendary Screaming Mimi Hollander, and begins a romance with the soon-to-be Junior Heavyweight Champion Spider McGee. But when life as Gorgeous Gwen leaves her wanting, she orchestrates a move that will catapult her from heel to hero: she becomes The Sweetheart, a choice that attracts the fans she desires but complicates all of her relationships with Franz, Joe, Spider, Mimi (who becomes her fiercest competitor), and even with herself.
I think any time an author writes a novel in a perspective other than the standard first person singular or third person limited, it’s going to get a lot of attention just for that reason. Though Angelina Mirabella’s debut novel has a lot going for it, what’s going to stand out for its readers right away is its second person narrative. Though, of course, I think the fact that The Sweetheart is also about a professional female wrestler in the 1950s United States is another huge draw, regardless of anything else. The story presented in this book, of Gwen Davies and her rise to wrestling stardom, is one that’s certainly far outside what’s typically offered in mainstream historical fiction.
DEAR YOU: HERE’S THE STORY
So, second person narrative. It’s a big thing to try in the book, one that can really be hit or miss. For myself, I don’t mind a second person narrative except in certain situations where the fourth wall is broken. That doesn’t really happen here, since the “you” and the “I” Mirabella uses are both contained within the novel itself. Honestly, I thought that the book did a good job with her narrative decision here, and though the conceit wound up feeling a bit too much like an attempt at being “literary” in the epilogue, it did make quite a nice effect in some places and passages.
By and large, though, I think second person narrative is something that’s nice every once and a while, but it would get old very fast if it suddenly became a major market trend.
GROWING UP IS MESSY
The Sweetheart is very much a coming of age story, focused on maybe a few years in the life of teenaged Gwen Davies, a girl who’s decided that she wants to be a professional wrestler. Though, as the reader finds out, Gwen is less interested in the (questionable) athleticism of the sport and more in the fans and adoration she receives as a minor celebrity—she reinvents her image as a wrestler with the express purpose of becoming more widely adored by audiences, for instance.
What’s interesting, and in the end, admirable, about this book is that it portrays a main character who is absolutely not making the best choices for much of the story. Gwen Davis is selfish and shallow and a little bit vain, and those character traits cause problems for her not only professionally, but personally as well. Mirabella isn’t afraid of writing this “unlikable” young woman, and though the final chapter shows Gwen attainting some level of self-awareness (thus completing her coming of age), for the most part, The Sweetheart does not portray Gwen as a good person, a view which is helped by the seemingly omniscient, retrospective narrator, who isn’t afraid to expose this protagonist’s mistakes and chide her for them.
FACES, HEELS, AND OTHER THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW
While, obviously, professional wrestling is a popular enough thing to have been around for decades, it’s not something that makes frequent appearances in books. At least not in my experience. Never overly didactic, The Sweetheart still did a good job of explaining Gwen Davies new career and highlighting the culture that surrounds professional wrestling. The wrestling was very well integrated into the book, and was important to the plot in ways that made it clear that this wasn’t just the story about a girl who happened to be a wrestler. I appreciated the author’s attention to detail and faithful depiction of the sport/spectacle (whichever you prefer).
SOLIDLY THOUGHT-PROVOKING
I wouldn’t go so far as to call The Sweetheart a fun or entertaining book. The oddity of the narration style combined with a deeply flawed protagonist kept me from enjoying this book in the way I might perhaps have expected (assumptions based on the cover, perhaps). Yet, it was still fascinating, and an experience that I haven’t had before while reading. Fundamentally, most coming of age stories are the same, but how many are there about female wrestlers in the mid-20th century? Not many. So perhaps much of this book’s success lies in its novelty; certainly, I didn’t think Angelina Mirabella managed the hard-hitting literary scope she was clearly intending with this. I’d say The Sweetheart was a good read, different from the usual genre offerings, and well-written.
