Hating Alison Ashley - Robin Klein

I think most people have probably read this classic from Robin Klein. I picked it up recently and rediscovered this - one of my old time favourites. It's told with humor and skill. It focuses on an underprivileged area called Barringa East. Though I can't agree with their lifestyle that involves street gangs and divorces and all sorts of bogan-type occurences, Klein writes it well, establishing that this is a reality, but that she does not necessarily support it either. In the midst of all this low-class existence is Erica Yurken, with one of the most terrible names I have ever heard. She's one of the best characters I have ever come across - precocious, arrogant, yet unbelieveably funny. She feels superior to everything and everyone in her suburb and believes she's destined for great things as a movie star. She's a hypocondriac, belongs to a seriously weird family (her little sister wants to be a horse, dresses like one and acts like one. Unbelievable!). Then Alison Ashley arrives, from a rich nearby area that has suddenly been plonked into the disadvantaged area by a rezoning incident. She's really high class, with the perfect looks, the perfect clothes, the perfect attitude and work. And suddenly, Erica is up against someone who makes her feel incredibly inferior. You can read a lot of psychology into this novel which is one of the great things about it. Erica takes an absolute hatred to her, because she's not used to feeling inferior. Alison Ashley shows her up in every aspect of school life - she knows how to work the photography equipment, she's read all the classic books, she's every teacher's favorite. She's also smooth as butter and Erica can't read her, except she tries and reads everything (wrongly)as some sort of snobbish disdain. Yet for all that, she doesn't seem to make any friends. She and Erica have a few tiffs, and the book is filled with Erica's amusing and jealous commentary. Somewhere along the line, Alison visits Erica's house, where everyone is behaving uncultured as usual, but Alison doesn't bat an eyelid, although Erica's sure she's flinching inside. Erica also visits Alison's house, and it's perfect and spotless, but Alison's mum wakes up from her nap and the visit is cut short as she flames her daughter for being "incredibly selfish" etc. You can tell Alison doesn't get much love on the home front. It all culminates in the school camp, where they are assigned the same room (because they have an instinctive reliance on each other under all that tension and jealousy, and put each other's name on the secret form for roommates). It's Erica's debut as an actress, but she suddenly realises she gets severe stage fright, and tkes up the role of writer and director in the plays they perform for the parents on the final night. Having all her dreams crushed is pretty traumatic, especially as Alison becomes the lead in her place and is pitch perfect and everything. Erica's also homesick and tries to discourage her mum from coming to watch the plays because she thinks she's going to be disappointed that Erica isn't acting a part. At the last minute, everything goes wrong and the props aren't organised and Erica cops it. But she bumps into her mother's boyfriend Lennie (who she's spent the whole book disdaining as a total bogan) and he fixes everything up and the plays go smoothly. Except Erica's too depressed to watch and goes to her camp room where she discovers a book Alison has made for her, out of all the drafts Erica wrote for the play. It is unbelievably touching, and completely restores her sense of self, and she creeps in for the end. And for the last chapter or so, she and Alison become great friends, and you can see warmth blooming. It ends with Erica realising her last name would become Grubb because Lennie and her mother are getting married! Which is a hilarious conclusion. What I love best about the ending is how redeeming it is. Erica's spent the entire time being jealous and condescending and disdainful, but her family really comes through in the end. Her mum is so incredibly supportive of her as the author of the plays, and Lennie is a great help and Erica finally warms to him. She becomes great friends with Alison, who she discovers might have the perfect life in material considerations, but her parents are divorced and her mum hardly cares about her at all. It seems like a new beginning for them both.