Surface Tension

Venera Fazio is a social worker and freelance writer in Rothesay, N.B.

Marisa de Franceschi has won awards for her short fiction. Surface
Tension, her first novel, is a page-turner with a surprise ending.

Margaret Croff and her parents emigrated from northern Italy to Canada
shortly after World War II. But instead of prosperity and loving
relatives, they found poverty and family violence. Margaret was sexually
assaulted by members of her extended family, and because of the
assaults, she matured into a timid, sexually inhibited individual. The
man she loved rejected her, so she settled for second-best. A mid-life
crisis, brought on by the departure of her son to attend university in
Italy, forces her to face a troubling secret and to make a crucial
choice.

In telling her story, Margaret alternates between her present situation
and flashbacks to the past. The novel is authentic in historical
details, such as the clothing, music, and hairstyles of the 1960s, and
the immigrant experience. Whereas other authors have stressed problems
with the non-Italian environment, de Franceschi focuses on the dynamics
of the immigrant community.

Margaret is an appealing character, convincing and real. Had the author
added more details about the other characters, however, this novel would
have been more enjoyable. Nonetheless, Margaret’s secret, which is
alluded to throughout the story, effectively maintains suspense until
the satisfactory ending, when Margaret successfully resolves her
“surface tension.”