Christina the Astonishing

by Marianne Leone

A coming-of-age novel told from the perspective of the irrepressible Christina, whose encounters with Catholic school nuns, Italian mothers, and small-town Massachusetts will have readers laughing out loud, even when Christina isn’t . . . 


CHRISTINA FALCONE IS A THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD EIGHTH GRADER at Precious Blood Junior High. She is growing up pazza according to her Italian immigrant mother, Rita, who curses a country that poisons children with chocolate milk and singing mice on television. The nuns at Precious Blood are giving Christina nightmares and facial tics with their daily descriptions of torture and martyrdom. All she’d wanted as a fourth-grader was to become a saint so she could be God’s best friend and go straight to heaven and avoid burning in hell for all eternity.


At thirteen, though, Christina’s nightmares about eyeless martyrs have become dreams of escaping this place where she can see the entire trajectory of her life looming before her in a never-ending hamster loop that goes from Precious Blood to La Sposa Bridal Shoppe and eventually across the street to Carmello’s Funeral Home without ever leaving her neighborhood only seven miles from Boston.


But Harvard Square beckons and Christina’s window to the world cracks open, along with the entire American culture of the 1960s, as she grows from girl to woman. Christina the Astonishing is an endearing look at an unforgettable character that will ring true to all readers regardless of the time or place they happened to take the roller-coaster ride to adulthood.

Genres: Fiction

280 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 2, 2025

About the author

Marianne Leone is an actress, screenwriter and essayist. She had a recurring role on HBO's "Sopranos" as Joanne Moltisanti, Christopher's (Michael Imperioli's) mother. She has also appeared in films by John Sayles, Nancy Savoca and Martin Scorsese. Her essays and op ed pieces on a variety of topics have appeared in the Boston Globe. She is married to Chris Cooper, an academy-award winning actor and was Jesse Cooper's mother for seventeen years. After his death in 2005, her essay on grief was published in the Boston Globe ("He Was Our Touchstone".) Her memoir grew out of that essay.

A Foundation has been set up in Jesse's name, which supports inclusion and adapted sports for disabled people through the Federation for Children with Special Needs and AccesSportAmerica. The foundation also supports disabled orphans in Rumania through the Rumanian Children's Relief Fund.

Marianne lives on a tidal river in the South Shore of Massachusetts with her husband and two rescue dogs, Lucky and Frenchy.

Reviews

[Linden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This coming of age story follows Christina Falcone, a student at Precious Blood Catholic School in an ethnic enclave outside of Boston. The nuns who teach there are a big part of the story, and young Christina is frightened by their dire predictions of what happens to those who don’t adhere to the church teachings. The descriptions of the classrooms of the 50’s and 60’s in this Catholic school are remarkable in that they put me right in the classroom ready to get my knuckles rapped. As Christina becomes a teenager, she starts to rebel against Catholicism and her family, who would prefer that she go to secretarial school and look for a husband instead of going to college. The story wasn’t as interesting after Christina left home for college in Boston and infrequent acting jobs in Manhattan, but the first part of the book was really well written and entertaining. Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the ARC.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a hoot. recommended for girls who were annoying and pretentious in high school

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a fan of Marianne Leone, first in her role on “The Sopranos,” then her advocacy for people with disabilities, her always-on-point essays, and her three memoirs. “Christina the Astonishing” is her first fictional novel, and Leone’s pitch-perfect, honest voice is apparent on every page. This is the story of young Christina Falcone, the daughter of Italian immigrants, feeling trapped in her parochial family and held hostage by her twelve years of parochial school education in a suburb of Boston. The reader meets Christina as a young elementary school student, trying to live a saintly life despite a fiercely independent spirit that questions every aspect of her home and school life and a smart mouth that gets her in trouble every time. The details of middle school and high school, the angst about her body and fitting in, often at war with her mother - all this is part of a “coming of age” story. I think, though, this novel is so much more: the complex story of immigrants in competition with other immigrants; prejudice and bigotry; the emphasis on staying in your own lane; the impact of political unrest of the 1960’s.

I laughed throughout this novel because it is funny, but I also found myself pensive about the relationships between mothers and daughters, the magic of Harvard Square in the 1960’s, and all those young people who didn’t dare to dream and remained in roles someone else defined for them. Where do dreams come from, and where does the courage come from to follow those dreams? Do you have to employ a “scorched earth” strategy to go beyond those often narrow expectations of family and society? Marianne Leone is a model of resilience (and irreverence,) and I loved being part of her world for a few days.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a touch over-wrought at times, but as the son of immigrant Catholics complete with school and altar boy experience, this little dramedy hit all the right buttons and brought back some hilarious memories of my own. Ripe golden nostalgia with a sharp tang.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a delight! I grew up 8 miles from Boston, in an Italian-American home, and I attended a Catholic high school.

Although I was in high school in the 1980's, I could relate to so much in this book. The author used phrases and slang that I remember fondly.

Christina is the quintessential outcast. She wants more from life than what her family expects: secretarial school and then marriage. Her schoolmates are interested in cheerleading and boys while she is reading poetry and listening to Joan Baez.

My only issue with the book were the last few chapters. The ending felt somewhat rushed and I feel the book would have been better ending with Christina's high school graduation. The last few chapters could have been the beginning of a sequel.

*ARC provided by Edelweiss*

[Dayanara Ryelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

It turns out that writing a review that doesn’t come off as inane or pretentious while also praising the author’s efforts is more difficult than it looks.

I’m reminded of the many times someone on television or in a movie is given something and they get all big-eyed and murmur, “I don’t know what to say!”, causing me to retort, “Have you tried ‘thank you’?”

I realized that I could spell out my feelings similarly rather than tripping over purple prose: Christina the Astonishing is Marianne’s* best work since Jesse. (I’ve recommended the latter a few times, all with the warning that, “You may end up wanting to scream at the New York school system before you’re done!”)

[*I had a professor snap at me once for using an author’s forename in a paper that was supposed to be about me and my writing style. Honey, if I’m writing it to your specifications—including the use of MLA rather than APA—it’s not “my” writing style, but what you think my writing style ought to be!]

Maybe she didn’t mean it this way, but I took the book as a roman à clef because it heeled so closely to what the author had shared about her life in her previous work. It was honestly about as subtle as if I’d written a book about a fifth generation American of German descent whose name was Nicole and whose father worked at Ford. 😆 (The first part is true, my name was going to be Nicholas if I was a boy and my dad worked at General Motors.) But Christina as a clef is great, because then it leads to a lot of, “Oh my god…did you really?!”, especially in the early years. (The fake Marian apparition is an excellent example!)

But the momentum started earlier in the book peters out in the last several chapters, as if the author no longer cared about Christina’s life after she graduated. After the blowout with her parents about going to college rather than vocational school, the book probably should’ve ended with Babe and Shirley’s party and gift. It certainly would’ve been a happier ending!

There is one downside to a clef: when Someone you expect to show up doesn’t (or does so quietly that you can’t tell if that’s actually Them), you end up yelling, “Seriously? Seriously?! by the time you get to the author’s note.

🐢

Now comes the hard part: how do I rate the book overall? (Maybe I should’ve taken notes so I wouldn’t be struggling!)

Elementary: the chapters were long and nothing sticks out as particularly memorable. ⭐⭐⭐

Middle: I wanted to rate her middle school years five stars for the Marian apparition, but if I’m not positive I remember what created the need for it, maybe it should be ⭐⭐⭐⭐½? (It was so they’d be ungrounded from the May Crowning, but why? Was it one of Christina’s “dirty” books?)

High: I felt like it was just about how scandalous Christina could get between her books and her boys. If it wasn’t for the graduation party, it would be hard to make ⭐⭐½.

Post-Grade School: might as well have been skipped, for all it contributed to the storyline. College doesn’t even merit its own category, the way it was glossed over so quickly. ⭐


Total: ⭐⭐¾, rounded up to three.

Bad scores can be deceiving if the book isn’t in the context of its siblings. With four being the worst:

4. Five-Dog Epiphany: How a Quintet of Badass Bichons Retrieved Our Joy
3. Ma Speaks Up: And a First-Generation Daughter Talks Back
2. Christina the Astonishing
1. Knowing Jesse: A Mother's Story of Grief, Grace, and Everyday Bliss

I keep wanting to throw a fifth book into the ranking, but that doesn’t exist. Yet…

[aiysha guerrero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christina the Astonishing by Marianne Leone is an astonishing funny book for a book about nuns. A first person view, that gives you a glimpse into what actually goes on in a co-ed Catholic school, couldn't sound any more mundane, but Christina makes it a hilarious day to day adventure where the kids are just like every other school-aged kid in America, rude and horny! And spoiler alert: Christina actually did turn out alright. This book was enjoyable from start to finish.

[Liz Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leone’s coming-of-age novel is based on her upbringing in Nonantum, Newton‘s Italian neighborhood, during the 1950s and 1960s. Her 12 years of parochial school are conveyed with insight and humor. I could not put this book down and I hope there’s a sequel.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

An evocative and entertaining Catholic-school girl coming of age story with an interestingly authentic treatment of the old neighborhood. Her school has lots in common with the real Catholic school in the real neighborhood the author is from. Brought back many memories for me

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very disappointed in this novel. I felt like the writing was kind of lazy. Almost as if the author knew that readers of certain age who had attended Catholic school will pick this up, recognize so much of it, laugh, and that will be enough. It wasn't.

[grace (⊙_◎) · Rating 4 out of 5]

my fav catholic girls have always been the annoying or weird ones - a fun touch on the culture and time pre VII

[MaryGina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[emilee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love a coming of age novel and this was no exception!! Every time the protagonist walked by a T station I know it was like reading about a celebrity.