Francesca is a moving, thoughtful story about the life of Jessica Simon, and how she came to be the first female pope. The plot is rather tense and high stakes, but the story is bathed in such a warm glow, that the tone overtakes and it makes for an engaging, cozy read. As much as Francesca is the story of one woman, it is also a story of understanding what it means to follow God in a challenging world. We meet Jessica just as she has been appointed pope, but we learn about the ways she navigated the world throughout her life. We watch her grapple with being a young mother with ambition and a promising career, who continues to have questions about whether she’s making the right personal and professional decisions once she has become pope.
More than anything, Francesca feels like a modern day story of a saint. The story of her life feels as regular as it feels extraordinary - we meet her impossibly kind and supportive parents, who also grapple with balancing their work and time with their children; we watch her overcome great loss, but not before we see her descend into depths of grief and darkness; we watch as Jessica rises meteorically as a professional within and outside the church, but we also see that she seeks the guidance and wisdom of mentors and elders throughout. When stripped to the bones, her story reads like the familiar plot of the life of a saint - inhuman strength of character and acts of grace that shape the course of her life. Reading it the way Tassone tells it, however, we see that there is also doubt, mentorship, hard work and difficult sacrifice alongside the undeniable acts of grace that define her life. It’s a story that makes the reader reconsider saints as people, and people as saints.
A key part of the book is the dissonance within the Catholic church between progressive and ultraconervative systems of belief. The only place that Francesca comes up lacking is in providing nuanced representation of the conservative perspective. We see shows of power, control and the desire to resist change, but without any clarity on the beliefs that underlie that fear and resistance.
Overall, Tassone’s writing is clean and impeccable, allowing the reader to immerse into the plot without distraction. The story itself is refreshingly hopeful, bringing to clear light the Catholic principles of love and service. Tassone doesn’t shy away from some of the dark corners of the Catholic church’s legacy, but he also chooses to shine a light on the charity, love and kindness that the church is defined by.
