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The so-called Ferrante Fever reached my country some months ago with this book series titled “The Neapolitan novels”, and I decided to read it just because everybody was reading it. However, what I found was not the typical bestseller, meaning a thriller you are hooked on for a couple of days, but a slow story about a complex friendship between two girls, framed in a low-class Italian neighbourhood.
Lila is brilliant; a girl who can achieve whatever she desires to, resourceful, witty and with charisma. On the other hand Lenù, our narrator, is an introvert, hard-working and not so outstanding girl. She is very good at school and she gets to study further courses than the majority of her classmates but, somehow, Lila always seems to go ahead of her in every aspect of their lives, making Lenù fight an internal battle between trying to be better than Lila and the feeling of guilt about her disloyalty to her friend.
The narration is set in the fifties in Naples, in a society in which everything seems to be like in the past. Girls are expected to find a suitable husband, the sooner the better, a task described as the finest art in the book; the richest families will always be superior and respected; the boys will always dominate their female friends and find any excuse to start a fight… But for our young protagonists there is also the hope that you can be something else through education, which is the only thing Lila and Lenù have in common: their willingness to learn and dream higher lives for themselves. However, they both are confined within the borders of this small place they live in, whose rules are hard to break.
My Spanish edition
It took me a long time to read the book; as I told you at the beginning, this is not a page-turner, but a slow narration that takes its time but does invite you to keep on reading. I enjoyed the dichotomy Lenù faces regarding this peculiar friendship; she depends on Lila in a way her friend does not, and that makes the relationship unbalanced and, therefore, the story interesting.
The only negative thing I have to point out is the abrupt ending – a chapter is over and the story doesn’t continue, hanging on in the middle of a scene, so to speak, for you to pick up the second volume I guess… Which I will soon do.
Are you also a victim of the #FerranteFever?
My brilliant friend
Elena Ferrante
Published by Europa Editions
331 pages
I’m still reading it, but your nice description of it makes me want to pick up and read to the end. Elema’s interior conflict is so intricately followed, it’s fascinating. Also the mystery and near opacity of Lila’s motives and psyche to Elena. I think this is the most revealing book about girl’s friendships since Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye, which I found profoundly moving. I have also read the beginning of book 2, so I definitely have Ferrante fever, but it is on a slow, admiring simmer. 🙂 I will look forward to your thoughts on the next one!
Wow, I just saw that you reviewed Cat’s Eye too! I must read that one!
Don’t read more of the second book because you’ll spoil the first; I think it ends in one of the momentums of the story, so be careful! I’m glad you like it as well; the relationship between these two girls is really interesting, and even know Lila remains a mystery, certain behaviour of hers gives her away a little – for example the day she took Lenù to the beach, with another different intention in mind.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading your review on this book.
And yes, I read Cat’s eye, and I’m glad you remind me of this book, because I didn’t think of it while reading My brilliant friend, and you are right about being similar in a way!
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Great review, Isi, glad to hear you enjoyed it! I read the books last year and yeah, I was totally gripped by #FerranteFever 😉 I could not put the books down no matter how hard I tried; there was just something about Lenu’s narrative and the story just had me glued to the page.
Hi Lianne! Yes, everybody is talking about these books. I’m looking forward to knowing what happens next. It’s an interesting relationship.
Thank you for passing by.
Hugs!!
I had borrowed this book from the library and it starts well. But I was committed to reading some others for review so I had to put this one down.Glad you enjoyed it. I have been in a terrible reading slump lately, I miss my reading time!
Oh yes, I remember you were also reading it.
I think this is not the right one to overcome a reading slump; it’s a good book, but it takes some time to read it, so forget about it for the moment and pick up another one. But don’t forget you have to come back to Ferrante, because it’s really interesting.
Kisses!
i cannot put it down