so-soThere is a gradual growing up in this book, a softening of edges, a looking back at the past both with frank disbelief and a flat lack of surprise. Of course this is where you find yourself. Is it: there is so much you can achieve in a single life? Or, only so much that you can. In making it unclear which, this book is neither disheartening nor inspiring.
I feel some kinda way about disliking this book that is so well-liked. I missed something. Not sure what it was. It was way up there on the New York Times Best Books of the Century (something like that). My Brilliant Friend was #1.
panFinished this last book in the Quartet but it was a challenge.In a lot of ways, I could not make it all make sense, asking myself, What is the point? This book focused on Elena‘s life & not on the toxic relationship between her and Lila. Her life was horrid and she was the most confused and conflicted character I‘ve known. What‘s intriguing though is that it‘s probably the author‘s life story. The character has her posthumous name. Poor thing!
How Lenu feels is exactly how I feel reading this book. Ferrante‘s feat may be in creating a character who continually makes the worst choices and decisions a woman can make in managing her life and relationships.
I‘m over here saying: “Oh No! Don‘t do it! You really went ahead did that?” 😳
My favorite books capture aspects of human nature and relationships that we all understand and have experienced but have struggled to put into words. (Proust has done it the best for me). I am definitely enjoying this last book in the series so far. I expect things can go downhill though.
Well, I‘ve got to read the last book after reading the first three. I hope Ferrante redeems herself.
pickI‘ve spent my summer this year in Naples. ❤️ I bailed on My Brilliant Friend when it first came out, it wasn‘t the right time. I am so glad I gave it another chance. I‘ve not been this absorbed in a book series for years. I devoured it book after book and now I‘m walking around in a daze. Absolutely brilliant.
Every intense relationship between human beings is full of traps, and if you want it to endure you have to learn to avoid them. I did so then, and finally it seemed that I had only come up against yet another proof of how splendid and shadowy our friendship was, how long and complicated Lila‘s suffering had been, how it still endured and would endure forever.
Inside was the struggle to leave her, the old conviction that without her nothing truly important would ever happen to me, and yet I felt the need to get away . . . Her life had overwhelmed me and it took days for me to restore clear outlines and depth to mine.
pickThis is the story of the early adult years of this friendship, the epitome of a love-hate relationship. The nature of the relationship vacillates from one extreme to another. The proclaimed writer of the story, so far, one of the two friends, is named Elena. I can‘t help but believe that this is her true story of a life with Lia. The emotional intensity and astute observations regarding human nature in these novels are amazing & unforgettable. 4/5
