My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, 1)
#1 BEST BOOK OF THE CENTURY - NEW YORK TIMES
Now an HBO series: the first volume in the New York Times-bestselling "enduring masterpiece" about a lifelong friendship between two women from Naples (The Atlantic).
Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Elena Ferrante's four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its main characters, the fiery and unforgettable Lila and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflicted friendship. This first novel in the series follows Lila and Elena from their fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence.
Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between two women.
"An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends."--Entertainment Weekly
"Spectacular."--Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air
"Captivating."--The New Yorker
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Community Reviews
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
331 pages
What’s it about?
This novel is book one of four in the Neapolitan Novels series by Italian writer Elena Ferrante. I have been reading great reviews on these novels and somehow had just not gotten to them. What a mistake! This first book introduces us to Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo, two young girls living in a poor neighborhood in Naples right after World War II. Lila is brilliant and Elena works hard to keep up.
What did it make me think about?
Italy! This was not my neighborhood growing up! The setting was so interesting. More importantly it was a very honest portrayal of the beginnings of a significant friendship. A friendship that helps two smart young girls cope with their world.
Should I read it?
This book was just the introduction to two women that I want to know more about. What happens next? I can not wait to read the rest of the series!
Quote-
"I feel no nostalgia for our childhood: it was full of violence. Every sort of thing happened, at home and outside, every day, but I don't recall having ever thought that the life we had there was particularly bad. Life was like that, that's all, we grew up with the duty to make it difficult for others before they made it difficult for us. Of course, I would have liked the nice manners that the teacher and the priest preached, but I felt that those ways were not suited to our neighborhood, even if you were a girl. The women fought among themselves more than the men, they pulled each other's hair, they hurt each other. To cause pain was a disease."
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