The Lying Life of Adults: A Novel

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The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante
322 pages

What’s it about?
"Two years before leaving home my father said to my mother that I was very ugly." Giovanni is a 12-year-old girl living in Naples when she overhears this remark. It unmoors her. She no longer knows what to believe about herself and those around her. This marks the beginning of a detachment from her parents. As she tries to figure out who she is (beautiful or ugly, kind or spiteful, smart or cunning) she begins to understand all the lies the adults around her are advancing. Most of these lies revolve around sex. I wish I could give this 4 1/2 stars....

What did it make me think about?
Elena Ferrante has such a unique writing style. I really enjoyed all four of the novels that make up the "Neopolitan Quartet" and have been looking forward to reading this newest book. Her stories are distinctly Italian, always told from a feminist perspective, and contain some really interesting characters.

Should I read it?
This book seemed lighter than the the earlier novels in the Neopolitan Quartet. Yet the story shared many of the same themes. Elena Ferrante is able to capture the angst of those tumultuous teenage years so well. I hope that we see more of Giovanna in the next book Elena Ferrante writes.

Quote-
​"I didn't intend to be sarcastic. Part of me really wished, at that point, to discuss with him the bad that , while you seem to be good, gradually or suddenly spreads through your mind, your stomach, your whole body. Where does it come from Papa- I wanted to say to him- how do you control it, and why does it not sweep away the good but , rather, coexists with it."

If you liked this try-
What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez
Women Talking by Miriam Toews
​Milkman by Anna Burns
​​The Hearts Of Men by Nickolas Butler

This is a test review. We all know I loved this book.

I read everything by Elena Ferrante

The Lying Life of Adults takes a narrow, bleak road through Giovanna’s adolescence. Ferrante tells the story with disarming realism and relatability but also runs through the story with a current of unbelievable caricatures, most prominently Vittoria. Much more exploration of the relationship between Vittoria and Giovanna’s father, Andrea, could have helped make the adults’ actions and opinions more believable but Vittoria is unrelentingly portrayed as a stereotypical corrupting witch. The prose is artful and subtle and the periodic hooks ending most of the short chapters are effective, but the whole story is too easily discarded as fanciful because the characters behave in bizarre ways. The novel is ultimately deflating, reminding me of how frustrating, confusing, and nihilistic youth truly is. For this, I give great credit to the author and translator. But if the argument is that Giovanna became an adult by the end of book, in a great culmination of awkward, meaningless sex, then the despair that I identify so strongly with throughout the book quickly becomes more of a statement about this unfortunate character, Giovanna, than about adolescence in general. Pure melodrama, uninterrupted by perspective and the real world, is exhausting and saps me of the ability to care about this character. In terms of writing, Ferrante crams too many rich devices into one story. There is a thread about lying and truth-telling, which could have made for an interesting book (and would have been in line with the title, of course), but it is undercut by other threads: someone’s beauty being a key to their overall worth, a tale of two Naples, religiosity, class conflict, the bracelet imbued with sentimental meaning. All of these are introduced as if they will be discussed and turned over but none of them ever get developed. While this is frustrating as a reader, there is also a strong tone of grounded truth in the experience of a teenager: many enticing things come along and we don’t have the attention span or sophistication to think them through more fully. Again, Ferrante’s tone and writing are superb, and there is an impressive authenticity in the voice. Depending on how unreliable we assume the narrator, Giovanna, to be, the overwrought plot and characters may even be warranted, but my hunch is that the narrator isn’t meant to be especially unreliable. This book attempts to walk a fine line in utter despair, careful to not go too far into overblown cartoonish tragedy. Unfortunately, after a stellar opening the book fairly quickly becomes a cartoon. I wish I had never met Vittoria.