August 2015: My Brilliant Friend (Ferrante)

Post date: Aug 26, 2015 2:58:35 AM

I don't really have time right now to do justice to our lively and wide ranging discussion of My Brilliant Friend, the first in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan series of novels. All of us found the book and its view into the lives of working class Naples interesting, and the characters of Elena and Lila compelling, if often challenging. Those who had read additional books in the series tried valiantly not to give anything away, while those who had not speculated wildly about things that might happen in the next books. The violence of their lives struck all of us, and we had much discussion of the motivations of various characters. We also pondered the book as social history, and posed the idea of Elena and Lila representing different responses to post-war cultural and economic changes in Italy. Several people were struck by the depiction of Elena's response to sexual assault, and loved that she found a way to confront her attacker so effectively.