![]() ![]() I need to go back to 'the source' to find out. I have stopped listening as I still have to read the wretched thing and am wondering if it is the distraction of the dull as ditchwater narration that is putting me off. I only downloaded this book as we are discussing it in our book club. If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more? ![]() In summary, this is a book that you will either love or hate. I was very sad when this finished but delighted to know that the story continued with the next book, "Story of a New Name". There is even some speculation that the author may be a man, although I doubt this, given the inherent underlying feminist principles adopted in the story telling. Add to this the mystery of the author, who has chosen to remain anonymous. I think this is part of the reason why so many people love this book. This may make the story sound boring but in fact the opposite is true, it was refreshing to have the story told frankly and without frills, as if a friend were telling you the story of their life. The Italian pronunciation was a highlight for me. The narration is in keeping with the style of the story and is never overly dramatic. The authors style is nothing I have previously encountered, her prose is spare at a time when most novels tends towards the poetic. Very quickly the book fell by the wayside and I found myself listening to the audiobook for long stretches. I started reading the book for a book group and downloaded the audio book as I was busy at the time and wasn't sure I would finish the book in time, so thought I'd be able to cram the story into any spare gaps with the audiobook. It is a story of friendship, told from the point of view of Lenu, she tells about her, and her best friend Lila's childhood, the harsh life they had growing up in Naples in the 1950s and their relationship to one another, each of them is defined by the other. This book has found a place in my top 10 audiobooks. ![]() No one understood us, only we two-I thought-understood one another.” ― Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant FriendĪ brutally honest account of growing up in Naples “Children don’t know the meaning of yesterday, of the day before yesterday, or even of tomorrow, everything is this, now: the street is this, the doorway is this, the stairs are this, this is Mamma, this is Papa, this is the day, this the night.” ― Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend “We were twelve years old, but we walked along the hot streets of the neighborhood, amid the dust and flies that the occasional old trucks stirred up as they passed, like two old ladies taking the measure of lives of disappointment, clinging tightly to each other. This is not a book with big gestures, it is insular, a portrait with limited panorama like the view of the children it describes. “Her quickness of mind was like a hiss, a dart, a lethal bite.” Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend Beautifully written realism of a period, a place and a culture, a reconstruction of what most would like to ignore, the common lives of the common people, as they are, with small achievements, that hide heroic struggles, especially for women. A place where even dreams are as dangerous, as intelligent girls. This is not the Naples of tourists, this where the shadowy camorra has its roots, violence is part of life and is never far, a place where education is an impossible expense. This is not a romanticized view of this lives, this is the nitty gritty of everyday life, were love, money and sex are commodities, chess pieces to win better lives opportunities, This is a place where fourteen year old girls are planning a woman's life, and they are lucky if they do not give birth till they are seventeen. The plebs were my mother, who had drunk wine and now was leaning against my father's shoulder, while he, serious, laughed, his mouth gaping, at the sexual allusions." Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend I start with that quote to dissipate any ideas that this book is a romance novel or a thriller, it is about people, poor people with a restricted point of view, fighting for scraps among themselves, people for whom the world is their neighborhood, the street they inhabit, is about the love, the hate, the jealousies, the minutia of of life, the binds of society on individuals life, it is about two little girls that reinvent themselves by caring for each other by competing with each other, by regarding each other's brilliance and outshining themselves. "The plebs were that fight for food and wine,the quarrel over how should be served first and better, that dirty floor on which the waiters clattered back and forth, those incredible vulgar toasts. ![]()
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