AUTHOR: Elena Ferrante
STARTED: October 8, 2017
FINISHED: October 21, 2017
PAGES: 471
GENRE: Fiction
FIRST SENTENCE: In the spring of 1966, Lila, in a state of great agitation entrusted to me a metal box that contained eight notebooks.
SUMMARY: [From BN] In The Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her enterée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Love, jealousy, family, freedom, commitment, and above all friendship: these are signs under which both women live out this phase in their stories. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and is a source of strength in the face of life's challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, the acclaimed author of The Days of Abandonment, gives readers a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging. Ferrante is one of the world’s great storytellers. With the Neapolitan quartet she has given her readers an abundant, generous, and masterfully plotted page-turner that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight readers for many generations to come.
THOUGHTS: I am so glad I got to read the second half of this book in one big readathon session. Just like the first book, the second in the series is rich in character and detail. What sets this book apart is how Elena and Lila start to grow individually and apart from one another while still, somehow, maintaining that close friendship that develops between friends. These characters are real people. You know them and you root for them. You yell when they do stupid things. You are with them in their sorrow and in their joys. This book (and the series) revolves fully around what it means to have close and meaningful relationships.
Ferrante's writing is just as rich as ever and the narrative flows. There are some points that feel overly dramatic, but the focus on character and personality and are not drama for the sake of drama. In this book, I did start to become frustrated with Lila's dominance in Elena's life, but I think that's the point. Elena is consumed by Lila. She's trying to understand her and, in some ways, emulate her while also distancing herself from a relationship that she seems to know is toxic. As a reader, I emphasized with Elena and I was fully along for her journey.
I can't wait to see where the lives of these characters head.
RATING: 7/10 [Very Good]
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